Emma Cameron

Area of proposed thesis

This dissertation studies the relationships between Latin music theory and lay understandings of music in fourteenth-century England through an examination of contemporary theoretical treatises and vernacular poetry. What insight can literature provide into the understanding and practice of medieval music? How do depictions of sound and music-making in literary works reflect a lay understanding of musical sound? To what extent does this understanding contradict, supplement, enrich, or confirm the understanding of music recorded in Latin music theory? This project is supervised by Elizabeth Eva Leach (Faculty of Music) and Nicholas Perkins (Faculty of English).

Research interests

Medieval music; music and literature; music theory; vernacular song; cultural studies; sound studies; nature in music

Funding

Doctoral Fellowship, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

Degrees

BMus, minor English literature, Mount Allison University (New Brunswick, Canada)

MPhil Music (Musicology), University of Oxford (Wolfson College)