“Sera Et Profana” deals with the music progression during the ancient medieval times. | Bethel Glumac/The Daily Cougar
Students, faculty and staff will be able to visit an exhibit dedicated to historical medieval music until Feb. 23 of 2013 in the M.D. Anderson Memorial Library.
“Sacra Et Profana: Music in Medieval Manuscripts” provides an educational explanation about the way original sheets of music were created. It covers every aspect of the process, from the tools used to create it to the way the music was written and how it was bound into books.
“The UH students studying art, art history, medieval history and others worked on all aspects of the exhibit,” said Judith Steinhoff, Associate Professor and Area Coordinator of Art History.
“The students worked very hard and once the class ended, I continued to work on the walls of text.”
The exhibit is located in the back left side of the first floor of the library, taking up the wall. The easy-to-read explanations incorporate QR codes so viewers can use their smart phones phones or Ipods to listen to the music being displayed.
“For people who don’t have smart phones to listen to the music, they can click and listen to the same pieces on the website,” Steinhoff said.
“Sera Et Profana” contains many authentic artifacts provided by the Houston Museum of the Fine Arts and the Houston Metropolitan Research Center.
At the front of the exhibit is an antiphon, a chant book of the Divine Office that monks would use for worship. The exhibit then transitions to the chronological changes of sheet music and presents a close resemblance of what we read today.
“Sera Et Profana” has proven to be enlightening for students and music lovers alike.
“The response to the exhibit has been tremendously positive,” Steinhoff said, “all kinds of people, in addition to those who have seen it already, are talking about it.”
Medieval project in the M.D. Anderson Memorial Library. http://t.co/zHiLSOYp
I just want to say that this exhibit is very good. I have checked it out now on two separate occasions during my lunch hour. I have not yet sat and listened to the audio part of the exhibit but I look forward to it.
As a book lover it is a thrill to see the book binder’s tools on display, as well as to read about the process of creating these one of a kind works of art in the days before printing presses. As a music lover, it is engrossing to read about the development of musical notation, something as important to the spread of culture as the written language.
All in all, I think anyone with an interest in music, history, books, art, and/or religious studies would greatly appreciate the exhibit.
My thanks to those who put it together.