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MUS31490

Academic Year 2025/2026

Music and Sexuality in Early European Musical Cultures (MUS31490)

Subject:
Music
College:
Arts & Humanities
School:
Music
Level:
3 (Degree)
Credits:
10
Module Coordinator:
Dr Matthew Thomson
Trimester:
Spring
Mode of Delivery:
On Campus
Internship Module:
No
How will I be graded?
Letter grades

Curricular information is subject to change.

Many medieval and early modern European cultures saw music, and especially song, as being intricately connected with sexual desire and romantic love. This course explores the particularly intense links between music and sexuality found in two repertoires stretching between the twelfth and seventeenth centuries: the twelfth- and thirteenth-century love songs of the troubadours and trouvères and seventeenth-century opera. The module will therefore begin by examining different scholarly models for characterising how sexuality and sexual identity were understood in pre-modern European societies, as well as for understanding how music and sexuality are linked. Students will be encouraged to weigh up the benefits and problems of these different approaches. We will then apply these approaches to each of the two repertoires, mixing analysis of primary sources and individual songs with examination of broader cultural trends and societal changes. The first session of each week (2 hours) will introduce students to the repertoires under consideration and broad historical approaches to music and sexuality. In the second session (1 hour), we will analyse primary sources, individual songs, and operatic scenes, all of which will be provided in English translation.

This module uses the yellow ("Check") mode of the College of Arts and Humanities "traffic light system" with regard to the use of AI (see https://www.ucd.ie/artshumanities/study/aifutures/trafficlightsystem/). Specifically, its use for translation and brainstorming are permitted (see the webpage for details). However, each use must be documented in an appendix (indicating which AI app was used, the date of access, and citing the specific prompt(s)).

About this Module

Learning Outcomes:

– Explain and appraise different current scholarly models for:
o characterising pre-modern understandings of sexuality.
o analysing the interactions between music and sexuality.
– Analyse primary sources (in English) and summarise the evidence they provide about historical understandings of sexuality and its relation to music.
– Analyse individual songs or operatic scenes, evaluating how they inflect our understanding of the relationship between music and sexuality.
– Evaluate the connections between music and sexuality in pre-modern European musical cultures from the twelfth to the seventeenth centuries.

Indicative Module Content:

Week 1: Understanding Pre-Modern Sexuality and its Links to Music.

Troubadours and Trouvères

Week 2: Representation: Depicting sexual desire in song.
Week 3: Representation.
Week 4: Regulation: Managing musical and sexual behaviour.
Week 5: Scripting: Using song in real-life desiring encounters.
Week 6: Thinking about Sexuality in Troubadour and Trouvère Song: Preparing Essay Abstracts and Presentations


Seventeenth-Century Opera
Week 7: Monday: Introduction to Seventeenth-Century Opera Thursday: Presentations on Troubadour and Trouvère Primary Sources.
(Weeks 8 & 9: 2 weeks of study period)
Week 10: Representation: Desire on the operatic stage.
Week 11: Regulation: Sexualised Women on and off the Stage
Week 12: Scripting: Opera and society
Week 13: Thinking about Sexuality in Seventeenth-Century Opera: Preparing Essay Abstracts and Presentations

Week 14: Monday – Bank holiday for Easter Monday; Thursday – Presentations on Seventeenth-Century Opera Primary Sources

Student Effort Hours:
Student Effort Type Hours
Lectures

36
Specified Learning Activities

96
Autonomous Student Learning

118
Total

250

Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
Lecture and seminar teaching with extensive opportunities for discussion.
Group analysis of primary sources.

Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Not applicable to this module.
 

