The Folded Map: Polyphony and the Representation of the World

My doctoral project examines polyphonic repertoire as a site where broader epistemic concerns are negotiated. Focusing on notation and encoded compositional practices—two genre-defining traits—it approaches Western polyphony not as an isolated art form but as a shared discourse embedded in debates about knowledge and representation. By following specific notational and compositional problems across multiple periods, I will trace points of resonance between polyphonic music, developments in visual perspective and early scientific models of physical reality. In doing so I hope to expose polyphony’s role in curating provisionally coherent world pictures over the course of early modernity. I’ll apply this framing reflexively to my own practice, creating an experimental workspace in which notational tensions are reactivated. This project adopts a critical, practice-based methodology, working directly with historical modes of representation and distributed authorship—often smoothed over in modern performance—to reopen important questions about musical ontology.