Rebecca Maloy: Constructing Sanctity through Sound in Early Medieval Iberia

1020 18th Street,Boulder CO 80302

08 March, 2022

Description

118th Distinguished Research Lecture The multifaceted roles of the saints in medieval Europe have long been recognized: they were intercessors, exemplars, companions, healers and miracle workers. Far less is understood, however, about the how saints were constructed and venerated on the Iberian Peninsula. Between the seventh and eleventh centuries, devotion to the saints was structured by rituals of great textual richness and musical beauty, known as the Old Hispanic (or Mozarabic) rite. Examining its texts and melodies in relation to late antique theories of the senses, I show how they functioned to establish saintly authority, to construct ideals of sanctity, and shape a multisensory, uniquely Iberian experience. Rebecca Maloy, professor of Music at the University of Colorado Boulder, specializes in the liturgy and chant of the early middle ages. She is the author, most recently, of Songs of Sacrifice: Chant, Identity, and Christian Formation in Early Medieval Iberia (2020). She currently collaborates on the multidisciplinary project Doctrine, Devotion and Cultural Expression in the Cults of Medieval Iberian Saints, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council in the UK. Other recent work has been funded by the American Council of Learned Societies, the European Research Council and the Institute for Advanced Study. The Distinguished Research Lectureship is among the highest honors bestowed by the faculty upon a faculty member at CU Boulder. Each year, the Research & Innovation Office requests nominations from faculty for this award, and a faculty review panel recommends one or more faculty members as recipients.