This
book represents a first attempt inclusively
to map out patterns of liturgical and musical culture across England, Ireland,
Scotland and Wales over a 500-year period. Extending
from the eve of the Norman Conquest of England in 1066 (and the subsequent
Norman Invasion of Ireland in 1169) to the Protestant Reformation under King
Henry VIII, its nine authors survey the manuscript evidence for Insular worship
c. 1050–1550 from local, regional and European perspectives.
By emphasizing
the varieties of
liturgical design, the book challenges the more conventional centre–periphery
approach which still largely obtains in musicological studies of Insular
medieval repertoires. Furthermore, it reveals the limitations of such a mindset
through rigorous exploration of primary source materials (many of which are
drawn together here for the first time), highlighting the relevance of historical
evidence for shifting political boundaries, plural identities, and the
transmission and exchange of books and liturgical practices across Britain and
Ireland. Overall, therefore, its aim is to enhance our understanding of the sources
and experiences of Insular liturgical culture over time and space from a
pluralistic, inclusive perspective.
In ten individual chapters, the contributors present
a range of methodological approaches to textual witnesses of
Insular liturgies, addressing particular Uses (e.g., Sarum, York, Hereford);
Dominican monastic practices in Britain and Ireland; liturgical cults of local
and regional saints (e.g., Ss Brigit, Canice, Columba, Patrick), and devotion
to universal figures such as the Magi, St Katherine of Alexandria and St
Margaret of Antioch, these last showing clear
evidence of cross-Channel knowledge exchange between the twelfth and fifteenth
centuries. A concluding Epilogue reflects on pathways for further research,
particularly with respect to hitherto neglected areas such as Cornwall and the
Isle of Man, and parts of Wales, where much research is still needed for a
fuller picture to emerge.
The book is divided into three main parts: Part I begins
with a chapter explaining its motivation and scope, with a brief overview of
the nature of textual witnesses for Insular liturgies; the Parts II and III,
respectively, address patterns in the veneration of regional and local saints
in Insular liturgical sources,andtextual witnesses to Insular–Continental
networks, each introduced with a linking chapter which places the individual essays in their wider historical
context.A complete list manuscripts and comprehensive bibliography are
provided at the end of the volume.
The editors, Ann Buckley and Lisa Colton, entered
into this collaboration motivated by a shared interest in broadening the base
for Insular Studies in medieval music. Ann Buckley’s research is driven by a desire to gain a better
understanding of music in medieval Ireland from a broader Insular and European
perspective, rather than viewing Irish musical heritage as somehow isolated
from its neighbours, a still-prevailing tendency which privileges its rich Gaelic
heritage to the relative neglect of the large body of Latin (and some French)
sources, and indeed the crossover between all three. She also works on the
history of European monophonic song, particularly the relationship between
Latin and vernacular repertoires, patronage and social contexts.
Lisa Colton’s research in the history of English
music, similarly, is concerned with exploring concepts of ‘Englishness’ across
the Middle Ages, English–Continental relations, and not least, the issue of
shifting political boundaries and cultural cleavages across and within England,
Scotland and Wales. She is especially interested in how primary source
materials can be used to challenge common assumptions concerning the strict
boundaries between categories of institution, gender, social status, and
musical genre.
Our shared interest in ‘fluid boundaries’, whether
geographical, political, or intellectual, has given rise to many stimulating
discussions as we developed our ideas for this book over the past six years. We
were committed from the outset to making it accessible to a wider readership, both
across academic disciplines and also with a view to engaging a wider public in
these many important issues: issues which concern our understanding of the ‘Middle
Ages’ and ‘dead societies’, but which equally reach dynamically into many
aspects of how people think in the present day, not only about the past, but
also about individual and group identity among the inhabitants of these islands
in northwest Europe, sometimes today known as the ‘Atlantic Archipelago’.
In sharing these multiple riches, we hope to have
in some way succeeded in our endeavour.
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