First performance in 1,000 years: ‘lost’ songs from the Middle Ages are brought back to life
An ancient song repertory will be heard for the first time in 1,000 years this week after being ‘reconstructed’ by a Cambridge researcher and a world-class performer of medieval music
‘Songs of Consolation’, to be performed at Pembroke College Chapel, Cambridge on April 23, is reconstructed from neumes (symbols representing musical notation in the Middle Ages) and draws heavily on an 11th century manuscript leaf that was stolen from Cambridge and presumed lost for 142 years.
Saturday’s performance features music set to the poetic portions of Roman philosopher Boethius’ magnum opus The Consolation of Philosophy. One of the most widely-read and important works of the Middle Ages, it was written during Boethius’ sixth century imprisonment, before his execution for treason. Such was its importance, it was translated by many major figures, including King Alfred the Great, Chaucer and Elizabeth I.
Hundreds of Latin songs were recorded in neumes from the 9th through to the 13th century. These included passages from the classics by Horace and Virgil, late antique authors such as Boethius, and medieval texts from laments to love songs.
However, the task of performing such ancient works today is not as simple as reading and playing the music in front of you. 1,000 years ago, music was written in a way that recorded melodic outlines, but not ‘notes’ as today’s musicians would recognise them; relying on aural traditions and the memory of musicians to keep them alive. Because these aural traditions died out in the 12th century, it has often been thought impossible to reconstruct ‘lost’ music from this era – precisely because the pitches are unknown.
- See more at: http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/first-performance-in-1000-years-lost-songs-from-the-middle-ages-are-brought-back-to-life-0#sthash.yadn5AXI.dpuf
= new reply since forum marked as read
Thanks for the thread, n2doc. 
Someone said "All arts strive to be music." And I love early western music. The further back you go, the more it might as well be avant gard.
Remember Y2K.... when the world was gonna end? Back then the 4 woman group Anonymous Four put out an album "1000: A Mass for the End of Time - Medieval Chant and Polyphony for the Ascension".... because everyone thought the world was gonna end in the year 1000 too. 
It's of course amazingly beautiful, contemplative, dreamy, distant....
Okay, not really. 
But very interesting.
You totally made my day
Thank you for bringing this to our attention!! 
