AMS 2025 Music of the Long Thirteenth Century: Genre, Kind, and Culture

From c1950, medieval music has meant polyphonic music.  The focus on polyphony, enshrined for example in the mission of the earliest RISM volumes planned as early as 1952, has had several scholarly and institutional effects ranging from conferences being split by the number of voice parts in the music under discussion to the prestige of the discovery of new, and frequently fragmentary sources.  Only in the last ten years has the distinction between monophony and polyphony begun to break down, and now is the time to review this trajectory, and to use it to ask further questions about words and notes, manuscripts with and without music, and Latin and vernacular languages.

This roundtable brings together scholars from seven countries: (1, in person): Nicholas Bleisch (KU Leuven); Mary Caldwell (University of Pennsylvania); Mark Everist (University of Southampton); Áine Palmer (Yale University); Jennifer Saltzstein (Indiana University); (2, with remote participation): Christelle Cazaux (Schola Cantorum Basel); Luca Gatti. (Università di Pavia); Uri Jacob (Bar-Ilan University, Tel Aviv); Stefano Milonia (Universität Tübingen); Anne-Zoé Rillon-Marne (Université Catholique d’Angers); Gaël Saint-Cricq (Université Lyon-2).

Each member of the roundtable has prepared a 1000-word text which we invite you to read and comment on.  We will then ensure that your comments are brought into the discussion in Minneapolis.  If you can join us in person, you will be able to contribute there as well.

To gain access to the position papers, please go to the following website:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1haeaCV4hGbU9jmUKi5gsXym_9JPFnqny?usp=drive_link

where you will be able to read the papers. Each paper includes a link that will take you to a survey where you can submit questions and comments, which is also here:

https://forms.gle/i8WtfeARZWNqKeudA

Mary and Mark will then synthesize as the points of departure for our discussions in Minneapolis. The deadline for your contributions is 31 October 2025, 17.00 (UTC+1)