Donnerstag, 4. Dezember – 18:30 Uhr – Institut für Musikwissenschaft, Hörsaal 1

The idea of music and war in the Renaissance evokes the sound of trumpets and drums on the battlefield, songs imitating the noise and signals of war, and motets celebrating the victor. Yet, the musical landscape of war far exceeded the confines of combat and its imitation and commemoration. Towards the end of the 15th century, polyphonic chapels assumed an increasingly active role in military campaigns, often joining princes on long and arduous journeys abroad. They prayed for their patrons in military camps, marched in victory processions, and risked their personal safety in the service of the battle entourage. This talk explores the origins and transformations of this practice in the years leading up to and including the early Italian wars (1494–1515) and sheds light on the importance of the devotional and ritual contributions of singers to Renaissance military campaigns.

Deanna Pellerano is a scholar of late-medieval and Renaissance warfare and is now a post-doctoral researcher at the KU Leuven with the project “Hearing War in Valois Burgundy 1363–1477.” She pursued her doctoral studies at the Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz with a dissertation focused on the involvement of the singers of the French chapel during the early-Italian Wars (1494–1515).