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“So, what exactly do you do?”

Raise your hand if my posts about paleography lost you. Raise your hand if you have no idea what a medieval manuscript looks like.

Well, do I have good news for you! For my final project in my Chant as Popular Music class, I’m making a catalog of all the Gregorian chant manuscripts located in the Worcester area. The local colleges and universities have been so helpful in this research. I just spent the afternoon at Assumption College, where I was able to work with Fr. Donat Lamothe. Assumption has several flyleaves of Gregorian chant manuscripts. So…this is what I do:

Welcome to the Emmanuel d’Alzon Library at Assumption College!

Assumption College has several flyleaves of chant manuscripts in its archives. Now, since I’m still a non-specialist, I can’t handle the manuscripts. Instead, they have to remain in the frames. Even if I could take them out of the frames, I would have to wear gloves to prevent any oils on my hands destroying the already delicate sheets. Three of the leaves were framed in such a way that I could see both sides (recto and verso), but I could only see the recto side of the other two leaves.

This is an antiphon for the Feast of Pentecost. This manuscript is from the 1400’s, and I’m still trying to identify the specific hand. It’s definitely on parchment, and this manuscript was probably intended for monk use only since it’s not that elaborate.

Here’s a close up. What I do now is I transcribe the hand and then I’ll translate it. The line with the fancy “A” reads: “Accipite spiritu sanctum,” which translates to “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Oh, and those squares are neumes, which is a precursor to modern musical notation.

Let’s look at another one:

This manuscript is much more elaborate than the first one. This manuscript is printed on vellum, for starters (yes, that’s animal skin), which was much more expensive than parchment. This one is also Renaissance, and I’m thinking that it’s probably English. I have to look at it a bit more closely before I can determine that. What’s really interesting about this manuscript (and the other two that are identical to it) is that it just gives the incipits (or, the first line of the chants) and not the actual melody or lyrics, as the other one did. The people using this text would have known the chant melody and lyrics by heart. This one specifically details the Christmas Mass. How can you tell? Look at the big fancy “P.” The letters after it are “uer.” This is the first word of the ultimate Christmas chant, “Puer Natus Est” – A boy is born.

Here’s a close up of that P. Pretty incredible, isn’t it?

Here’s another manuscript written in the same hand:

This one is the incipits for the vespers of the Feast of the Assumption.

Luckily, the title tells us that. That’s quite rare, usually.

But let’s take a closer look at that “A”:

Isn’t it gorgeous? And, if you couldn’t tell from the Latin that these chants are intended for the Assumption, then you can definitely tell from the illumination of the letter A. This is where my true interest in paleography lies – the connection between word and image. That’s another entry for another time, though.

There are more photos of my adventure at Assumption today, but I think I’ll stop where I am now. Welcome to the scary world of a future medievalist!
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The Road Ahead

Tonight, the Ballroom Dance Team deliberated on next year’s e-board. Seeing another HCDBT member with my title for next year is a) weird but b) exciting. I truly wish that I had another year with the team since the team is capable of so much next year. But I know that our new co-chairs next year have a vision for next year, and it’s going to be a fantastic year for all involved. What was truly great about the process was just to see how much interest in leadership we have on the team – it’s so exciting to see a group of dancers who are thrilled to take on leadership positions to continue our team’s traditions and create their own.

In other news, I officially decided on graduate school. Despite what some of you might think, this decision was actually pretty tough, and I deliberated for quite some time. There are too many factors that went into my decision to elucidate them here, but please trust me when I say that my pros and cons list for each school was extensive. And now…the drumroll please…OXFORD!

Yes, I chose Oxford. I’m excited (but still nervous) to spend the next two years of my life pursuing my MPhil in Medieval Studies at Oxford. It’s going to be so different from my year abroad – I mean, this time, I’ll be a fully matriculated Oxford student. I won’t have the support network that I did during my year abroad. I’m on my own. I’ll be staying up late and analyzing manuscripts, translating Latin and Old English, and learning British slang all over again. Who’s excited!?
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Dress Day! And More Good News!

