The module aims to provide students with a rich, balanced knowledge and understanding of early musical cultures, and to equip them with the intellectual and creative tools to discuss early music with confidence and insight. The teaching will foster opportunities for students to work with primary sources, and will enable students to identify early notations and other forms of evidence, to explain stylistic change, to be familiar with a range of medieval and renaissance music, and to understand the ways in which music-historical narratives are created. The module further aims to ensure that students have a robust knowledge of the musical experiences of individuals of diverse faiths, ethnicities, abilities, and genders.

(LO1) Identify a variety of cultures in which musical activity was fostered before 1600.

(LO2) Apply a detailed knowledge of the main sources of evidence for early song – such as notated manuscript sources, treatises, iconography, and evidence within literature – to a tutor-directed topic.

(LO3) Differentiate between musical repertoires, genres, compositional approaches and styles from before 1600.

(LO4) Understand the role that music played in wider cultural discourses of the past, including those related to gender, ethnicity, religion, and disability.

(S1) Develop a focused plan for a research project, using topics provided.

(S2) Employ appropriate terminology and methods to discuss repertoire as conveyed in manuscripts, incunabula, and modern score editions.

(S3) Critically discuss, with reference to a range of scholarly literature, the cultural context of singers and song cultures.

(S4) Construct an articulate, reasoned, and detailed piece of written work, supported by relevant evidence.

The module develops music-historical knowledge that students will have gained before entry to the University of Liverpool and during music-historical modules within Year 1; it is expected that the particular subject matter, repertoire, and skills base of the module will be new to the majority of students.

The subjects covered in lectures and seminars will typically include:
The art of courtly love: troubadour and trouvère cultures of poetry and song in medieval France
Christian, Muslim, and Jewish musicians and their impact on the Cantigas de Santa Maria in medieval Iberia
Music in the early Islamicate court: women and genderqueer musicians in modern Syria, Israel, and Iraq (7th–13th century)
Disability and musicianship (Notker Balbulus, Francesco Landini, Guillaume de Machaut)
Remembering the Dead: Musical memorial in France and England (14th–16th century liturgical song)
Music, pilgrimage and mystical experience from Hildegard von B ingen to Margery Kempe (12th-century Germany, pilgrimage to Jerusalem)
Early modern patronage and the emergence of professional musicians (Isabella d’Este, concerto delle donne, Isaac, Josquin)
Reformation: music and religious change in 15th- and 16th-century England (Dunstaple, Fayrfax, Tallis, Queen Katherine Parr, Byrd).
Sources of evidence for early music: manuscripts and early print culture (includes work with Special Collections and Archives)
Understanding and interpreting early notations (transcription and practical workshops)

The module content will be supported by materials in the library, accessed by the reading list as well as through consultation of musical sources in the University of Liverpool Special Collections and Archives, through online digitized sources, critical editions and facsimiles, and through recordings (including Naxos online). Key resources will be curated through CANVAS and through the library for ease of access and navigation. Students will be provided with a detailed and carefully managed programme of supporting reading and listening preparatory tasks to facilitate their developing knowledge and experience. Reading lists will indicate both the key reading / listening materials – typically informing class discussion in seminars and workshops and connecting to skills and knowledge applicable in assessment – and wider reading, research, and listening materials that can be used to personalise, deepen, and nuance knowledge. Students will be expected to use their developing research skills to extend their reading and listening. Preparation work will include independent reading and listening, as well as opportunities to work together informally in seminars and workshops.

Teaching method 1: Lecture
Lectures will introduce key topics, sources, and repertoire
Attendance recorded: yes
Unscheduled Directed Student Hours (time spent away from the timetabled sessions but directed by the teaching staff): 11 (on guided reading and listening)

Teaching method 2: Seminar
Seminars will be focused on materials set by the tutor but prepared for discussion by the class, such as guided reading and listening exercises, with the opportunity to clarify and extend knowledge and understanding
Attendance recorded: yes
Unscheduled Directed Student Hours (time spent away from the timetabled sessions but directed by the teaching staff): 16 (on guided reading and listening)

Teaching method 3: Practical workshop
Description: Workshops involve group engagement with specific musical sources, including primary source work (manuscripts, incunabula, modern editions), with opportunities for practical work.
Attendance recorded: yes
Uns cheduled Directed Student Hours (time spent away from the timetabled sessions but directed by the teaching staff): 6 (on relevant guided activity)

Teaching will be face-to-face, with the exception of online discussion of formative work where it is beneficial to learners.