What Is a Customary?

The medieval practice of the giving of children as oblates to monasteries affords valuable insights into education during the Middle Ages, as well as into the development of pedagogical techniques for teaching the liturgy, Latin, and sacred music to children. Join us for an episode in which Dr. Susan Boynton, Professor of Historical Musicology and Director of Medieval and Renaissance Studies at Columbia University, helps us understand the lives and place of children in medieval monasteries, what they sang in liturgies, and how they learned to sing this repertoire. The conversation also develops into a look at the training of children in cathedral schools.

For more information about Dr. Boynton, see: https://music.columbia.edu/bios/susan-boynton

To buy the book Young Choristers, 650–1700, a book co-edited by Dr. Boynton, visit: https://boydellandbrewer.com/9781843834137/young-choristers-650-1700/ 

For more information about the History and Principles of Sacred Music course being offered this summer at the Catholic Institute of Sacred Music, please visit: https://catholicinstituteofsacredmusic.org/