MIT Ancient and Medieval Studies Lecture Series

Date: 

Tuesday, September 25, 2018, 5:15pm to 7:00pm

Location: 

Building 14E, room 304, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

David Catalunya (University of Würzburg), Medieval Pianos and their Manuscript Sources.

David Catalunya will lecture on instruments of late medieval music and perform on the unique hammered clavisimbalum, the earliest known instrument to use a piano mechanism (c. 1440). Dr. Catalunya is an expert on music in late medieval Spain, nuns’ music, and instrument reconstruction. He is a leader of the group Canto Coronato, keyboard player for the world-renowned ensemble Mala Punica, and co-founder of the ensemble Tasto Solo. He is a three-time winner of the Diapason d’or, and associated director of the Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music at Oxford. His book Music, Space and Ritual at Las Huelgas of Burgos, 1200–1350 will appear later this year.