Speakers: Elina Hamilton (University of Hawai’i, Mānoa), Peter Lefferts (University of Nebraska, Lincoln) and Elżbieta Witkowska-Zaremba (Warsaw, Polish Academy of Sciences)
De legitimis ordinibus pentachordorum et tetrachordorum by Theinred of Dover has long been known to scholars but has virtually remained inaccessible until recent years: a transcription of its text, made by John L. Snyder, was mounted onto TML only in 1996, and a critical edition by Snyder published in 2006 detailed an argument that dated the treatise to c. 1150. This seminar brings together three perspectives for repositioning Theinred in the fourteenth century, a date that had been offered in the very earliest accounts of the theorist. Responding to the 12th-century hypothesis, Hamilton will argue for a fourteenth-century date based on a new evaluation of Theinred’s sources; Lefferts will present contexts for—and close readings of—Theinred’s text that draw him into a tight circle of prominent theorists of the same era, and Witkowska-Zaremba will consider Theinred’s theories in the context of Boethius’s De institutione musica, pointing to the ideas and solutions presented by Boethius in the fourth book of his treatise and their reception in England around 1300.
This long-running series of seminars, convened by Dr Margaret Bent, considers all aspects of medieval and renaissance music. It runs on Zoom in Michaelmas and Hilary Terms and generally attracts a large international audience. Usually, a presenter speaks for around 30 minutes and then engages with invited discussants for another half an hour. The floor is then open for questions and lively general discussion. Each term’s seminars are announced in advance on this page and attendees are asked to register here.
