Known Unknowns: Expanding the Cantus Database

Sponsoring Organization(s)

Cantus: A Database for Latin Ecclesiastical Chant

Organizer Name

Debra Lacoste

Organizer Affiliation

Univ. of Waterloo

Presider Name

Jennifer Bain

Presider Affiliation

Dalhousie Univ.

Paper Title 1

Cantus in the Wild: Database Students Tangle with Chant

Presenter 1 Name

Michael L. Norton; Sydney Edwards; Kathleen Penney

Presenter 1 Affiliation

James Madison Univ.; James Madison Univ.; James Madison Univ.

Paper Title 2

Gregorian Analytics: Algorithms for Late Medieval Saints' Offices

Presenter 2 Name

Kate Helsen; Mark Daley

Presenter 2 Affiliation

Western Univ.; Western Univ.

Paper Title 3

Prioritizing Graduals for the Cantus Database: Preliminary Considerations for the Selection of Sources

Presenter 3 Name

Sarah Ann Long

Presenter 3 Affiliation

Michigan State Univ.

Start Date

12-5-2018 3:30 PM

Session Location

Schneider 1245

Description

What can you do with Cantus data? This session proposes 1) to demonstrate some of the new directions towards which the Cantus Database is moving, guided by the Cantus research team, and 2) to explore the ways that Cantus Database chant records and metadata have been used by others, some that we have expected and others that we did not realize were possible.

As the database ventures into new repertories of chant, including Graduals for the Mass and liturgies that are not “Gregorian” (i.e., Old-Hispanic, Old-Roman, and Ambrosian, for example), academics and non-academics alike are finding new and useful ways to manipulate the data records to serve a variety of purposes, from computer science projects to public exhibitions of chant manuscripts to uncovering “unknown” melodies hidden within polyphonic compositions of the Renaissance. These varied usages of the database inspire us to expand both our holdings and our concept of who we might serve, that is, who our “public” might be.

Debra S. Lacoste