Abstract

The essay develops reflections arising from the guided listening of the "Gregorian" Alleluia "Dies sanctificatus" (in die Nativitatis Domini, Admissam in die) and some pieces related to it in the Medieval and Renaissance tradition. Intended as a contribution to the preparatory phase of a series of lessons designed for university arts students - that is, those with an adequate historical cultural background but without any specific professional training in music or musicology - it should not be understood as an "ideal approach" ready for immediate use. Instead, this is a presentation of suggestions and ideas (a sort of "teacher's guide"), aiming to bring out the maximum number of inter and trans disciplinary links and connections. Its major aim is to lead students to see music as an essential part of cultural expression in general. This claim is to be understood not only in the sense that music is part of culture and therefore reflects/determines the nature of the culture of a particular time, era and place (students and teachers are, on the whole, ready to accept this without any difficulty) but also in the sense that music is a way towards an understanding of other cultural phenomena (something of which students and teachers are much less aware).