PLAINCHANT, PRESENCE, & THE PROBLEM OF ENCHANTMENT

A Dinner Talk with Prof. Emily Zazulia

When we look at Renaissance polyphony, we often assume the culture was fundamentally “enchanted,” full of hidden meanings just waiting to be found. But what if, in this context, “enchantment” is just a modern scholarly tool?

Professor Zazulia will argue that this intense search for hidden symbolic meaning is less about the 15th century and more about our own modern scholarly desires. Enchantment operates as a modern heuristic that provides explanatory closure where the historical evidence suggests messier, more contingent practices. We’ve inherited a specific interpretive framework, heavily influenced by thinkers like Huizinga and the art-historical methods of Panofsky, that expects music to operate by fixed symbolic rules. But by setting aside the assumption of “enchantment,” we find a richer truth: the music’s historical function was often about tolerated tension and juxtaposition. Composers and listeners were comfortable presenting the familiar chant in a new context, allowing sacred and secular, old and new, to coexist without recourse to symbolic transformation.

This event is open to the general program. Dinner will be provided. RSVP is required.

Date: Thursday, November 13, 2025
Time: 5:30-6:45PM
Location: Berkeley Institute (2134 Allston Way, 2nd floor)