Sounding the Middle Ages: A Cinematic Chronotope

Abstract

Abstract:This article explores the strategies used in movies to recreate the sound of the Middle Ages. The musical elements that our culture chooses for identifying the past and their reasons for those choices are an interesting point to start this investigation. Bakhtin's notion of "chronotope" is useful for discovering the musical signs of "medievalness"; indeed, the sources for authenticity are not the "historical" sources but the musical paradigm defined before the Second World War.