Biography
I joined the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick, in August 2016 as the Course Director for the MA in Ritual Chant and Song. Click here for a short video about my research activities. For more information about the MA Ritual Chant and Song, check out this video, this webpage, or feel free to get in touch with me directly (Eleanor.Giraud -at- ul.ie).Alongside teaching on the MA, I research medieval chant books of the Dominican Order. I began this project, studying the nature of the chant and liturgy of early Dominican Order, at Lincoln College Oxford, where I held the Lord Crewe Junior Research Fellow in Music 2014-2016. I have set up a mailing list for the field of medieval Dominican studies, which anyone with related interests is welcome to join: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/MEDIEVAL-DOMINICANS
I gained my Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge, graduating in February 2014. My thesis examined the role of the music notator within the process of producing manuscripts: who would have been notating music, how notators worked together (if at all), and what relation they had with other trades involved in book production, e.g. text scribes. I focussed on manuscripts made for the Dominican convent in Paris in the thirteenth century.
In 2009-2010 I studied for an M.Phil. in Musicology at the University of Cambridge, which I gained with distinction. My dissertation examined the polyphonic music contained within the Codex Calixtinus, a twelfth-century manuscript dedicated to the cult of St James in Santiago de Compostela.
I completed my B.Mus. at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 2009. As part of the degree, I spent a year at the Université de Haute Bretagne in France. I was supervised by Dr. Magnus Williamson and it was with him that I gained an appetite for working with manuscripts. I graduated with upper first class honours and the David Barlow Memorial Prize.
Research Interests
Since undergraduate level, I have been fascinated by the study of chant and its manuscripts. My PhD dissertation examined the Production and Notation of Dominican Manuscripts in Thirteenth-Century Paris, asking who was involved with production of Dominican chant books, how was the notation copied, and how was the work of text and music scribes organised? My research revealed that, in the authoritative manuscripts of the Dominican liturgy, a sizeable group of professional notators were involved in their copying, and that the notation was copied separately from the text.Building on my doctoral project, my current research examines Dominican chant and liturgy, seeking to discover the choices made during the Dominican liturgical reform in the mid-thirteenth century, and to understand how Dominican chant relates to other families of Gregorian chant. I plan to publish a monograph, Dominican Chant and its Books, incorporating both my doctoral work on the material nature of Dominican chant books and my postdoctoral research into their musico-liturgical contents.
Professional Activities
Association
- 2016 Executive Trustee, Plainsong and Medieval Music Society
- 2016 Council Member, Henry Bradshaw Society
- 2015 Scientific Committee, Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum
Committee
- 2016 MA Ritual Chant and Song Board,
- 2016 MA Choral Practice, Advisory group, Wrote 4 module descriptions, advised on shape of programme.
- 2016 BA Performing Arts (Voice pathway) Design team, Advised on programme structure of voice pathway.
Employment
- 2014 Warburg Institute, University of London - Postdoctoral fellow
- 2014 Lincoln College, Oxford - Lord Crewe Junior Research Fellow in Music
- 2014 Royal Holloway, University of London - Visiting Lecturer
Education
- 2013 University of Cambridge - PhD
- 2010 University of Cambridge - M.Phil.
- 2009 University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne - BMus
Outreach
- Discussion of my doctoral research. Part of PhDcast series 2, CRASSH, University of Cambridge.
- I co-organised a week-long university-taster programme in music for school pupils from low to middling socio-economic backgrounds. I selected students for admission to the programme, co-ordinated lecturers for the week, and gave tutorials to individual students.
- As part of a music summer school encouraging 6th-form students from state schools to apply to the University of Cambridge, I delivered seminars on library/research skills (2011-2014), medieval notation (2014, 2016-2017) and tonal skills (2013).
- An invited public lecture, related to article in press on notation in manuscripts of mass lections.
- Gave a public lecture and workshop on the Sweetheart Breviary as part of exhibition at Dumfries Museum, Scotland. Featured on ITV Border Life: http://www.itv.com/news/border/update/2017-10-31/watch-border-life-h/ (starting at 7m30s)
Language
- French
- Latin
Research Collaborators
- Christian Leitmeir - Joint Publication - University of Oxford -England
- Laura Albiero - Joint Publication - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) -France