Night FYP Lecture Series
Renaissance Music: Tuning the Soul
Dr. Ian Stewart
The sound of the human voice, cultivated for centuries in medieval Europe’s centres of sacred and secular culture, especially monasteries and courts, developed in the late middle ages and Renaissance into the complex compositional art of polyphony — many voices coordinated by moving patterns of rhythm and tonal harmonies and dissonances. This lecture will touch on a little of what fascinated both philosophers and artists of the Renaissance period: the awesome power of music to move the soul, whether to the heights of ecstasy or the depths of despair. And we will be moved! Singers from the King’s Chapel Choir will join us to perform some select pieces of Renaissance polyphony.
Free admission, open to all.
