Medieval Books - Page 3

Performing Medieval Music Drama

Audrey Ekdahl Davidson, Clifford Davidson, Mich.) Society for Old Music (Kalamazoo

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Words and Music in the Middle Ages: Song, Narrative, Dance and Drama, 1050-1350 (Cambridge Studies in Music)

John Stevens

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Editorial Review:

This book examines the relation of words and music in England and France during the three centuries following the Norman Conquest. The basic material of the study includes the chansons of the troubadours and trouvères and the varied Latin songs of the period. In addition to these 'lyric' forms, the author discusses the relations of music and poetry in dance-song, in narrative and in the ecclesiastical drama. Professor Stevens examines the ready-made, often unconscious, and misleading assumptions we bring to the study and performance of early music. In particular he affirms the importance of Number, in more than one sense, as a clue to the 'aesthetic' of the greater part of repertoire, to the relation of words and melody. and to the baffling problem of their rhythmic interpretation. This is the first wide-ranging study of words and music in this period in any language. It will be essential reading for scholars of the music and the literature of medieval Europe and will provide a basic and comprehensive introduction to the repertoire for students.

Music in Late Medieval Bruges (Oxford Monographs on Music)

Reinhard Strohm

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Music as History 5 out of 5 stars.
10 of 11 people found this review helpful.

I'm shocked to find this fascinating book out of print and selling used for outlandish prices. If my review intrigues you, you'll have to turn to your local library for help.

Musicologists and performers of Renaissance music will know of this book already and be aware of its contents. That's as it should; much of what Strohm offers is quite specialized, and his analyses of musical forms will not be intelligible to non-musical readers. But there's another larger side to this important study, which I think might be of interest to anyone who likes to read social history.

Bruges in the late Middle Ages, or Renaissance if you prefer, was one of the nurseries of the so-called Franco-Flemish school of composition, which spread its influence to every corner of western Europe in the late 14th and the 15th Centuries. The best known of the Franco-Flemish musical mafia - Josquin, Ockeghem, Isaac, etc. - spent most of their careers elsewhere, but at least one great composer stayed close to Bruges, Jacob Obrecht, and his biography is recounted in Strohm's book.

What makes "Music in Late Medieval Bruges" potentially interesting to non-musicians is Strohm's presentation of the niche music occupied in the society of a prosperous Medieval city. Strohm discusses why, where, and when music was performed, not only in the churches but in all public fetes and holidays, in ceremonies of diplomacy and statecraft, in guild affairs, and in private life. Bruges, like most important urban centers, employed town musicians, both singers and instrumentalists. Many of the powerful guilds that ran the city's economy also had associations with specific intrumentalists, both players and makers. Likewise, the neighborhoods of the city joined together, often across economic lines, in religious confraternities, each of which had special devotions in side chapels of the cathedrals for which they provided music, either by their own involvement or by commissioning professionals such as Obrecht.

Earlier musicologist had seldom attributed much importance to the role of the urban "middle class" in the development of sophisticated music. It was all the Church, according to preconceptions. This conception was particularly strong in relation to the period before music printing, that is, before 1500, since most of the preserved manuscripts came from churchly sources. Generally, musicologists assumed that town musicians and instrumentalists were largely musically illiterate and had little influence on the great composers. The studies by Strohm, Blake Wilson, and others, of the actual musical life of late Medieval communities like Bruges have complicated those assumptions, suggesting that lay people and the musicians associated with their activities provided major musical impetus to the growth of music.

Music and musical culture are not isolated aspects of Medieval history. The study of music's role in guild and confraternity life gives focus to studies of social structures and community values. The technology of music, and the economic infrastructurse that supported music, are also excellent pathways to understanding the material life of late Medieval cities. By being very specific, Strohm makes the whole texture of Medieval history more immediate and plausible. That's an approach to history that I prefer at large: if you want to grasp American history from 1870 to 1970, study baseball; you'll learn about urbanization, segregation, statistics and corporate law, and a wealth of other tangible details. If you really want to understand Ren and Med, stop reading about the squabbles of dynasties and study music.

Editorial Review:

Though many have written on the musical achievements of the Franco-Flemish school, this book is the first to show how the artists and composers of Bruges worked side by side to shape their acoustic and visual environment and to express their fellow citizens' spiritual needs in art. By combining the methods of modern musicology with those of local historiography, Strohm vividly recreates the music of 14th- and 15th-century Flanders in its socioeconomic context, from the pageants and minstrelsy of the court to popular entertainments and the earliest public concerts.

The Rise of European Music, 1380-1500

Reinhard Strohm

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Editorial Review:

This is a detailed and comprehensive survey of music in the late middle ages and early Renaissance. By limiting its scope to the 120 years which witnessed perhaps the most dramatic expansion of our musical heritage, the book responds, in the 1990s, to the tremendous increase in specialised research and public awareness of that period. Three of the four main Parts (I, II, IV) describe the development of polyphony and its cultural contexts in many European countries, from the successors of Machaut (d. 1377) to the achievements of Josquin des Prez and his contemporaries working in Renaissance Italy around 1500. Part III, by contrast, illustrates the musical life of the institutions, and musical practices outside the realm of composed polyphony that were traditional and common all over Europe. The book proposes fresh views in each chapter, discussing dozens of musical examples adducing well-known and hitherto unknown documents, and referring to and evaluating the most recent scholarship in the field.

