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Karen Desmond

@karendesmond.bsky.social

180 followers 220 following 31 posts

Medieval Musicologist. Professor of Music, Maynooth U. 🇮🇪 🇪🇺 Music and the moderni, 1300-1350: The ars nova in Theory and Practice (Cambridge, 2018). PI, BROKENSONG (ERC Consolidator Grant, 2023-28) https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/people/karen-desmon

www.maynoothuniversity.ie

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Karen Desmond @karendesmond.bsky.social · 6d

and musical style.

We accept proposals for individual papers of 20 minutes. Please submit a 250-word abstract to <[email protected]>

Karen Desmond @karendesmond.bsky.social · 6d

musical practice and/or the creative process
- The production process for music books (and the roles of individuals, institutions and patrons in the making of music books)
- Documentary/archival evidence for musical communities
- Notational technologies
- Correlations between musical notation

Karen Desmond @karendesmond.bsky.social · 6d

This two-day conference seeks to stimulate discussion centring on the materialities of music-making between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries. While BROKENSONG focuses on Insular polyphonic sources, we welcome comparative perspectives that look beyond Britain

Karen Desmond @karendesmond.bsky.social · 6d

- Notational technologies
- Correlations between musical notation and musical style
We accept proposals for individual papers of 20 minutes. Please submit a 250-word abstract to <[email protected]>

Karen Desmond @karendesmond.bsky.social · 6d

, musical practice and/or the creative process
- The production process for music books (and the roles of individuals, institutions and patrons in the making of music books)
- Documentary/archival evidence for musical communities

Karen Desmond @karendesmond.bsky.social · 6d

and Ireland and/or draw upon non-polyphonic traditions. We invite proposals that engage with any of the following themes in the period c.1150–c.1350:
- Music fragments, their afterlives, and their reconstruction
- The intervention of literate musical culture in communal ritual activities

Karen Desmond @karendesmond.bsky.social · 6d

CFP update! The CFP deadline for the upcoming ERC-BROKENSONG (Maynooth University, Ireland, 15-16 May, 2026),has been extended to Oct 24, 2025. We will cover 2-3 nights' accommodation, and a contribution towards travel. Pls be in touch with questions ahi.maynoothuniversity.ie/brokensong/i...

Call for Papers – BROKENSONG

ahi.maynoothuniversity.ie

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Reposted by Karen Desmond

The Ass is the father of the legs @internethippo.bsky.social · 9d

"We're going to create superintelligence" How about making outlook search work first. How about that

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Karen Desmond @karendesmond.bsky.social · 17d

‘En plein air’ of course - excuse the unnoticed autocorrect above!! here’s the conference webpage and the full title ‘En Plein Air: Soundscapes of Ritual and Festivity in Europe
and beyond from the Middle Ages to the Present’: www.luigiboccherini.org/2024/09/20/e...

En Plein Air: Soundscapes of Ritual and Festivity in Europe and beyond from the Middle Ages to the Present |

www.luigiboccherini.org

Karen Desmond @karendesmond.bsky.social · 17d

Presented yesterday on soundscapes of the alleluya at Worcester Cathedral in the Middle Ages at the En plain air conference in beautiful Siena (second pic is view from open windows in conference rm at U. dI Siena) #brokensong

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Ennius @enniusredloeb.bsky.social · 25d

The elephant in the room....🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘

Bodleian Library Arch. G b.6; Historia naturale di Caio Plinio Secondo, tradocta di lingua latina in fiorentina per Christophoro Landino; 1476 CE; Italy (Venice); f.93v @bodleian.ox.ac.uk

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Karen Desmond @karendesmond.bsky.social · Sep 9

Outside my office window right now

Reposted by Karen Desmond

Rebecca Sutton Koeser @suttonkoeser.bsky.social · Aug 29

I'm very pleased to share my new article on the python library undate, which is an ambitious in-progress effort to make it easier to work with incomplete dates and multiple calendars, building on work from Shakespeare and Company Project, Princeton Geniza Project, etc.
doi.org/10.1017/chr....

