Senza Vestimenta: The Literary Tradition of Trecento Song

Senza Vestimenta: The Literary Tradition of Trecento Song

Author: Lauren Jennings

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-04-01

Total Pages: 396

ISBN-13: 1317057090

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The metaphor of marriage often describes the relationship between poetry and music in both medieval and modern writing. While the troubadours stand out for their tendency to blur the distinction between speaking and singing, between poetry and song, a certain degree of semantic slippage extends into the realm of Italian literature through the use of genre names like canzone, sonetto, and ballata. Yet, paradoxically, scholars have traditionally identified a 'divorce' between music and poetry as the defining feature of early Italian lyric. Senza Vestimenta reintegrates poetic and musical traditions in late medieval Italy through a fresh evaluation of more than fifty literary sources transmitting Trecento song texts. These manuscripts have been long noted by musicologists, but until now they have been used to bolster rather than to debunk the notion that so-called 'poesia per musica' was relegated to the margins of poetic production. Jennings revises this view by exploring how scribes and readers interacted with song as a fundamentally interdisciplinary art form within a broad range of literary settings. Her study sheds light on the broader cultural world surrounding the reception of the Italian ars nova repertoire by uncovering new, diverse readers ranging from wealthy merchants to modest artisans.


The Cambridge History of Medieval Music

The Cambridge History of Medieval Music

Author: Mark Everist

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2018-08-09

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 1108577075

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Spanning a millennium of musical history, this monumental volume brings together nearly forty leading authorities to survey the music of Western Europe in the Middle Ages. All of the major aspects of medieval music are considered, making use of the latest research and thinking to discuss everything from the earliest genres of chant, through the music of the liturgy, to the riches of the vernacular song of the trouvères and troubadours. Alongside this account of the core repertory of monophony, The Cambridge History of Medieval Music tells the story of the birth of polyphonic music, and studies the genres of organum, conductus, motet and polyphonic song. Key composers of the period are introduced, such as Leoninus, Perotinus, Adam de la Halle, Philippe de Vitry and Guillaume de Machaut, and other chapters examine topics ranging from musical theory and performance to institutions, culture and collections.


Textual Cultures of Medieval Italy

Textual Cultures of Medieval Italy

Author: William Randolph Robins

Publisher: University of Toronto Press

Published: 2011-01-01

Total Pages: 369

ISBN-13: 1442642726

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Based on papers presented at the 41st Conference on Editorial Problems held at the University of Toronto, Toronto, Ont., from Nov. 6 - 8th, 2005.


The Motet in the Late Middle Ages

The Motet in the Late Middle Ages

Author: Margaret Bent

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2023-11-03

Total Pages: 777

ISBN-13: 0190063807

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A unique capacity of measured polyphony is to give precisely fixed places not only to musical notes, but also to individual words in relation to them and each other. The Motet in the Late Middle Ages offers innovative approaches to the equal partnership of music and texts in motets of the fourteenth century and beyond, showcasing the imaginative opportunities afforded by this literal kind of intertextuality, and yielding a very different narrative from the common complaint that different simultaneous texts make motets incomprehensible. As leading musicologist Margaret Bent asserts, they simply require a different approach to preparation and listening. In this book, Bent examines the words and music of motets from many different angles: foundational verbal quotations and pre-existent chant excerpts and their contexts, citations both of words and music from other compositions, function, dating, structure, theory, and number symbolism. Individual studies of these original creations tease out a range of strategies, ingenuity, playfulness, striking juxtapositions, and even subversion. Half of the thirty-two chapters consist of new material; the other half are substantially revised and updated versions of previously published articles and chapters, organized into seven Parts. With new analyses of text and music together, new datings, new attributions, and new hypotheses about origins and interrelationships, Bent uncovers little-explored dimensions, provides a window into the craft and thought processes of medieval composers, and opens up many directions for future work.


