Lisa Marie Colton
Dr Lisa Colton directs the Centre for the Study of Music, Culture and Identity (MuGI) at the University of Huddersfield. Her research focuses on intersections between Western music and gender within diverse chronological contexts. Lisa's work deals with the history of medieval English and French music, source studies, song analysis and interpretation, women composers, the representation of female musicians, and questions of historiography.
Subjects: Music
Education
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PhD in Music, University of York, 2004
MA in Historical Musicology, University of York, 1999
BMus (Hons) Music, University of Huddersfield, 1998
Areas of Research / Professional Expertise
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Musicology, editing, medieval music, archival studies, paleography, early music.
Personal Interests
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Lisa enjoys singing in choirs and playing early music instruments such as the bass viol.
Websites
Books
Articles
Languishing for provenance: Zelo tui langueo
Published: Nov 10, 2011 by Early Music
Authors: Lisa Colton
Subjects:
Music
Explores the evidence for women singing polyphonic vocal music in England in the later Middle Ages, and reassesses the provenance of a motet (Zelo tui langueo) from early 14th-century East Anglia.
The Female Exotic: Tradition, Innovation & Authenticity in the Music of Weir
Published: Jun 06, 2010 by Contemporary Music Review
Authors: Lisa Colton
Subjects:
Music
Judith Weir's music embraces the unusual, from libretti drawing on the medieval past to fantastic narratives set within diverse stylistic frames. Her musical language has been praised and criticised for its versatility and humour. Weir's music seems tied to the musical past, but in ways so divergent between pieces that critics struggle to engage with it as fully as with the music of other British composers of recent decades.
A Unique Source of English Tablature from 17th-Century Huddersfield
Published: Jan 01, 2010 by Music & Letters
Authors: Lisa Colton
Subjects:
Music
This article describes a previously undocumented source of English music dating from the middle of the seventeenth century. The musical content comprises four short popular tunes, set to simple bass lines. The significance of the source lies in its notation, which, it is argued, is a unique form of keyboard tablature whose melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic details are largely recoverable. It is also suggested that the music was copied by a learner under the supervision of her music tutor.
The Articulation of Virginity in the Medieval Chanson de Nonne
Published: Oct 09, 2008 by Journal of the Royal Musical Association
Authors: Lisa Colton
Subjects:
Music
The chanson de nonne presents stereotypical images of young women whose bodies and voices are trapped within the confines of a nunnery. Close examination of the architectural metaphors used to describe virginity and chastity in the Middle Ages allows comparisons to be made between the structures - metaphorical, musical and textual - that held fictitious nuns within the frame of the clerical imaginations at the centre of thirteenth-century motet production.
Music in pre-Reformation York: a new source and some thoughts on the York Masses
Published: Apr 27, 2003 by Plainsong and Medieval Music
Authors: Lisa Colton
Subjects:
Music
Ever since Hugh Baillie and Philippe Oboussier's pioneering study of York, Borthwick Institute MS Mus 1, better known as the York Masses, it has been generally accepted that its compositions, if not the choirbook itself, originated elsewhere than York. The evidence is reassessed here with regard to an important new source.