Friday October 11th at 12:00 in Wieboldt 207

Andrew Cashner, Ph.D candidate in Music History presents a dissertation chapter entitled  ‘”Suspend, O Heavens, Your Sweet Chant’: Heavenly Dissonance in a Villancico by Joan Cererols (Montserrat, c. 1660)”

Respondent: Martha  Lira Tenorio, visiting professor of Hispanic literature; a light snack will be provided

Abstract below:

I invite workshop participants to discuss a chapter draft from my dissertation on theological understandings of music in 17th-century Hispanic villancicos. The chapter presents a villancico for Christmas (set to music by the Catalan monk Joan Cererols), which contrasts the imperfect music of the spheres with the “new consonance” brought into the world through the voice of the newborn Christ. I trace the poetic text through about eight different imprints between 1650 and 1700, which represent multiple textual traditions; and I analyze three surviving musical versions in the context of contemporary theology and cosmology. The poem is rather complex and the textual traditions even more so, and I would especially benefit from the insight of the philologists in the workshop.

 Click here for attached paper; please email dmreher@uchicago for the password:  https://webshare.uchicago.edu/users/cashner/Public/wmw20101011.pdf