Alejandro Planchart, professor emeritus of music at the University of California at Santa Barbara, lectures on the evolving concept of the composer in the 15th and 16th centuries at 7:30 pm on Jan. 29 in Garrison Theater of the Scripps College Performing Arts Center, 231 E. 10th St. This free event is open to the public.
In his lecture, Planchart examines how men in the 15th and 16th centuries who we now perceive to be medieval composers were actually not perceived by contemporaries as “composers,” but rather were viewed as “clergy men first, men of letters second and singers or musicians third” – with the exception of Guillaume Du Fay (1397-1474).
Planchart studied composition, piano and harpsichord at Yale University before receiving his doctorate degree from Harvard University. He has worked as a composer, conductor and arranger in New York and New Haven, Conn. He is the recipient of the Morse Faculty Fellowship and the Guggenheim Fellowship, among others. Planchart is the author of “The Repertory of Tropes at Winchester” (Princeton University Press: 1977).
This event is part of the Scripps College Humanities Institute’s spring lecture series, “Music, Dance, Ritual and Belief: Transforming Societies.” Distinguished artists will examine the interplay of music and dance in ritual customs and beliefs. For more information, please call (909) 621-8237 or visit scripps-staging.skybox0.com/hi.