Tessie Prakas received her PhD from Yale University in 2014, and is now visiting assistant professor in English at Kenyon College. Her areas of expertise are sixteenth- and seventeenth-century British literature, poetry and poetics, devotional writing, music and literature and history of the book. Prakas has been invited to give a talk on verse and printed music:
"'Why do I use my paper, ink, and pen?': Printed Music in Elizabethan England"
In January 1575, Elizabeth I granted a 21-year monopoly for printing polyphonic music to Thomas Tallis and William Byrd. Both staunch Catholics, the pair had nonetheless performed in and written music for the Protestant church for years, readily adapting their choice of texts, and their manner of setting them for vocal performance, to the tastes of various patrons. In this talk, I will suggest that a principally secular collection published by Byrd after Tallis’s death advances a similarly flexible conception of piety to that evident in their collaborative sacred works.
For more information, visit the Literacy Studies @ OSU website.
History of the Book meets regularly to discuss work-in-progress and new publications, and for talks by colleagues and invited speakers. Interested faculty, staff, and students are encouraged to contact the Alan Farmer (English).
