The Role of the Hand in the Performance of Liturgical Chant: Navigating between Pitch indication, Note-grouping and Conducting

Description

The hand has several functions in the performance of medieval liturgical chant. Singers can use the hand for practical reasons like holding a book, to indicate something to other singers, for better hearing (at the ear), or for performance reasons (by placing the hand on the shoulder of the next singer to “harmonize” breathing or rhythm). Cantors and cantrices are also conductors and use their hand to indicate pitch, the grouping of notes, phrasing, beginning and end, keeping the tempo, and so forth. In smaller communities, they sometimes also take on the role of teacher, using their hand for didactic reasons (e.g., to learn solfège, intervals, tetra- or hexachords, and melodic modes). This paper examines the written tradition and the representations or descriptions of the hand gestures and the didactic hand of selected and relevant examples.

Period	24 Jul 2023
Event title	52nd International MedRen Conference
Event type	Conference
Location	Munich, GermanyShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International