Welcome to the new AMS Early Musics bibliography! Click HERE to be directed straight to the whole bibliography on Zotero, or keep reading for more information and links to individual topics.
The goal of this page is to help you navigate the Zotero archive that now contains all of the sources that were previously listed on the Bibliography and Online Resources pages of this site, plus more! This digital repository of pedagogical and research resources is sponsored and overseen by the Skills and Resources for Early Musics Study Group of the American Musicological Society, compiled from suggestions by the members. Each of the topic headers listed below links to a list of all the sources on the Zotero site that cover that topic, so feel free to browse through by clicking on any of the sections that interest you. For a more detailed explanation of how to navigate the various features of a Zotero bibliography, check out our Zotero how-to guide. Please note: This digital and dynamic resource list is by no means exhaustive. Rather, it delineates the general contours of our study group and provides a snapshot of the skills and resources we endeavour to broaden and develop. While we have attempted to highlight resources that are important to the research and teaching of many types of early musics, we rely primarily on the suggestions of study group members. Please don’t hesitate to contact the co-chairs of the SREM Study Group to suggest additional resources- the more input that members give, the more useful this site becomes for everyone!
Initial funding for this Zotero archive was provided in 2023 by the Early Music Program Fund of the American Musicological Society, which was generously established by Meg Bent in 2020 to support educational or field-building programming for researchers studying music in the period before c. 1600. Data entry and annotations were provided by Research Assistants Paul-Gustav Feller-Simmons, Marika Fox, and Flannery McIntyre, with Debra Lacoste (Project Manager).
The ability to navigate archives is an important skill that allows researchers to locate sources and understand how they are organised and shared with others. This section contains explanations of how to use archives in general, detailed information on specific archives that contain useful musicological documents, and research on the ideal organisation and use of archives.
One important step to fully understanding the provenance, purpose, and contents of manuscripts is studying the physical structure and features of pages and books. This section contains guides to conducting such codicological analyses, examples of codicological studies, and information about the historical development of the field of codicology.
Advances in technology, including everything from super-high-resolution digital photography to complex machine learning algorithms, are constantly opening up new possibilities for musicological information sharing and analysis. This section shows off the many uses of these technologies and includes projects such as image databases, comparative melodic analyses, and encoding initiatives.
One question that commonly arises in the study of medieval musical texts is whether and how new editions can be created to make that music more accessible to modern scholars and audiences. This section contains treatises on the history of music editing, discussions of issues that can arise while editing, and thoughts on the future of music editing in the digital era.
Languages around the world have evolved greatly since medieval times, and recognising the linguistic nuances that existed at the time a text was written is an important step to understanding it. This section contains information on a wide variety of languages and includes dictionaries, grammar books, studies of pronunciation patterns, and more.
Medieval sacred music existed as part of a larger context of religious rituals and worship, and served specific purposes within the structure of those rituals. This section contains primers and in-depth studies on such traditions from a variety of cultures, and information on the many different ways in which they incorporate music.
Though all music started out as oral tradition, many different groups and cultures have developed systems of notation that allow them to record, reference, and share their music in written form. This section contains resources that describe the development and characteristics of notation systems, as well as discussions of how these written records affect the performance of music and vice versa.
Oral Transmission and Improvisation
Before the development of written notation, and in many cases afterwards as well, music and performance techniques were passed down orally. In addition to learning from others in this way, individual performers throughout history have also made music their own through the use of improvisation techniques. The resources in this section examine patterns of oral transmission and improvisation in various cultures, and discuss how these traditions have impacted the performed and written music that is visible today.
One constant difficulty with the historical study of music is that music is a performance art, and yet it is nearly impossible for any notation or written description to fully capture the visual or aural details of how medieval music was performed in its original settings. This section contains studies of these elusive details, their importance, and how they evolved over time, along with discussions of the accuracy of attempts to bring medieval performance practices into the present and indeed whether these attempts should be made at all.
Palaeography, the study of old handwriting, is a key discipline for anyone working with medieval manuscripts. Palaeographical analyses of manuscripts can provide extensive insights into where and when manuscripts were produced, who wrote them, and more. This section contains examples of palaeographical studies, reference books on topics such as abbreviations and script types, and even a few online courses to help you learn the basics of palaeography.