At the beginning of Spring, there’s a day that we all dub “Dress Day.” It’s the first day after a dreary winter that the temperature rises above 45 degrees and it’s sunny. All of the girls on campus somehow magically coordinate to wear dresses on this day (seriously, it’s just an innate feeling). Well, today was this semester’s Dress Day, and I’m so excited for the Spring weather. Not necessarily what happens at the end of spring (but we don’t talk about the g-word…), though.

Well, I guess I have to in order to relay the good news. I was accepted into Oxford’s Medieval Literature program! Eeeep! So now I have to decide between the two programs, but I’m so excited about these two options!
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Full Circle

Firstly, I am still bouncing up and down after my Toronto acceptance. Now I’m just waiting for Oxford. Come on, Brits!

One of the requirements to graduate in the English Honors Program is to take a metacritical course. Although my paleography tutorial at Oxford would have counted, I decided to take Professor Mulrooney’s Contemporary Literary Theory course because…well…he once advised me to take a course in Literary Theory if I ever wanted to go to graduate school. Well, I listened to him, and I’m glad that I did. Don’t get me wrong – Literary Theory is tough stuff. It’s basically the application of philosophy to literature – what is a text? What, exactly, is writing? How do the constructs of language affect our writing? It’s all just in a day’s work for this class. But as tough as it is, I’m glad that I’m taking the course, especially as a second semester senior since this course explains how the English department here teaches literature and why. I ran into this a bit when I was abroad last year – even some of my American friends from other universities approached literature very differently from the Holy Cross kids. We’re taught from day one in CRAW Poetry (wow, that’s a blast from the past. Haven’t heard me say that in a while, have you?) to analyze just what’s on the page – the author, time period, etc., shouldn’t affect our interpretation. We’re also not looking for a meaning from a poem; instead, we’re taught to see what imaginative work the poem asks us to do. Now, when you’re a freshman (I’m not speaking from personal experience…at all…hum dee doo deee dumm….), you think that you know everything that there is to know about poetry, and this approach seems…well, silly. For the most part, metacritical studies simply aren’t a part of the English major, compared to some other universities. For instance, one of my American friends last year could tell you everything about any literary “movement” (sorry, I just read Derrida so he’s affecting my interpretation of those words a bit), but if you asked her to analyze a poem, she was lost. So, during my freshman year, I didn’t understand the value of the type of training that Holy Cross endorses. But now that I look back, I’m glad that I learned how to first analyze poetry and then find my own literary movement affiliation rather than reading every piece of literature through one lens. Especially with graduate school next year (EEEEEEEEEPPPP It still hasn’t hit me that I’ve been accepted), I’m glad that I have some sense of  Literary Theory, though.

Aaaaaaand if you’re not an English major/even remotely interested in the Humanities, tune in tomorrow for a non-English major related post! Wait. I can’t guarantee that.
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Happy Valentine’s Day! And Some Good News!

Firstly, Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone! Campus has been a bit crazy today – one of the traditions at Holy Cross is that the Delilahs (the female a capella group) sells “singing Valentines” so they’ve been running around all day serenading people. Erin, a member of the ballroom dance team, bought one for her boyfriend, Chris, also a member of the ballroom team, and the Delilahs came to serenade him during our practice tonight.

One of the beauties of having a Blackberry is that I got to take photos of it while it happened.

And now the good news:

I found out today that I was accepted by the University of Toronto for their graduate program in medieval literature! I am so excited about this acceptance, since it’s one of the best programs that combines my love of medieval languages, literature, and manuscripts. I have to hear back from another school, but at least I know that I have one option for graduate school next year! But, if I accept Toronto’s offer, I already know what day they want me there – September 7th. They also indicated that they want me to continue with my Latin over the summer break and expect me to sit the Latin Entry Level Examination. It’s really weird to think of myself at another institution, though. When I went to Oxford,  knew that I would eventually return to Holy Cross. But I know that this isn’t a year abroad – it’s a new place. It is exciting!