Event

The lecture by composer, musicologist, vocalist, and clavichordist Ellen Hünigen offers an introduction to the world of neumes, the earliest musical notation in Europe. Well into the 9th century, the prevailing view was that singing could not be captured in writing; it was believed that a song would sound and then vanish as soon as the last note faded away. Why and how did people begin to record this fleeting, ephemeral moment? Ellen Hünigen describes the historical context in which standardized notations were sought to establish Gregorian chant. She presents examples of such approaches in liturgical manuscripts from the 9th to the 12th centuries. Through singing and by examining neumatic notation, the recordings demonstrate its function as an aid initially intended to support memory, as well as the clarity and analytical nature of the Latin neumatic manuscripts.

The event will be preceded by an introduction by Rainer René Mueller.

As this is a public lecture, admission is free.

KlangForum Heidelberg e.V. supports this lecture as a cooperation partner.