It’s the year 1183. You are making a trip along the pilgrim road to Santiago de Compostella from Paris, France. Your route will take you through Paris, Orleans, Tours, Poitiers, Angely, Saintes, Bordeaux, Leon, and finally Compostella. Choose FIVE of the cities along the route to highlight.
Your assignment is to write about your experience, with special attention to the music you hear along the way. Focus on the churches or courts you’ll be stopping at, not necessarily in terms of architecture, but rather the significance of the saints and musical practices they represent. Cite any sources found there. You may format the project in any way you see fit: perhaps as a diary, a series of letters, or a simple narrative. You may include drawings or other aids for the reader if you’d like. Word count should be at least 1500(the equivalent of about one double-spaced page per city.)
Make sure to incorporate experiences with Notre Dame polyphony, Aquitanian polyphony, and vernacular music among others.
Maybe you’ll run into Bernart de Eleanor of Aquitaine on leave from her imprisonment from Henry II !
Use the Codex Calixtinus as a guide for your travels. in corporate some details of life on the road at the time, and try to put yourself in the shoes of someone on the road, hearing this music with a fresh ear.
Translation of the Codex Calixtinus:
https://sites.google.com/site/caminodesantiagoproject/