The Motet in the Age of Du Fay (New Perspectives in Music History and Criticism)

Julie E. Cumming

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Editorial Review:

During the lifetime of Guillaume Du Fay (c. 1400-1474) the motet underwent a profound transformation. Because of the protean nature of the motet during this period, problems of definition have always stood in the way of a full understanding of this crucial shift. Through a comprehensive survey of the surviving repertory, Julie Cumming shows that the motet is best understood on the level of the subgenre. She employs new ideas about categories taken from cognitive psychology and evolutionary theory to illuminate the process by which the subgenres of the motet arose and evolved. One important finding is the nature and extent of the crucial role that English music played in the genre's transformation. Cumming provides a close reading of many little-known pieces; she also shows how Du Fay's motets were the product of sophisticated experimentation with generic boundaries.

Studies in Medieval Music Theory and the Early Sequence (Collected Studies, 580)

Richard L. Crocker

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Editorial Review:

A collection of articles explaining two different aspects of medieval music. The studies address the fundamental problems relating to the history of ancient and medieval music theory, and search for the most appropriate technical concepts and tonal structures with which to hear and understand medieval music. The articles also reflect the author's study of manuscript materials and musical reperatory, style and form, and include "The Troping Hypothesis", a renowned musicological exercise in deconstruction. In all cases the volume investigates basic questions relating to the meaning in music and the writing of music.

Medieval Instrumental Dances (Music, Scholarship and Performance)

Timothy J. McGee

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

I love this book. 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I'm no scholar, just an ameteur musician and early music enthusiast. I love this book. The tunes are set in easy to play keys and notated much more sensibly than other arrangments I've seen. His endnotes are also pretty good, of course more information and commentary on each piece is always welcome. The sprial binding also makes it easy to use and perform from.

Great buy 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This is a very nice addition to the very hard to find medieval repertoire. All the known instrumental pieces of music are in this book. I have some reserve on some rythmic choices made by the author. Nevertheless, this is a must have book for any medieval music lover.

Patterns in Play: A Model for Text Setting in the Early French Songs of Guillaume Dufay (American Musicological Society Monographs)

Graeme M. Boone

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Editorial Review:

The relationship between text and music is a central issue in fifteenth-century music studies. Decades of research and performance have failed to provide clear answers to the most basic questions, such as which notes go with which syllables and why. Patterns in Play focuses on the early French songs of Guillaume Dufay and proposes a basis for determining some rules of common procedure for interpreting both underlay and style.

 

Graeme M. Boone examines questions of rhythm and declamation, considering mensuration, linguistic and poetic prosody, and prosody in song. The first three chapters comprise a set of discussions preliminary to close rhythmic analysis of Dufay’s texted song melodies. Beginning with mensural rhythm and proceeding to poetics and the relationship between Dufay’s poetic and musical rhythms and musical declamation, Boone examines the musical features of rhythm, melody, tonal organization, counterpoint, text setting, and text expression. Offering fresh insight into the issues he raises, Boone clarifies the relationship between underlay and style and provides a better understanding of the technical and aesthetic issues that Dufay and other composers faced in weaving their patterns of song.

The Archaeology of Music in Ancient China: 2,000 Years of Acoustical Experimentation 1400 B.C.-A.D. 750

Fritz A. Kuttner

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Early Music History: Volume 11: Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Music

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Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Nice, but pricey 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

For early music scholars like myself, a book like this can be invaluable. Early music is hardly a subject that merits sales at the top of the best-seller list, and so any book dealing with this fascinating field is a pearl beyond price. In this one, the essays are clear and readable, and the information in them can be vital for a scholar seeking the facts.

Yet this book - an average-sized volume (327 pages, including the index) containing only a few essays - was priced new at $160! That's a bit much - and, to my mind, exploitive, because of the dearth of books on this subject, and the resulting desperation of poor scholars trying to put together a library of their own. Luckily, I managed to find a used one for $45 - but that's still too expensive.

But if you have the money to fork out, and want to collect your own library of early music, the information is fascinating, and the authors write in readable styles (some of them like a mystery novel) so the essays won't put you to sleep the way too many scholarly books can. If nothing more, see if you can find a copy at the nearest University music library. It's worth the trip.

Editorial Review:

Early Music History is devoted to the study of music from the early Middle Ages to the end of the seventeenth century. It demands the highest standards of scholarship from its contributors, all of whom are leading academics in their fields. It gives preference to studies pursuing interdisciplinary approaches and to those developing novel methodological ideas. The scope is exceptionally broad and includes manuscript studies, textual criticism, iconography, studies of the relationship between words and music and the relationship between music and society. Articles in volume eleven include: Music and festivities at the court of Leo X: a Venetian view; Jean de Castro, the Pense partbooks and musical culture in sixteenth-century Lyons; The lost chant tradition of early Christian Jerusalem: some possible melodic survivals in the Byzantine and Latin chant repertories; Rome as the centre of the universe: papal grace and musical patronage.