Category: gender

Book launch pastourelle performance

Post author By Elizabeth Eva Leach
Post date March 7, 2024
2 Comments on Book launch pastourelle performance

On 6 Mar 2024 I had a party to celebrate the launch of Medieval Sex Lives, the first book launch party I’ve ever had, although it will not be the last! Nigel Bryant gave a lovely appreciation of my book and Joseph W. Mason and Matthew P. Thomson sang the third pastourelle from the subsection of pastourelles in Douce 308 to the tune of a song by Gautier de Coinci with which it shares its versification. I had provided an English singing translation and captured the performance on my phone. In the spirit of there being two women who perform both male and female parts in the robardel in The Tournament at Chauvency — a possibility that gave me much food for thought when writing the book — Matthew and Joe take the parts of the knight and shepherdess, respectively. I post the video below, with permission from the two singers and apologies for the sound recording quality and poor visual-angle, which are both my own fault. Nice to have this though and my thanks to them both.

And, to repost this link, for those of you keen to get a sense of Medieval Sex Lives without having to read it, I talk about its basic rationale and contents in a podcast episode on the New Books Network.

Tags 13thC, medieval song, pastourelle, song

Douce 308 project gender medieval composers medieval French literature publications

Hear an interview about Medieval Sex Lives

Post author By Elizabeth Eva Leach
Post date March 7, 2024
No Comments on Hear an interview about Medieval Sex Lives

Earlier this year I was interviewed for the New Books Network by Dave O’Brien about my new book, Medieval Sex Lives. You can hear the result here.

Tags 13thC, 14thC, medieval, medieval song, Middle Ages

gender medieval composers medieval singers publications

My review of an edited volume on female-voice song

Post author By Elizabeth Eva Leach
Post date January 5, 2024
No Comments on My review of an edited volume on female-voice song

My review of Female-Voice Song and Women’s Musical Agency in the Middle Ages, edited by Anna Kathryn Grau and Lisa Colton has just appeared in Early Music. This book is part of the series Brill’s Companions to the Musical Culture of Medieval and Early Modern Europe and was published by Brill (Leiden) in 2022 at the somewhat eye-watering price of €215. Although reviewing large edited collections is quite a lot of work, I think it’s important to do so, especially when they’re pricey, as a way of informing potential readers of their contents in the hope that they might get a sense of whether to request their local library acquires the volume or, indeed, whether they fork out the money themselves. I think most universities libraries that teach music before 1500 and/or topics relating to women and music should probably buy this. I used the online version to write the review, which seemed pretty useful.