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IMC 2007: Sessions

Session 305: Performance and Physical Memory

Monday 9 July 2007, 16.30-18.00

Sponsor:Medieval & Renaissance Drama Society
Organiser:Jill Stevenson, Department of Theatre Arts, Marymount Manhattan College, New York
Moderator/Chair:Carol Symes, Department of History, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Paper 305-aVital Transcriptions: Performance and Memory in the Visual Presentation of the Music in Guillaume de Machaut's Remede de Fortune
(Language: English)
Kate Maxwell, Department of Music & Department of French, University of Glasgow
Index terms: Language and Literature - French or Occitan, Manuscripts and Palaeography, Music, Performance Arts - General
Paper 305-bMedieval Performance Spectatorship as a Mode of Becoming
(Language: English)
Jill Stevenson, Department of Theatre Arts, Marymount Manhattan College, New York
Index terms: Art History - General, Lay Piety, Performance Arts - Drama
Paper 305-cLooking Back: Performance and/of the Past in Medieval Metz
(Language: English)
Susannah Crowder, Department of History, Graduate Center, City University of New York
Index terms: Liturgy, Performance Arts - General
Abstract

Although typically described as ephemeral, a performance leaves traces of itself in many different places—the bodies of actors and spectators; the cities, structures, and landscapes where it is staged; and, the physical evidence that remains as 'proof', or suggestion, of the event. This panel examines the physical memories of performance using three different approaches. The first paper considers the presentation of music in the physical manuscript. The second suggests that performance is an experience that remains embedded in the spectator's physical body. The last paper explores how performances, and the records of them, create local, institutional, and personal memories.