Music fragments conference in Maynooth

International scholars of fragmented musical sources gathered in the resplendent St Patrick’s College, Maynooth University for a conference entitled ‘Fragmented musical cultures c.1150–c.1350’, which ran on 15 and 16 May 2026 as part of the European Research Council project BROKENSONG. The conference, generously funded by the European Research Council, was organized by Karen Desmond, Eric Nemarich, Johanna-Pauline Thöne and Inês Trindade. Outside of the sessions, delegates were treated to a visit to the chapel, where John O’Keefe revealed more about the history of the seminary, followed by a showcase of the capabilities and colours of the immense chapel organ. Delegates also collaborated and exchanged ideas over a dinner at Barberstown Castle, Straffan. The venue for the conference and its surroundings were welcoming, and the delegates were greatly appreciative of the hospitality and refreshments provided by the hosts. BROKENSONG is a 5-year research project based at Maynooth University and funded by an European Research Council Consolidator Grant, for which Karen Desmond is the principal investigator. The project’s official title, ‘Polyphonic singing and communities of music writing in medieval Britain and Ireland, c.1150–1350’, encompasses the main angles taken by papers in the conference, spanning palaeographical and codicological analysis, as well as musicological investigation. The project is at its halfway point, running from 2023 to 2028. The sessions had an overarching focus on materiality, which allowed papers that explored a wide variety of sources, all of which are to some extent fragmentary. Sources ranged from new discoveries that will add to the polyphonic repertoire to chant fragments used to unpack new evidence of liturgical rites as well as illustrating arguments about reuse. Other sources included trouvère song and diverse liturgical materials. The focus of the conference on materiality was designed to suggest new lenses through which technologies of music making can be assessed. In the context of medieval song, these technologies could be the making of music books, the use of particular sources in performance or the repurposing of fragmentary sources for other aims, such as in a bookbinding. The conference theme also facilitated discussion about the fragmentary evidence of networks of musical exchange, music literacy in the Middle Ages and the layers of interaction found on a fragment source, especially one containing music. Papers that were focused on chant and monophonic sources engaged with ideas of materiality in a variety of ways, often linked with the context the use (or reuse) of a source. Jemima Bennett unpacked the fragments containing chant that were found in late-medieval Oxford bindings to continue the conversation about the reuse of musical fragments, while Emily Korzeniewski uncovered early examples of pedagogical vocal exercises in a source from San Zeno of Pistoia. The performance evidence from liturgical sources was elucidated by Alison Anstatt’s discussion of the ritual of foot washing as performed by nuns as well as by Eleonora Celora’s tracing of the cult of St Clement through a rhymed office in St Maur des Fossés in France. Materiality in chant sources also centred on themes of notational practice and the way in which this interacts with other aspects of the source. Jennifer Bain (in collaboration with Margot Fassler) introduced a quantitative methodology developed through the large-scale study of South German sources, which will soon enable researchers to date and locate chant sources more closely with the use of a forthcoming database that tracks individual features and differences between neumes across a single source. These tools will allow the palaeographical approach to chant sources with neumes to parallel that of analysing letter forms. Bain’s paper highlighted the importance of fragmentary sources in providing a vast number of samples across institutions to facilitate more in-depth comparison. The sequence repertoire and its notational intricacies were discussed by Jack Stebbing in an analytical deep dive into Laetabundus exsultet fidelis chorus; his presentation, illustrated by performance, showed the way in which the writing of a source is intrinsically linked to the orality and theoretical framework of the musicians interacting with it and how, as a result of this, melodic differences can occur. Turning to sources from France, Áine Palmer highlighted the role of notation in Bien mont amors entrepris, in which a tenor had been added to a monophonic songbook in order to fill space in the manuscript, thus hybridizing the form of both the song and the manuscript itself. Matthew Thomson explored the way in which scribal copying can be examined in the context of its surroundings and how scribes are guided by comparisons between exemplars, their memory and their knowledge of the repertoire when recording the melodic contours of songs. Other prevalent themes that emerged throughout the conference were discovery and reconstruction, especially in polyphonic sources. Mark Everist unveiled a discovery to the conference: a new fragmentary source, now in Berlin. This source raises questions about how books travelled and about cultural exchange in the time of the Black Prince, as well as exploring the implications of English books in a French-ruled Gascony. This session, and others, identified suitable methods for working with sources that had suffered damage or loss and highlighted opportunities for reconstruction. Lisa Colton re-examined evidence about female musicianship and music making in the convents of Sopwell and Wherwell. Exploring further north, Philippa Ovenden reassessed the sources that could link two compositions to Orkney, with historiographical discussions concerning the cult of St Magnus and a possible Orcadian Minorite monastery. Peter Lefferts revealed new discoveries at Lambeth Palace Library, where strips of polyphonic manuscripts had been found reused as sewing guards in a 1480s incunabulum. Jared Hartt presented on a collection of fragments within Oxford, New College MS 362, reconstructing the original gathering structure of what must originally have been a source containing a large number of polyphonic items. The wide range of papers presented at this two-day conference in Maynooth was a welcome reminder that collaboration and curiosity provide the impetus for innovation in the field of medieval and renaissance musicological research on early musical cultures and their sources. The programme facilitated in-depth scrutiny on certain reconstructions of sources, as well as inviting scholars to approach fragmentary manuscripts by using methods they may not have previously considered. The conference brought together established scholars and early-career researchers to further foster a communicative and driven research community that will continue to expand and flourish.