Research Projects
A key aspiration of the Cantus Planus study group involves the promotion of scholarly inquiry and debate. The purpose of this page is to consolidate information concerning the current and recent research activities of our membership. We encourage you to contact us to share information about further research projects you would like us to add.
ERC Projects
Giovanni Varelli (Pavia) is the Principal Investigator of a project on the diffusion of neumatic notation in 10th- and 11th-century Europe:
Scribemus. Scribes of Musical Cultures
Carmen Julia Gutiérrez González (Madrid) is the Principal Investigator of a project on the Hispanic chant:
Repertories
Hana Vlhová-Wörner (Prague) is currently researching Prague’s role in the dissemination of medieval musical repertoires:
Henry Parkes (Nottingham) has been examining the characteristics of melody without words, with a particular emphasis on responsories
Fragmentology
Jennifer Bain (Dalhousie) and Debra Lacoste (Waterloo) are focusing on chant fragments (their Twitter site also offers relevant content):
Digital Analysis of Chant Transmission (DACT)
Zsuzsa Czagány (Budapest) is exploring Hungarian regions across their confessional divides for fragments:
Music Encoding Initiative (MEI) & Digital Editions
Ichiro Fujinaga (McGill) and others are heavily involved in developing neume recognition programs:
Andreas Haug (Würzburg) is currently undertaking a multi-year project focused on editing monophonic chant, which includes the development of new software for optical medieval music recognition (OMMR4All) and music editing (mono:di):
Virtual Acoustic & Immersion
Stefan Morent (Tübingen), working as both a musicologist and an ensemble director, has concentrated on the connection between liturgy and liturgical space in reform monasteries:
The sounds of the medieval motherhouse of the Bridgettine order in Vadstena are being recaptured by an interdisciplinary team that includes Karin Lagergren (Linnaeus):
The Multisensory World of Vadstena Abbey in the Late Middle Ages
Music Theory
Thinking Music: Global Sources for the History of Music Theory is a project curated by Thomas Christensen, Lester Zhuqing Hu and and Carmel Raz at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Frankfurt/the University of Chicago. Particulars may be found here:
Thinking Music: Global Sources for the History of Music Theory
Soundscape
Elsa De Luca is Principal Investigator of an interdisciplinary research project on the plainchant tradition of Braga (in northern Portugal) – at CESEM (the Centre for Music Studies at the New University of Lisbon). Particulars may be found here:
Echoes from the Past: Unveiling a Lost Soundscape with Digital Analysis
Religious Music Practices
David Merlin is currently exploring religious music practices and people with disabilities in hospitals of the Southern German and Italian-speaking regions (ca. 14th–18th Century) – at Deutsche Historische Institut in Rom/Istituto Storico Germanico di Roma: