A Paradise of Priests
Subtitle
Singing the Civic and Episcopal Hagiography of Medieval Liège
Medieval Liège was the seat of a vast diocese in northwestern Europe and a city of an exceptional number of churches, clergymen, and church musicians. Recognized as a priestly paradise, the city accommodated as many masses each day as Rome. In this volume, musicologist Catherine Saucier examines the music of religious worship in Liège and reveals within the liturgy and ritual a civic function by which local clerics promoted the holy status of their city. Analyzing hagiographic and historical writings, religious art, and sung ceremonies relevant to the city's genesis, destruction, and eventual rebirth, Saucier uncovers richly varied ways in which liégeois clergymen fused music with text, image, and ritual to celebrate the city's sacred episcopal origins and saintly persona.
Bio
Catherine Saucier, associate professor of musicology at Arizona State University and affiliate faculty of the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, holds a PhD and MA in music history from The University of Chicago and a BM in cello performance from Indiana University. Saucier specializes in late-medieval sacred music, hagiography and city culture in the Low Countries.