Undate: humanistic dates for computation | Computational Humanities Research | Cambridge Core

Undate: humanistic dates for computation - Volume 1

doi.org

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Karen Desmond @karendesmond.bsky.social · Aug 17

Congrats to @maynoothuniversity.ie postdoc Johanna (team member @brokensong2023.bsky.social), awarded a Bodleian Library fellowship! www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/csb/fellowsh...

2025–26 Awarded Visiting Fellowships

Awarded Visiting Fellowships for the Bodleian Libraries, 2025-26

www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Reposted by Karen Desmond

Elaine Treharne @etreharne.bsky.social · Aug 10

Fantastic find. Medieval slate initially scored for music and reused for accounts in Middle English (cost of ink, 2d; repair of King William’s painting, 1/ 2d). (Abbey gatehouse exhibition.)

Medieval slate reused for accounts in Middle English

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Reposted by Karen Desmond

Elizabeth Boyle @thecelticist.bsky.social · Aug 9

If you're in Dublin between now and late October, don't miss the Words on the Wave exhibition at the National Museum on Kildare St. Some of our most important medieval Irish manuscripts are on loan from the Abbey of St Gallen & are back in Ireland for the first time in c. 1200 years. #MedievalSky

A close-up of a decorated initial P, with human and zoomorphic figures, in the early medieval Insular style, from the St Gall Priscian. Some of Priscian's Latin text is visible as are interlinear and marginal glosses in Old Irish.

A close-up of a letter P in a highly decorated and colourful style characteristic of early medieval Insular Gospel books, with dots, geometric designs and zoomorphic figures.

A highly decorative early medieval Irish Gospel book, open at the beginning of the Gospel of John: "In principio erat uerbum ...", with interlace and zoomorphic designs.

Four manuscript fragments, dated to the seventh century, which formed part of the earliest known copy of Isidore of Seville's Etymologiae.

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Reposted by Karen Desmond

Seb Falk @sebfalk.com · Jul 17

Nice to see the Song of Wade featured in the newspapers!

I'm happy to be an "academic sleuth" – but I'm not a "scientist". *Humanities scholars can make discoveries too!*

Brief article in Daily Telegraph - "Chaucer's elvish mystery was 900-year-old typo

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Reposted by Karen Desmond

BROKENSONG @brokensong2023.bsky.social · Jul 14

CFP!! Come to beautiful
@maynoothuniversity.ie
for the #BROKENSONG conference! 14-16 May 2026: 'Fragmented Musical Cultures c.1150–c.1350'. CFP deadline 30 Sept 2025. More info and the full CFP: ahi.maynoothuniversity.ie/brokensong/i...
@erc.europa.eu

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Karen Desmond @karendesmond.bsky.social · Jul 9

I love Hugh Aston - sorry to have missed it!

Reposted by Karen Desmond

Professor Lisa Johnson (known as Lisa Colton) @lisacolton.bsky.social · Jul 8

Signed a publication agreement for an article I've co-authored with @karendesmond.bsky.social & Jared Hartt, for Plainsong & Medieval Music this autumn, based on work we shared two MedRens ago (in Munich 2023). Conferences are vital to making good collaborations and sharing our work!

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Karen Desmond @karendesmond.bsky.social · Jul 9

Totally agree! I learned so much working with you both!

Reposted by Karen Desmond

BROKENSONG @brokensong2023.bsky.social · Jul 2

In early June, Karen traveled to London where #BROKENSONG convened a very productive pre-MEC workshop to move forward on encoding pre-mensural notation in MEI - thanks to all involved! She also presented a paper at the 2025 MEC conference #music-encoding ‪@music-encoding.bsky.social‬

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Reposted by Karen Desmond

Joey Cross @jjjjjjjjjjcross.bsky.social · Jun 2

Can we maybe leave the watermarks off this time guys

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Karen Desmond @karendesmond.bsky.social · May 10

edition.cnn.com/2025/05/09/s...

Medieval tale of Merlin and King Arthur found hiding as a book cover | CNN

Researchers have found pages of a rare medieval manuscript masquerading as a cover and stitched into the binding of another book, according to experts at the Cambridge University Library in England. T...

edition.cnn.com