ABSTRACT
Women were involved in many aspects of religious and secular musical life during the Middle Ages. While little music composed by women has survived, iconographic, literary, and extant music manuscripts provide evidence that women performed, copied, wrote, and sponsored music. These resources provide valuable insights into scribal copying and performance practices of liturgical music for the Mass and Divine Office in convents. The most prolific female composer of sacred music was Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179), whose music survives in two manuscripts. Some secular courtly music performed by, and, in a few instances, composed by women also survives.
