Selected Early Music Links

(This site is not currently being maintained)

Chant and Music Theory

• Gregorian Chant Home Page: Provides links to other chant sites on the Web, and has a number of references for liturgical and religious sites, as well as resources on musicology and on paleography.
• CANTUS: Medieval music database : a searchable index of chant from a number of manuscript and early printed sources.
• Cantus Planus (IMS Study Group) : gregorian chant files. Includes Antiphonale Missarum Sextuplex, Corpus Antiphonalium Officii, indices of several major chant sources, a bibliography, and other resources.
• La Trobe University Library Medieval Music Database, including the Index of Fourteenth Century Music. Indexes by composers, manuscripts, and repertoire.
• Listening to Medieval Music from University of North Florida, ed. Paul Halsall, an excellent resource with extended commentary; especially useful for non-Western repertories
• see Hildegard sites listed below
• Thesaurus Musicarum Latinarum: Database of music theory in the Middle Ages and Renaissance

Secular Monophony and Courtly Love

(including literary sites)

• Medieval Love Songs: Background on courtly love songs, with a special focus on Bertran de Born's Ges de disnar, Raimbaut's Kalenda Mayathe pastourelle "L'autrier m'iere levaz," the Lament of Tristan, Machaut's Foy porter, and the anonymous motet Dame, Je suis cilz/Fins cuers doulz/Fins cuers doulz.
• Literary background on courtly love.
• Andreas Capellanus's rules for courtly love.
• Medieval-Renaissance Instruments, a site sponsored by Musica Antiqua

Women and Early Music

• Early Music by Women Composers: A site maintained by Sarah Whitworth that includes midi files, an annotated CD discography, research and reference sources. Now sponsored by the International Alliance for Women in Music
• Kapralova database of women composers (including links)
• Women Composers: A Bibliography of Internet Resources: Includes women composers of all eras. An excellent resource!
• Hildegard biography from ORB; see also Hildegard.org which hosts a nice array of links to Hildegard sites
• Hildegard text and illuminations: A graphics-heavy site. If you've got the patience, this site has large-size illustrations from Hildegard's manuscripts.
• Mittelalterliche Frauenklöster, a web-based bibliography on monasticism in Germany
• Matrix -- Monasticon, a database which lists medieval women's convents, provides histories (in English) of individual women's monasteries, has bibliography links. One of those tour-de-force websites that demonstrates what scholars can accomplish on the web
• Dr. Cyrus's other research links for her German Women Monastics Book
  • Mediaevum.de, the English-language portal to web research on German medieval topics.
  • Catalog of Franciscan Authors (a work in progress)
  • Annalen des Historischen Vereins für den Niederrhein (AHVN); includes links for the history of the Niederrhein region
  • Katholische Kirche Bibliography with a strong German emphasis
  • freetranslation.com, one of the best computer- translation services
  • Accents table for typing all those unusual characters with odd accents
  • AMS

Shakespeare Sites for the Music Student

• Nashville Shakespeare Festival
• Complete works of Shakespeare from MIT
• Mr. William Shakespeare and the Internet--a GREAT resource.
• Shakespeare Illustrated
• Shakespeare's Globe Research Database
• All the World's A Stage: links to theatre history sites.
• Shakespeare insult generator

General Resources on Medieval Music Aimed at Amateurs and Students

• Early Music FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions page for Early Music (Western music of the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque eras). A spin-off of the early music discussion list (EARLYM-L); a great place to browse, particularly if you're looking for information on recordings or performers. Has good links to early music societies and associations and to publications, scores and sources
• Classical.Net Medieval Repertoire: Classical.Net's basic repertoire list for Medieval music, organized by composers; includes biographical information and some discography.
• Classical.Net Renaissance Repertoire: Classical.Net's resources on Renaissance music
• The Choral Public Domain Library including many madrigal scores, as well as smatterings of Dowland, Josquin, Brumel, etc.
• The Cardinall's Musick: hit their button on the Byrd edition for some exciting biographical speculation on the late Renaissance composer.

Medieval Culture, Literature, and History

• The Labyrinth; contents include the Labyrinth Library, Subject Menus (including music); Labyrinth On-Line Bibliographies; Pedagogical Resources; Professional Information; and the Labyrinth Electronic Center (which includes discussion list information). Also provides access to other Medieval Studies servers and databases.
• The ORB--Online Reference Book for Medieval Studies: includes texts, encyclopedia articles, etc. You can also start at the ORB Music Index.
• Medieval Texts: Texts from and about the Medieval Period, including access points to The Rule of St Benedict, The Decameron, the searchable Vulgate, and others. Not a good source for music per se.
• Internet Medieval Sourcebook maintained by Paul Halsall. Includes a list of films on medieval topics and dozens, nay, hundreds of documents. An indexed list is available. Crusades, the medieval church, sex and gender, intellectual life, England, France, Iberia... and those are just a few of the available topics!
• Medieval Literary Resources: One of the pages maintained by Jack Lynch, including calls for papers and access to many of the medieval sites. Not especially geared for music.
• NetSERF organizes over 1,000 medieval links. Both informative and visually pleasing. You'll want to dwaddle here.
• Medieval Academic Discussion Groups: A lengthy listing of medieval academic discussion groups.
• Literature of the French Middle Ages: Links to sites on medieval French authors, with a smattering of links to broader cultural sites. Worth scanning.
• Charles IV of Luxemburg: Background on one of Machaut's employers...
• "All the World's a Stage": World-Wide Web Resources for Theatre History and Early Music
• Timeline for the British Library's exhibit "Illuminating the Renaissance." Has lovely illuminations.

Maps

• late medieval maps
• UT Austin's HUGE collection of historical maps
• Harvard's page of cartography links

Source Study Sites

• RELICS: (REnaissance Liturgical Imprints: a CensuS). Searchable data base of almost 9000 liturgical books printed before 1601.
• Index of Fourteenth Century Music: Indexes by composers, manuscripts, and repertoire. If that fails, try access via the La Trobe Music of the Middle Ages page.
• On-line Catalogue of the British Library
• Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music, a site which aims to include all fragmentary sources of British pre-Reformation polyphony. Not strictly "Machauvian," but of potential interest anyway.

Pages of Early Music Links

• The Renaissance and Baroque Society of Pittsburgh: Divided into a number of categories, including artists, chant and plainsong, composers, databases, early instruments, events, festivals, other early music links, etc. A great jumping-off point!
• Early Music America: The homepage provides information on EMA itself, but also provides links to other early music sites.
• Indiana University's index to early music sites: Another useful jumping-off point.
  • See also the IU general web resources on music.
• Arto Wikla's Music Page: A wide-ranging list of early music sites, particularly those pertaining to plucked strings.
• Harvard web index: Another good general resource for internet research on music.
• Medieval links and Renaissance links maintained by Charles K. Moss

Other Musicology Sites

• AMS
• Doctoral Dissertations in Musicology
• International Alliance for Women in Music