"Henry T. Drummond is a postdoctoral researcher at the KU Leuven and a participant in the cross-institutional ""Sound of Music"" FWO-funded project, which analyses and valorizes large bodies of liturgical chant repertory through digital technology. He completed his DPhil in Music in 2018 at the University of Oxford. His research interests include vernacular song of the later Middle Ages, musical mobility across medieval Europe, music and liturgy, and digital humanities."
In this pioneering account of the Cantigas de Santa Maria, Henry T. Drummond brings diverse disciplinary perspectives to bear on the craft, meaning, experience, and function of song in the time of Alfonso X. The results are a deeply humanised and historicised account of the Cantigas, illuminating in stunning detail how songs were powerful instruments of community expression. As well as inspiring future studies of the Cantigas, this outstanding book will undoubtedly be a vital point of reference for anyone working on medieval song. * Emma Dillon, Professor of Music, King's College London * A groundbreaking study, this nuanced and subtle analysis provides new insight into the Cantigas' musical-poetic structures: Henry T. Drummond illuminates how aspects of rhetoric, rhyme, and cyclical form promoted the ideals of Alfonso's court. This book is invaluable for scholars interested in aspects of narrative song and its potential to shape the politics of crusade, conquest, and conversion. * Marisa Galvez, Professor of French and Italian, Stanford University *