Special notes: Students will need to purchase a semester-long subscription to the course materials (instead of a textbook) at Dr. Carol Reynolds' https://www.professorcarol.com/early-sacred-music/. Select the $9/month option ($27 for the semester). Access to the course materials is valid for immediate family members, so you all can learn together as a family.

Course Outline:

1.      Introduction to Gregorian Chant. What is chant, where did it come from, and why has it remained the paradigm of liturgical music into present times?

2.      Jerusalem. On location with archeologist Yuval Edden, we explore Old Testament accounts, the key sites in Jerusalem, and the Jewish roots of Christian music.

3.      Into What World? Christianity moves from Jerusalem into an artistic and linguistic culture created by Ancient Greece.

4.      The Roman Empire. We recreate the sights and sounds of Antiquity on location in the shadow of Vesuvius by the experts of Synaulia (who created the period music for the film Gladiator).

5.      Pray Without Ceasing. With the Roman Empire’s collapse, we see the rise and spread of monasticism from the Egyptian desert to Saint Benedict at Monte Cassino near Rome.

6.      The Mass. The shape of Christian liturgy through the Dark Ages, its key elements, and influences on later eras.

7.      From Barbarians to Charlemagne. On location in Charlemagne’s capital of Aachen, we see how the Carolingian Renaissance unifies Europe and spreads a system of education that leads to our early musical notation.

8.      Elaboration. Humans decorate. We look at the magnificent illuminated manuscripts, books copied by hand, and the move from monophonic (single-voice) music to polyphony.

9.      Eastern Orthodoxy. The Church in the Eastern Roman Empire followed its own path, retaining a chant tradition that resisted Western influence. On location in Russia, we hear the untuned bells and the marvelously rich sounds of the Russian Choral tradition.

10.  Polyphony, Pilgrimage, and Crusade. Pilgrims from all across Europe sing as they trek to Jerusalem, Rome, Canterbury, and Santiago de Compostela. We visit the ruins of the greatest pilgrimage way station of all, the magnificent Abbey of Cluny in France.

11.  The Innovative 13th Century. Centers of learning move from the monasteries to universities, and cities across Europe vie to build the greatest Cathedrals in the new Gothic style. In a 15th-century church outside Milan, the Ring Around Quartet performs late medieval music.

12.  The Turbulent 14th Century. Plague, war, and famine sweep across Europe. Sophisticated musical notation leads to music of great complexity, and a Renaissance appears on the horizon. The Ring Around Quartet prov

• Course Materials: The course materials are completely electronic (video lectures by Dr. Carol Reynolds that precede each live lecture: text materials, vocabularies, chronologies, assignments). The live (interactive) lectures led by Mrs. Cincotta with the students involve review, summaries, discussion, clarifications, expanding, and exploring the week’s course materials. Some material is posted on caravel. Graded Tests are to be taken on Caravel.

  Students will need to purchase a semester-long subscription to the course materials (instead of a textbook) at Dr. Carol Reynolds' https://www.professorcarol.com/early-sacred-music/. Select the $9/month option ($27 for the semester). Access to the course materials is valid for immediate family members, so you all can learn together as a family.

Students will view the video-recorded lecture for each week’s topic (1 hour in length on professorcarol.com) before viewing the weekly class recording (Caravel). The academic material for each week includes vocabulary, chronology, terminology, and research into specific topics. Results are best if the majority of individual preparation is done before viewing the weekly recorded class. Weekly tests and assignments will be given.