Pre-1600 music listening: A methodological approach

Understanding of the listening process is currently still in its infancy, in spite of years of research based on modern listeners. It is therefore only natural that the methodological obstacles confronting research into pre1600 listening processes and practices may seem insurmountable. They are indeed formidable. Following are some ideas meant to enhance methods for studying past listening practices, not in their isolated particularity but from within the richness and complexity that characterize their cultural historical position.