A Bestiary of Vices and Virtues by Gillian

A Bestiary of Vices and Virtues by Gillian - March 2014 Scholarship Essay

I have been studying vocal performance for the past three years. I decided to pursue singing because I am deeply passionate about communication and music. But it was not until this past year that I discovered my purpose as a musician. During my studies I encountered Mediaeval music. It is haunting, beautiful, driven by stories and morality and deep necessity to reach others on a human level. The mediaeval mind and aesthetic captivated all of my senses. In the fall of my senior year, I was able to act upon my impulses. As a student in the Baccalaureate Honors Program at my university, it was required of me to either write a paper or to give a lecture recital. A lecture recital is an academic performance in which a musical work (or works) is discussed with focus on areas such as analysis, pedagogy, performance practice and historical context. The general format consists of a lecture illustrated by brief performance excerpts followed by a complete performance of the presented work. I found an amazingly inspiring mentor in the head of the Foreign Language department \who was an expert in mediaeval and renaissance languages.

This past November I gave a lecture recital titled “A Bestiary of Vices and Virtues,” in which I created a bestiary from songs of the Chantilly Codex and poetry of the same period. I found this kind of rhetorical analysis, declamation and performance to be intellectually stimulating and revolutionary. This performance made mediaeval ideas and music accessible to a modern audience and provided many students and professors with an appreciation for the mediaeval mind and aesthetic. The lecture recital was far more successful than I would have ever imagined. It fueled my vision to continue to develop these types of programmes to make Mediaeval poetics and music accessible and appreciated by a broader audience across disciplines. It also became the cornerstone of my application to my dream school: The University of St Andrew’s.

It has always been my intention to pursue a career as an academic and performer of Mediaeval/Early Music. I have always aspired to teach music and history in addition to performing. I feel that by studying Mediaeval History, it will provide me with a greater ethnomusicological context and a deeper, more holistic understanding for my future music studies, inform a more organic and inspired performing career and performance practice, as well as provide a solid foundation for me to teach history and music.  I believed that St Andrews would be the best University for me because it is a medieval university in a medieval town with medieval architecture and a world renown Mediaeval History programme.  The Master of Letters program at St Andrews is an interdisciplinary programme which would allow me to assimilate different facets of Mediaeval history to include music in my studies and research.  I had been in communication with Dr. Katie Stevenson of St. Andrews Mediaeval History Department since August 2013 and she had enthusiastically agreed to supervise my thesis proposal on Mediaeval Court song of the UK and Scottish border ballads.  I seek to investigate the implications of social class and chivalry through poetic, rhetorical, musical and visual/ iconographic analysis of manuscripts and text.  I am primarily seeking to develop a method and background understanding which will enable deeply contextualized and intellectual textural analysis of songs that are about or allude to courtly love. I believed that I would work well with Dr. Stevenson because she is a mediaeval specialist in chivalry and aristocracy of the late mediaeval period and has performed extensive research on court rituals and pastimes. St Andrew’s is also incredibly dedicated to musical excellence and boasts two very select and prestigious choirs that perform Early and Mediaeval Music. I hope to be a part of these ensembles to enhance my studies as well as provide me with insight as to the Scottish and UK choral tradition.

In January I received word of my acceptance to St Andrews. I was ecstatic, knowing that my life as a medievalist has only begun.

Upon graduation and further professional development, I aim to build educational outreach programmes between the professional and collegiate ensembles with which I am affiliated. These opportunities will exist within and between countries and will include programmes for exchange and residency.  These programmes will have a heavy emphasis on the performance of Mediaeval Music.

I have great tenacity and passion for Mediaeval studies and will strive to achieve the interdisciplinary objectives on an international scale. If accepted into the Master of Letters program, I will conduct new and exciting rhetorical analysis of song texts in a journey to understand the mediaeval mind and music that will extend beyond my graduation. Stemming from my time at St Andrews and continued research, I will become a better informed teacher and lecture recitalist of mediaeval music; raising awareness, appreciation and engagement with Mediaeval poetics and the roots of the western music tradition across the world.

Ma Tredol Roussignol: https://www.dropbox.com/s/23zlj3yn9i2mo0k/Ma%20Tredol%20Roussignol.mov

Serena En Mer Hante: https://www.dropbox.com/s/j4ffebg8o7ym9yj/Serena%20En%20Mer%20Hante.mov

Phiton, Phiton: https://www.dropbox.com/s/awo09osk956vxgd/Phiton%20Phiton.mov

D’un Gupil Dit: https://www.dropbox.com/s/q6jifmfkhswe60y/D%27un%20Gupil%20Dit.mov

The experience which showed me that Medieval research is relevant, and genuine performance practice is possible, was the process of creating this recital. And the performance that changed the direction of my life.