McGill’s Special Collections
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For more info about this event, please contact the event organizer, Ensemble Scholastica, at info@ensemblescholastica.ca.
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DISCOVER MONTRÉAL’S HIDDEN MEDIEVAL TREASURES!
Musical notation was first elaborated in Europe during the early Middle Ages. It continued to develop throughout the period to reflect the increasingly sophisticated musical tastes and skills of medieval musicians, composers, and scribes. Their legacy to the modern world is both a universal method of notating music and an immense collection of manuscripts that provide a record of the repertoires of that period. These are the primary sources for the musicians of today who perform medieval music.
Each manuscript also has a story to tell beyond the music it contains. A medieval manuscript rarely remained in its place of origin. Most were lost, transformed, sent far away as gifts or acquired by wealthy parties, only to re-emerge centuries later, often in fragmen-tary form.
In this way, a number of medieval manuscripts and fragments containing musical notation have ended up at McGill University’s Rare Books and Special Collections.
Like McGill, Ensemble Scholastica is based in Montréal. It is also Canada’s only female vocal ensemble that specializes in the performance of medieval plainchant and polyphony. With this concert, Ensemble Scholastica will be the first professional ensemble to create an entire program featuring selections from these largely unknown medieval sources in McGill’s possession.
In addicon to the November 10th concert featuring our eight singers, there will be an evening of free accvices introducing the public to McGill’s special colleccons of medieval manuscripts. This event will be held on November 7 at McGill. More details to come!
DISCOVER MONTRÉAL’S HIDDEN MEDIEVAL TREASURES!
Musical notation was first elaborated in Europe during the early Middle Ages. It continued to develop throughout the period to reflect the increasingly sophisticated musical tastes and skills of medieval musicians, composers, and scribes. Their legacy to the modern world is both a universal method of notating music and an immense collection of manuscripts that provide a record of the repertoires of that period. These are the primary sources for the musicians of today who perform medieval music.
Each manuscript also has a story to tell beyond the music it contains. A medieval manuscript rarely remained in its place of origin. Most were lost, transformed, sent far away as gifts or acquired by wealthy parties, only to re-emerge centuries later, often in fragmen-tary form.
In this way, a number of medieval manuscripts and fragments containing musical notation have ended up at McGill University’s Rare Books and Special Collections.
Like McGill, Ensemble Scholastica is based in Montréal. It is also Canada’s only female vocal ensemble that specializes in the performance of medieval plainchant and polyphony. With this concert, Ensemble Scholastica will be the first professional ensemble to create an entire program featuring selections from these largely unknown medieval sources in McGill’s possession.
In addicon to the November 10th concert featuring our eight singers, there will be an evening of free accvices introducing the public to McGill’s special colleccons of medieval manuscripts. This event will be held on November 7 at McGill. More details to come!
Ensemble Scholastica
Founded in 2008 by musicologist Pascale Duhamel, Ensemble Scholastica is a group of talented and dedicated vocalists from Montréal’s thriving early music community, some of whom also play medieval instruments. Leading medievalist Rebecca Bain has directed the ensemble since 2012.
Ensemble Scholastica is Canada’s only female vocal ensemble that specializes in the performance of medieval plainchant and polyphony (from the 9th to the 14th century). While our work begins with the study of medieval manuscripts, historical authenticity is not our only objective. Our goal is to share with listeners the beauty and intricacy of medieval music, particularly the medieval liturgical traditions that are at the very root of Western music. We offer our audiences the opportunity to experience the remarkable joy and complexity of European medieval spirituality and culture.
In recent seasons Ensemble Scholastica has been expanding its repertoire to include the liturgical music of New France—a rarely performed repertoire that Scholastica is uniquely well-placed to explore. In 2018 and 2022, collaborations with Les Idées heureuses on this repertoire were nominated for the Prix Opus’ early music concert of the year. Additionally, we have been programming non-Western historical music and featuring guest artists of diverse origins, with the goal of presenting European early music in its proper global context, as one set of rich traditions among many. Since 2021, we have presented programs
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