The Laboratory of Music-medieval Studies is a research institution and educational department of the Faculty of Culture and Arts at Ivan Franko National University of Lviv. It was founded in June, 30 2023 to enhance the scientific interest and research in the field of medieval music with a prospective integration into an international musicological discourse. Additional purpose was a compilation of the thematic works and editions, placed here, for educational courses of humanities curriculum in the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv.
The foundation of the Laboratory is an important step in revivification of the university musicological department established by the renowned polish researcher Adolf Chybiński in 1912. The department was based on German principles of musicological education, that scientist acquired in Munich University, which was grounded on a special attention to the sources. That is why Chybiński himself was so interested in medieval studies, and later nurtured the pleiad of internationally distinguished musicologists. Today, this approach corresponds with the aims of the Laboratory, namely:
- to create the scientific basis for research in the field of Ukrainian medieval studies,
- to deepen the knowledge of the history of Ukrainian music in its different periods and in relation to the Greek-Byzantine and Western European cultural traditions,
- to promote musical manuscripts and early editions by their digitalization,
- to compile the electronic library of music-medieval research materials,
- to publish scientific papers and methodology articles for educational purposes,
- to engage students and young researchers into the scientific work,
- to integrate Ukrainian medieval musicology into an international discourse.
In the collaboration with the department of musicology and choral arts of Ivan Franko National University, the audio-visual library of sacred monody and Ukrainian sacred music of different periods will be created. Thus, we will be able to share the archival materials with the world and incorporate them into curriculums.
The long-term objective is to facilitate the comprehensive understanding of Ukrainian music history, formed on early musical examples and their artistic transformations.