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Medieval Music and Disease with Karen Cook

Episode 115 - September 5, 2023
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Karen Cook (University of Hartford) joins the Infectious Historians to discuss some of her work on medieval music. Karen begins with an overview of medieval music – its purposes, context, instruments and the people who made it. She then moves on to speak about music related to epidemics – which is generally identified through its lyrics – with some analogies to Covid. The conversation then expands to include reception and medievalism, singling out a few video games that have used medieval or medieval-like music, as well as establishing new genres where contemporary pop music receives a “medieval” cover. 

Our Guest

Karen Cook

Associate Professor of Music History – The Hartt School – University of Hartford.

Karen Cook