Workshop 2 Programme and Video

AHRC network meeting for ‘Voices and Books’

Monday 8 September, 2014

Strathclyde University, Glasgow

Humanities scholars working in earlier periods (1500-1800) are increasingly interested in the performance and aural reception of the scripted word. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that reading aloud and listening were ubiquitous in early modern culture. But the historical record cannot reveal how different texts sounded. In this workshop we explore the tools for description and the frameworks for comparison used by linguists and anthropologists and ask: how can they help us?

We will also hear from John Milsom about how people learned to read musical notation in the past, experiment with different performance styles and hear from a modern story-teller about how he voices texts and the Ghanian oral tradition.

9.30 – Bob Ladd, Edinburgh University: ‘Structure, prosody and the silent reader’

10.30 – Nigel Fabb, Strathclyde University: ‘Metrical poetry and its performance in English, 1500-1800’

11.30 – break

12.00 – Elspeth Jajdelska, Strathclyde University: ‘What did readers in the past think they were doing? Writing and speech, 1600-1750’

1pm – buffet lunch

1.45pm – John Milsom, Liverpool Hope University: ‘Musical literacy and illiteracy in Tudor England’

2.45pm Ishbel McFarlane, actor: demonstration of variations in pitch, tempo, volume and pausing in historical texts.

3.30pm break

3.45pm Gameli Tordzro, Pan African Arts Scotland: storytelling and Q&A

4.30pm Concluding remarks

This event is free and open to anyone who would like to come. If you are interested in attending, however, please contact the Network Co-ordinator: Helen.Stark@ncl.ac.uk. (N.B. places may be limited and you will be asked for a deposit, to be returned)

We have bursaries for unsalaried ECRs (within 2 years of PhD) and PhD students to cover some of the cost of travel / accommodation to attend a workshop. If you would like this support please send a short statement about how attendance at one of the workshops would benefit your research to the Network Co-ordinator: Helen.Stark@ncl.ac.uk. *DEADLINE FOR BURSARIES FOR THIS WORKSHOP: 5PM ON 18th AUGUST 2014*