Assessment Strategy
Description Timing Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade In Module Component Repeat Offered
Participation in Learning Activities: Participation in class discussions and preparation of set reading texts. This will be assessed through students submitting one summary of a class discussion per week to Brightspace. Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 6, Week 7, Week 8, Week 9, Week 10, Week 11, Week 12, Week 14 Standard conversion grade scale 40% No
10
 No
Assignment(Including Essay): Proposal for essay topic. If the essay is on the Troubadours and Trouvères, this is to be submitted in Week 7. If it is on Seventeenth-Century Opera, it is to be submitted in Week 14. Week 7, Week 14 Standard conversion grade scale 40% No
10
 No
Assignment(Including Essay): Essay (2,000 to 3,000 words) arising from the course. Week 15 Standard conversion grade scale 40% No
40
 No
Individual Project: Individual presentation on a primary source. Troubadour and Trouvère primary sources: week 7. Seventeenth-century opera sources: week 14. Week 7, Week 14 Standard conversion grade scale 40% No
40
 No

Carry forward of passed components
Yes
 

Resit In Terminal Exam
Summer No
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 

Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, on an activity or draft prior to summative assessment
• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment
• Peer review activities

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Each student will produce both a presentation and an essay, each addressing a different section of the topic. So, if they present on one of the troubadour and trouvère sources studied in Weeks 1-4, they should write their essay on seventeenth-century opera, as studied in weeks 7-13, and vice versa. Our sessions in Week 6 will provide guidance on the preparation for the essay abstract or presentation on the troubadour and trouvère part of the topic. In week 7, students will submit either their essay abstract or their choice of primary source on which to present. Presentations on troubadour and trouvère sources will then happen in Week 7. Our sessions in Week 13 will provide guidance on the preparation for the essay abstract or presentation on the seventeenth-century opera part of the topic. In week 14, students will submit either their essay abstract or their choice of primary source on which to present. Presentations on troubadour and trouvère sources will then happen in Week 14. In both cases, students will receive formative feedback on their essay proposal.

Cusick, Suzanne G. Francesca Caccini at the Medici Court: Music and the Circulation of Power. 1st ed. Vol. 156. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009;2015;.
Heller, Wendy. Emblems of Eloquence: Opera and Women's Voices in Seventeenth-Century Venice. 1st ed. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003;2004;.
Leach, Elizabeth Eva. "Do Trouvère Melodies Mean Anything?" Music Analysis 38, no. 1-2 (2019): 3-46.
Leach, Elizabeth Eva. Medieval Sex Lives : The Sounds of Courtly Intimacy on the Francophone Borders. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2023.
McClary, Susan. Desire and Pleasure in Seventeenth-Century Music. 1st ed. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012. doi:10.1525/california/9780520247345.001.0001.
Karras, Ruth Mazo. Sexuality in Medieval Europe: Doing Unto Others. London; New York;: Routledge, 2005.
Kay, Sarah. Subjectivity in Troubadour Poetry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
Quinlan, Meghan. "When Courtly Song Invades History: Lyricizing Blanche De Castille." In Gender and Voice in Medieval French Literature and Song, edited by Rachel May Golden and Katherine Kong. 1st ed., 93: University Press of Florida, 2021.
Rosand, Ellen. Opera in Seventeenth-Century Venice: The Creation of a Genre. Berkeley, Calif: University of California Press, 1991.
Rosenberg, Samuel N, Margaret Louise Switten, and Gérard Le Vot. “Songs of the troubadours and trouvères : an anthology of poems and melodies.” New York ; Garland, 1998.
Rosow, Lois. "Power and Display: Music in Court Theatre." In The Cambridge History of Seventeenth-Century Music, edited by Carter, Tim and John Butt, 197-240. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
Thomson, Matthew P. "Song, Dance, and Sex: The Social Role of the Carole in Thirteenth-Century Clerical Thought and Vernacular Literature." Music & Letters 105, no. 2 (2024): 153-176.

Timetabling information is displayed only for guidance purposes, relates to the current Academic Year only and is subject to change.
Spring Lecture Offering 1 Week(s) - 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 Mon 10:00 - 11:50
Spring Lecture Offering 1 Week(s) - 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 Wed 10:00 - 10:50
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