Music, Ceremony and Display in 15th-century St Albans, England - 30/10/25, 11:00am, Ó Riada Hall, UCC

28 Oct 2025

Happening On 30/10/2025

This presentation will examine a selection of musical and documentary records relevant to the abbey of St Albans, a Benedictine foundation twenty miles from London.

The abbey’s intellectual climate was ambitious and outward facing, with very frequent visits from elite patrons and high-ranking officials from England and abroad. The rich historical accounts of St Albans, found in its confraternity book and across various chronicles, have been largely overlooked as sources through which we might better understand the role of religious music in English society.  

This presentation will outline some of the key musical activities at St Albans, where music played a crucial role in the rich devotional culture of town. St Albans was home to several churches, smaller but politically important monasteries (such as the nunneries of Sopwell and St Mary de Pré), and anchoritic cells, and was dominated by the abbey and its monastic community, which invested in the purchase of organs and the hire of specialist musicians in order to compete with sites at Canterbury.  

I will especially focus on reference to monophonic and polyphonic song. Chronicles mention ceremonies, visits by the abbey’s many patrons, confraternity celebrations, and Abbot Wheathamstead’s purchase of organs and new books. I aim to show that the selection of music for confraternity joining ceremony was not only appropriate to the specific feast days with which it might be liturgically associated, but sometimes held wider social significance for the abbey or its visitors, who included noble women. My discussion further considers whether a performance of John Dunstaple’s motet Albanus roseo rutilat / Quoque ferendus / Albanus Domini is signalled in the chronicle, and will connect this piece to the creative context of Robert Fayrfax (d.1521) who composed music on the same chant tenor. 

Professor Lisa Colton is Head of the Department of Music at the University of Liverpool. Her research interests are focused on English and French music of the later Middle Ages. Lisa is also Reviews Editor for the journal Early Music. 

Prof. Colton is presenting remotely. Please join us in the Ó Riada Hall or on Teams via this link.