Find Debra Lacoste of the Cantus Database at the Music in Manuscript Cultures interdisciplinary forum at The Queen's College, Oxford, September 8-9, 2022, hosted by the Centre for Manuscript and Text Cultures.

Watch her video abstract here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW819FJwp68

Click here for Debra's introductory video to MedRen 2022 Session 36: WORKSHOP - Quandaries, Queries, and Quagmires: Plainchant Puzzles and How to Solve them in the Cantus Database (July 6, 2022). “From Manuscript to Database”: An Introduction to Indexing in Cantus

Join us on Wednesday, July 6, 2022 for MedRen Session 36: WORKSHOP - Quandaries, Queries, and Quagmires: Plainchant Puzzles and How to Solve them in the Cantus Database! During the session, it will be handy to have quick access to links of manuscript images and other materials (link or scan QR code):

Some #FragmentFriday reading if you haven’t seen this yet: From authors Anna de Bakker and Jennifer Bain and the Digital Analysis of Chant Transmission (DACT) Project:

https://theconversation.com/from-scribe-to-choir-to-being-repurposed-over-generations-medieval-christian-chant-book-fragments-reveal-stories-164035

The Spanish antiphoner usually housed at Western University (London, Ontario, Canada) as ‘ms M2150’ has ventured forth once again! Now starring in the exhibition ‘Hidden Stories: Books along the Silk Roads’, at the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto until February 27, 2022, this 16th-century source is described on the exhibition website’s digital section as a mode of “spiritual travel.” As one of twenty-one books representing various religious and secular contexts across medieval Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, our already well-travelled (and rather weather-beaten) old friend seems to be enjoying the high-life in the big city. Visitors to the museum, or to the digital version of the exhibit, can find a brief description, several representative images, and a 2-minute audio recording, all helping to renew a place for it in our historical imaginations of a vibrant and colourful medieval world.

Now available on YouTube: "Analysing the Music of Hildegard of Bingen" (Jennifer Bain), presented as part of "Software Tools in Chant Analysis Virtual Workshop" hosted by the University of Bristol on June 3, 2021.

Now available on YouTube: "Analysing Cantus: Tools for Discovery and Research" (Debra Lacoste & Jan Koláček), presented as part of "Software Tools in Chant Analysis Virtual Workshop" hosted by the University of Bristol on June 3, 2021. This video outlines both basic and advanced search tips on the Cantus Database, as well as demonstrates analytical tools available on Cantus Index that reveal groupings of medieval liturgical manuscripts based on their inclusion of identical or similar chants for particular saints and other liturgical occasions throughout the year.

June 14, 2021 - Debra Lacoste will present with Kate Steiner (Conrad Grebel University College at the University of Waterloo): ‘Turning the Page’ to a Positive: Digitization of Fragments as a Pedagogical Tool. 

Class seminars and student indexing projects involving medieval chant manuscripts and fragments are valuable "hands-on" learning experiences. Debra Lacoste will introduce the database and highlight the inventories prepared by University of Waterloo undergraduate students, and Kate Steiner will reflect on the classroom and individual experiences during the process of working with digitized chant fragments.

From May 28, 2021: Digital Analysis of Chant Transmission (DACT) and a Case Study of Two Fragments from the Riesencodex (presented by Jennifer Bain and Debra Lacoste). Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8imxUS_gxE

June 3, 2021 -- We participated in "Software Tools in Chant Analysis - Virtual Workshop" online via Zoom from the University of Bristol. Debra Lacoste and Jan Koláček created a video presentation entitled “Analysing Cantus: Tools for Discovery and Research," and participated in the online questions and discussion.