Composers and their Songs, 1400–1521

Composers and their Songs, 1400–1521

Author: David Fallows

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-05-31

Total Pages: 358

ISBN-13: 1000947467

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This second selection of essays by David Fallows draws the focus towards individual composers of the 'long' fifteenth century and what we can learn about their songs. In twenty-one essays on the secular works of composers from Ciconia and Oswald von Wolkenstein via Binchois, Ockeghem, Busnoys and Regis to Josquin, Henry VIII and Petrus Alamire, one repeated theme is how a consideration of the songs can help the way to a broader understanding of a composer's output. Since there are more song sources and more individual pieces now available for study, there are more handles for dating, for geographical location and for social alignment. Another theme concerns the various different ways in which particular songs have their impact on the next generations. Yet another concerns the authorshop of poems that were set to music by Binchois and Ciconia in particular. A group of essays on Josquin were parerga to the author's edition of his four-voice secular music for the New Josquin Edition (2005) and to his monograph on the composer (2009).


Music and Culture in the Middle Ages and Beyond

Music and Culture in the Middle Ages and Beyond

Author: Benjamin Brand

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2016-10-27

Total Pages: 379

ISBN-13: 131679895X

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It has become widely accepted among musicologists that medieval music is most profitably studied from interdisciplinary perspectives that situate it within broad cultural contexts. The origins of this consensus lie in a decisive reorientation of the field that began approximately four decades ago. For much of the twentieth century, research on medieval music had focused on the discovery and evaluation of musical and theoretical sources. The 1970s and 1980s, by contrast, witnessed calls for broader methodologies and more fully contextual approaches that in turn anticipated the emergence of the so-called 'New Musicology'. The fifteen essays in the present collection explore three interrelated areas of inquiry that proved particularly significant: the liturgy, sources (musical and archival), and musical symbolism. In so doing, these essays not only acknowledge past achievements but also illustrate how this broad, interdisciplinary approach remains a source for scholarly innovation.


Performing by the Book?

Performing by the Book?

Author: Bruno Forment

Publisher: Leuven University Press

Published: 2024-10-15

Total Pages: 213

ISBN-13: 9462704147

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To perform a musical score implies the transformation of a symbolically coded text into vibrant sound. In Performing by the Book? a carefully selected cadre of artist-researchers dissects this delicate act in critical ways. Offering first-hand insights into the notational, structural and interpretative challenges faced by musicians in dealing with texts of all kinds, the chapters traverse the spectrum between the Middle Ages and the age of Stockhausen. In a harmonious blend of scholarly allure and individual artistry, free from academic obfuscation, the contributors keep a keen eye on the limits of interpretation, both in terms of the interpretative process itself and of the balance between textual faithfulness and artistic autonomy. This comprehensive volume is an indispensable guide for everyone interested in the relationship between musical performance and texts.


Canons and Canonic Techniques, 14th-16th Centuries

Canons and Canonic Techniques, 14th-16th Centuries

Author: Katelijne Schiltz

Publisher: Peeters Publishers

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 546

ISBN-13: 9789042916814

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Although canons pervade music of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, they have not received proportionate attention in the musicological literature. The contributions in this book shed light on canons and canonic techniques from a wide range of perspectives, such as music theory and analysis, compositional and performance practice, palaeography and notation, as well as listening expectations and strategies. Especially in the case of riddle canons, insights from other disciplines such as literature, theology, iconography, emblematics, and philosophy have proved crucial for a better understanding and interpretation of how such pieces were created. The essays extend from the early period of canonic writing to the seventeenth century, ending with three contributions concerned with the reception history of medieval and Renaissance canons in music and writings on music from the Age of Enlightenment to the present. This book was awarded the Special Citation by the Society for Music Theory in November 2008.


The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Music

The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Music

Author: Mark Everist

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2011-03-03

Total Pages: 982

ISBN-13: 1107495121

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From the emergence of plainsong to the end of the fourteenth century, this Companion covers all the key aspects of medieval music. Divided into three main sections, the book first of all discusses repertory, styles and techniques - the key areas of traditional music histories; next taking a topographical view of the subject - from Italy, German-speaking lands, and the Iberian Peninsula; and concludes with chapters on such issues as liturgy, vernacular poetry and reception. Rather than presenting merely a chronological view of the history of medieval music, the volume instead focuses on technical and cultural aspects of the subject. Over nineteen informative chapters, fifteen world-leading scholars give a perspective on the music of the Middle Ages that will serve as a point of orientation for the informed listener and reader, and is a must-have guide for anyone with an interest in listening to and understanding medieval music.