Performance of Medieval Monophony: Text and Image as Evidence for Musical Practice (Introduction)

This issue of Textus & Musica, «Performance of Medieval Monophony: Text and Image as Evidence for Musical Practice», explores textual and visual sources related to the performance of medieval monophonic song, providing insight into historical contexts and practices. Monophonic song is fundamental to medieval musical culture, but many questions related to its performance still need to be explored further. Medieval music
manuscripts document the evolution of monophonic music and its performance practices over time; however, they only capture a fraction of the story. Other sources, such as architectural remains, artwork, and textual accounts, provide complementary perspectives on how monophonic song was experienced and practiced. This issue brings together research from an international conference held at the Nova
University of Lisbon in January 2023. Scholars from different disciplines examine medieval monophonic song performance, including liturgical practices, visual depictions, normative
literature, and artistic representations across medieval Europe and Byzantium. The contributions explore various aspects of monophonic singing, from musical and textual
interpretation to the embodied experience of performers, revealing a rich interplay between text, music, and performance practice.
This introduction opens up these interdisciplinary approaches, focusing mainly on liturgical practices within medieval religious orders. Descriptive sources like chronicles
offer glimpses into the daily practices of religious communities. These narratives underline the spiritual significance of sung performance and the expectations for singers in
performing liturgical chants. Prescriptive sources, such as customaries and liturgical ordinals, outline the specific tasks of chant leaders and provide instructions for conducting
liturgical music. These documents reveal meticulous attention to detail in maintaining musical quality and correcting deviations during performance through hand signals and
other gestures.
The introduction also explores how performance practices were organized and adapted within religious communities. Letters exchanged between convents demonstrate the practical performance of musical genres like sequences, including the alternating practices between soloists and choir or organ and choir. This variability shows the dynamic nature of
monophonic chant performance and the creative solutions devised by singers, cantors, and chantresses to navigate challenges in the daily liturgy.