WWMC 2021 SE invites abstracts on the following Notre-Dame School’s research topics

Note: the topics proposed within these areas are intended to focus the attention of researchers on important issues but are not mandatory. Each area contains a variety of topics that are not on the list but are of significant interest. We welcome researches that are not limited to individual fields but make the connections between them.


1. History

Representatives of the Notre-Dame school: who they were, what role music played in their lives and activities. Leonin and Perotin. Daily musical activity at Notre-Dame Cathedral in its early period. The Notre-Dame School in the context of historical events. The importance of music in society, the social status of musicians in the XII – XIII centuries.

2. Source criticism

Magnus Liber Organi manuscripts, sources of information about the Notre-Dame School and its personalities.

3. Music theory and analysis

Melos, rhythm, harmony, and counterpoint in the legacy of the Notre-Dame School and Ars Antiqua in general.

Modal rhythmics, its origin, and principles, multiple voice coordination on a modal-rhythmic basis.

Vertical and chord structures, the logic of harmonic sequences.

Linear counterpoint and coordination of voices on a harmonic basis, the principles, and rules of voice leading.

Imitative and polymelodic counterpoint, different types of counterpoint combinations, and understanding of their variety by Notre-Dame masters. Development of the idea of cantus prius factus at the Notre-Dame school.

Compositional thinking of the masters of Notre Dame. Interaction of organizing factors (intonation, rhythm, texture, counterpoint, etc.) in the construction of form.

Structural, compositional, and stylistic aspects of works belonging to different genres and historical layers represented in Magnus Liber. The legacy of Notre-Dame and the genre system of music of the Middle Ages.

The melos of Notre-Dame, its peculiarity and interaction with Gregorian, folk, and secular music.

Vocal and instrumental in Magnus Liber.

The legacy of Notre-Dame in the context of musical-theoretical views and concepts of the XII and XIII centuries.

4. Various scientific disciplines in the study of the Notre-Dame school

Harmony and pitch in Ars Antiqua music from the perspective of acoustics. The impact of the acoustic features of medieval religious architecture (Notre-Dame Cathedral in particular) on the structural and pitch thinking of the authors of Magnus Liber.

The mathematical aspect of modal rhythmics and temporal organization in general in Ars Antiqua music.

The legacy of Notre Dame school from the perspective of psychology, theory of perception. Methods of control of the listener’s emotional and psychological state in the music of Ars Nova. Features of perception of this music in the period of its creation and subsequent periods (in particular, in our days).

The culturological aspect of Ars Antiqua. Ars Antiqua in the context of social and religious thought of the Middle Ages. The Notre-Dame School and tendencies in the intellectual and creative life of Paris in the XII and XIII centuries.

Theological comprehension of the legacy of Notre-Dame School in the aspects of musical language and musical structures, their symbolism and expression, correlation of music and word, canonical and authorial. Magnus Liber in worship, in the church calendar.

5. Outstanding scholars and studies of the Notre-Dame School

The legacy of the Notre-Dame School in musical-theoretical, musical-historical works and conceptions.

The personalities and views of the researchers of the Notre-Dame School.

6. Problems of performance and interpretation of Ars Nova music, particularly works from Magnus Liber

7. Notation

The Notre-Dame School and the development of musical writing. The relationship between musical structures (temporal, pitch) and the sign system. Features of notation and note graphics in the various sources of Magnus Liber.

8. The Notre-Dame School in the evolution of Music

Prerequisites for the emergence of the Notre-Dame School, the influence of various music schools in its legacy. Notre-Dame School as a phenomenon of discontinuous changes in musical thinking. Fundamental discoveries, understanding of important principles of music at Notre-Dame, its importance for the development of music in subsequent eras. The Notre-Dame School and the compositional styles and techniques of the XX – XIX centuries.

9. Music and the Cathedral

The music of Magnus Liber as part of the cathedral. The original Notre-Dame as an artistic whole, in which music exists in unity with architecture and the visual arts.