This is mostly a thought experiment, but here it goes:
Let's say I intend to type the electronic contents of an upcoming new-and-improved antiphon book for a science project.
The catch of the experiment is to draft these antiphons from scratch, i.e. from medieval manuscripts.
To make it challenging, there is a requirement of musicological analysis: I must compare medieval forms to modern forms, and to variants, and make a judgment call, or else hybridize, into a new and improved version, all depending on the circumstances of each antiphon. The method, oversimplified, is:
1. Get melodic shape from a Solesmes antiphoner.
2. Get similar melodic shape from an 11th-century antiphoner.
3. Get rhythmic shape from a 10th-century antiphoner.
4. Do musicological analysis. (Magic!)
5. Write 'restored' melody into a notebook that can be passed on to a typist, who will electronify it for use in new publications.
But how to go about doing all this efficiently? I could pull this off in, say, three years, by diligently working one page per night, five nights per week. But the keyword is 'diligently'. With family, full-time job, and procrastination, it's hard to stick to it!
Plus, this is the kind of work one would commission to a monastery or a group of grad students or to one's own children if one is so twisted. And most monks, grad students, and children don't have the wizardry (i.e. musicology, semiography, paleography training) to pull off the 'magic' step. So it's nigh impossible to find help.
Tips? Thoughts?
Let's say I intend to type the electronic contents of an upcoming new-and-improved antiphon book for a science project.
The catch of the experiment is to draft these antiphons from scratch, i.e. from medieval manuscripts.
To make it challenging, there is a requirement of musicological analysis: I must compare medieval forms to modern forms, and to variants, and make a judgment call, or else hybridize, into a new and improved version, all depending on the circumstances of each antiphon. The method, oversimplified, is:
1. Get melodic shape from a Solesmes antiphoner.
2. Get similar melodic shape from an 11th-century antiphoner.
3. Get rhythmic shape from a 10th-century antiphoner.
4. Do musicological analysis. (Magic!)
5. Write 'restored' melody into a notebook that can be passed on to a typist, who will electronify it for use in new publications.
But how to go about doing all this efficiently? I could pull this off in, say, three years, by diligently working one page per night, five nights per week. But the keyword is 'diligently'. With family, full-time job, and procrastination, it's hard to stick to it!
Plus, this is the kind of work one would commission to a monastery or a group of grad students or to one's own children if one is so twisted. And most monks, grad students, and children don't have the wizardry (i.e. musicology, semiography, paleography training) to pull off the 'magic' step. So it's nigh impossible to find help.
Tips? Thoughts?