Medieval Music in Comics: between historical accuracy and visual recreation
Keywords:
Música medieval; Cómic; Iconografía musical; Instrumentos musicales; Patrimonio culturalAbstract
The representation of medieval music in contemporary visual media, such as comics, constitutes a significant resource for the transmission of cultural heritage. However, its analysis from a musicological and iconographic perspective has received little scholarly attention. The aim of this study is to examine the narrative and visual strategies used to depict medieval music in a selection of comics published between 1937 and 2020. The methodology combines an iconographic analysis of instruments, contexts, and graphic resources with a review of their narrative function, based on a corpus of six titles that include both historical fiction and educational works. The results reveal two predominant trends: a realistic approach based on documentary sources, and a symbolic, pedagogical approach that is more flexible in its historical interpretation. The recurrent presence of visual clichés (such as lute-playing troubadours or singing monks) is observed, alongside notable accuracy in the depiction of instruments such as the psaltery, vihuela, hurdy-gurdy, and portative organ. Musical notation and theory are scarcely represented, with music instead portrayed primarily as a social and cultural phenomenon. The study concludes that comics are an effective medium for recreating and disseminating medieval music, capable of combining historical accuracy with narrative creativity. Furthermore, it highlights their potential as a tool for teaching and promoting the history of music.
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