Music, politics and the importance of understanding the text

Music, politics and the importance of understanding the text is a joint inaugural lecture delivered by Elaine Moohan, Professor of Musicology and Byron Dueck, Professor of Music in The Open University’s Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, who presented their research into religious music from Scotland, England and Cameroon on Tuesday 16 May 2023. They explored historical arguments about the understandability of the words in this music, as well as the consequences of these arguments for how music was subsequently composed.

Professor Moohan presented on: Robert Johnson (fl. 1520s-1560s), composing sacred music in a time of religious change

Professor Dueck presented on: Tone, tune and textual comprehensibility in central Cameroonian music