Could girls sing in the middle ages?

Answer 1

AnswerNo. Nuns did in their services at the nunnery, but not in general services with people as a whole. Women were to be seen and not heard. AnswerIt is clear from medieval music that the women sang at church. The hymn, Victimae Paschali Laudes is antiphonal, with parts sung by men, other parts sung by women, and other parts by a mixed choir.

There is a link to an article on this hymn below, but there were many others like it. I have also included a link to Hildegard of Bingen, a nun who wrote medieval music that is preserved and performed today. She was one of the earliest composers whose music was originally written in fully decipherable notation.

Answer 2

In some places, women might not have been allowed to take part in secular music performances, but certainly there were places where it was considered normal for them to do so.

Empress Theodora, before she married Justinian, was an actress, who performed music on the stage, among other things. She was not the only one in the Byzantine Empire doing so.

In Western Europe, we have little or no records of secular music during the Early Middle Ages for most places. Nevertheless, we know that women were troubadours, and in fact we have records of a number of them in this line of work. There is a word, trovairitz, which is a feminine form for troubadour. There is a link below to an article on trovairitz.

I have seen statements to the effect that women were not allowed to do one thing or another in the Middle Ages, but I have not seen any good documentation on most of these statements. In the Middle Ages, women did most of the same things men did, from being stone masons or carpenters to being knights and monarchs.

There is a link below to a related question on what things medieval women did.

Answer 3

Of course girls could sing.

In fact girls could become troubadours, professional singers. There is an old medieval word, "trobaritz," which designates a professional female singer.

There is a link to trobaritz below, and it has many links to women who were medieval troubadours.

Answer 4

Women sang at home, women sang in church, and women sang as professional entertainers. Just as an example of women singers, there is a link below to an article on trobairitz, the old word for female troubadour.

Answer 5

Yes. Both monks and nuns sang plainsong in Gregorian Chant (in Latin) and novice monks and nuns had to learn to do the same.

Gregorian chant is still being sung today, particularly in European monasteries in France and Germany, both by monks and nuns.

Answer 6

They were nuns or abesses.

Some were mistresses to clergy.

Answer 7

The nuns were in their own services.