Topics in medieval music
Choose a starting date
Learning modes and locations may be different depending on the course start date. Please check the location of your chosen course and read our guide to learning modes and locations to help you choose the right course for you.
- Start Date: 02 May 2025End Date: 11 Jul 2025Fri (Daytime): 10:30 - 12:30In PersonLocation: Keeley StreetDuration: 10 sessions (over -11 weeks)Course Code: MD047Tutors: Edward BreenFull fee £249.00 Senior fee £199.00 Concession £174.00
Please note: We offer a wide variety of financial support to make courses affordable. Just visit our online Help Centre for more information on a range of topics including fees, online learning and FAQs.
What is the course about?
This course has a scheduled break. Please follow this link for further information:Music courses with scheduled breaks
This course will focus on the beginnings of music in the Middle Ages through to the early Renaissance through a selected sequence of musical examples, illuminated manuscripts and composer biographies. We will also look at medieval music notation and trace the main stages of its development.
What will we cover?
- What is music history and where does it begin?
- singing in medieval monastic culture: liturgy & plainchant
- secular music of the troubadours and trouvères
- the beginnings of polyphony: organum and motets
- the instruments of the middle ages
- case studies: the Roman de Fauvel, Guillaume de Machaut.
What will I achieve?
By the end of this course you should be able to...
- recognise key genres of medieval music
- feel confident identifying key musical instruments of the middle ages
- appreciate the range of different performance possibilities for selected pieces of music
- understand the key challenges facing performers of medieval music.
What level is the course and do I need any particular skills?
This course is for those with some familiarity in listening to a particular composer or opera, having taken a previous beginners course, or a willingness to undertake short reading tasks between sessions. We may look at music scores and identify key features of music notation, but this will not be the main focus of the studies.
How will I be taught, and will there be any work outside the class?
Tutor presentation, guided listening and watching, class discussion.
Course materials will be shared via Google Classroom, with recommendations to encourage further exploration after the course.
Are there any other costs? Is there anything I need to bring?
Please have a pen and notebook to make your own notes during class. You may wish to purchase some of the music books or recordings discussed in class; links to these materials will be available after each session. You may also wish to attend live performances.
When I've finished, what course can I do next?
City Lit offers a wide range of Music history courses. For more information, visit our Guide to the Music history programme.
Edward teaches music history and theory at City lit. His specialism is early music (medieval, renaissance and baroque) and he completed a PhD in historical musicology at King's College London (2013) on the performance of medieval music. Outside of teaching, Edward is a regular contributor to Gramophone magazine and has lectured for Dartington International Summer School, London's Southbank Centre and The British Library. He has also worked as a researcher for BBC Proms and written for the journal Early Music (OUP). His essays are published in: The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Historical Performance in Music, (Cambridge University Press); The Montpellier Codex: Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Music 16 (Boydell Press); Recomposing the Past: Representations of Early Music on Stage and Screen (Ashgate 2018); and 30-Second Classical Music (Ivy Press).
Please note: We reserve the right to change our tutors from those advertised. This happens rarely, but if it does, we are unable to refund fees due to this. Our tutors may have different teaching styles; however we guarantee a consistent quality of teaching in all our courses.
