IN-PERSON: Prague – Section B

Abstract

Civic and ecclesiastical music and ritual permeated everyday life in the England between the 1450s and 1640s. Royal visits, civic celebrations, elaborate pageants, liturgical and ecclesiastical cycles and the hiring and firing of musical personnel all generated records that allow us to glimpse the place of music in both the occasional and the everyday goings-on in the country. However, research into such activities is often tackled in a different way to the history of the places within which such activities occurred. Tangible and intangible culture separated by the research methods and priorities of the separate researchers. They often overlap but they do not often touch. By looking at the surviving medieval St Mary’s Guildhall in Coventry this paper will discuss the early stages of an in-depth study on music, performance and architecture in Coventry during this period that will continue for the next three years. While this only describes the beginnings of this research – the overall study will incorporate other buildings (existing and demolished) and, archival work, concerts, digital modelling (both spatial and acoustic), as well as architectural drawings and models – the aim is to show the insights such cross disciplinary approaches can achieve and reveal a more authentic understanding of the term ‘heritage’.