April 7, 2021
By: Franco LaTona
The Harry Ransom Center awarded Butler School of Music Professor Luisa Nardini along with two graduate students, Kyrie Bouressa and Andrea Klassen, a fellowship for the 2021-22 academic year. The group is tasked with cataloging and indexing Chant Manuscripts from the medieval period.
“Through our work, the content of these extraordinary books will be available to scholars and artists worldwide, which will enable new discoveries,” Nardini said.
These manuscripts, she added, will give the research team a unique glimpse into the lives, values and culture of the people who made them.
Andrea Klassen, a Ph.D. student in the Butler School’s musicology department, and one of two student researchers working on the project, said she got her first taste of manuscript work indexing Dysart 1, a 15th century antiphoner, in 2016.
"I fell in love with physical manuscripts,” Klassen said. “It helps me feel connected with history in a way that just reading about it doesn’t quite do.”
Kyrie Bouressa, an M.A. student also in the Butler School’s musicology department, said as an Austin native, she’s already visited the Harry Ransom Center many times and developed a broad interest in its materials. So, when Nardini approached her with this opportunity, the decision was clear.
“Getting to interact with the center with my interest in Chant, manuscripts, and the liturgy of the dead in one swoop? Let’s go!” Bouressa said.
Nardini will focus primarily on Italian manuscripts, while Klassen and Bouressa will look into German and Spanish manuscripts, respectively.