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: 0190063793

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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.

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.

The Fleurs de Lis of the Kings of France, 1285-1488
The Fleurs de Lis of the Kings of France, 1285-1488

Author: William M. Hinkle

Publisher:

Published: 1991

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13:

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Featuring 56 illustrations, this definitive work on the arms of France delves into the mythology of kingship, probes the mystique of kings. Hinkle's comprehensive, chronological study of the origin, evolution, and function of the fleurs de lis covers the 200-year period beginning near the end of the 13th century with the emergence of France as a European power and ending at the close of hostilities between England and France in the late 15th century. His interdisciplinary study focuses on literature, history, and art history but also includes numismatics and sigillography. Hinkle first investigates the precursor to the fleurs de lis, the stylized lily of the early Capetian rulers. The initial literary reference to the later heraldic lily appeared shortly after 1285, with subsequent years witnessing further poetic glorification of the symbol. By 1316, the poetry of the period and of Geoffroy de Paris began to celebrate the three lilies on the royal escutcheon as a symbol of the Trinity. Concurrently, the death of a Capetian monarch without a male heir led to both the proclamation that no woman could succeed to the French throne and the appointment of the dead king's brother as Philip V. A second succession problem occurred in 1328 when the nearest male relative was Edward III of England. The French estates selected Philip VI, founder of the Valois line. To resolve the problem of succession, the pope proposed a crusade led by both Edward III and Philip VI. Preparations for this crusade led to Philippe de Vitri's poem of the 1330s: Le chapel des trois fleurs de lis. Although the crusade was later canceled, the poem signaled the beginnings of French nationalism symbolized by the three heraldic flowers. Two later poems from the 1330s celebrate the divine creation of the fleurs de lis. Hinkle tells a complex story lucidly. Examining the significance of the visual image of the fleurs de lis, he shows how the lilies evolved into emblems of God's favor, directed not only to the kings of France. The English also eagerly adopted the symbolism of the fleurs de lis for their young king, Henry VI, and that, too, is a fascinating part of the story.

The Reign of Philip the Fair
The Reign of Philip the Fair

Author: Joseph R. Strayer

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2019-03-26

Total Pages: 476

ISBN-13: 0691198381

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The reign of Philip the Fair marks both the culmination of the medieval French monarchy and the beginning of the transition from the medieval to the modern period. In this long-awaited study of Philip's reign, Joseph R. Strayer discusses the king's personality, his quarrels with the Church and with neighboring rulers, and his relations with his subjects. He also examines developments in the French administrative system. In studying the decision-making process and the careers of hundreds of royal officials, the author determines how increases in royal power and in the effectiveness and complexity of the administration were achieved. He also considers how these changes affected the possessing classes and how Philip made them acceptable or at least tolerable to the politically conscious segment of the population. As Professor Strayer shows, under Philip, the balance of loyalty swung away from the local authorities and the Church Universal and toward the secular, sovergein state. the central administration grew so strong, and its efficiency so improved, that it became the model for many other European states. Joseph R. Strayer retired from Princeton University as Dayton-Stockton Professor of History in 1973. He is the author of numerous books and articles, including On the Medieval Origins of the Modern State and Medieval Statecraft and the Perspectives of History (both Princeton books). Originally published in 1980. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Hearing the Motet
Hearing the Motet

Author: Dolores Pesce

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 1998-12-10

Total Pages: 393

ISBN-13: 0195351657

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The motet was unquestionably one of the most important vocal genres from its inception in late twelfth-century Paris through the Counter-Reformation and beyond. Heard in both sacred and secular contexts, the motet of the Middle Ages and Renaissance incorporated a striking wealth of meaning, its verbal textures dense with literary, social, philosophic, and religious reference. In Hearing the Motet, top scholars in the field provide the fullest picture yet of the motet's "music-poetic" nature, investigating the virtuosic interplay of music and text that distinguished some of the genre's finest work and reading individual motets and motet repertories in ways that illuminate their historical and cultural backgrounds. How were motets heard in their own time? Did the same motet mean different things to different audiences? To explore these questions, the contributors go beyond traditional musicological methods, at times invoking approaches used in recent literary criticism. Providing as well a cutting-edge look at performance questions and works by composers such as Josquin, Willaert, Obrecht, Byrd, and Palestrina, the book draws a valuable new portrait of the motet composer. Here, intriguingly, the motet composer emerges as a "reader" of the surrounding culture--a musician who knew liturgical practice as well as biblical literature and its exegetical traditions, who moved in social contexts such as humanist gatherings, who understood numerical symbolism and classical allusion, who wrote subtle memorie for patrons, and who found musical models to emulate and distort. Fresh, broad-ranging, and unique, Hearing the Motet makes vital reading for scholars, performers, and students of medieval and Renaissance music, and anyone else with an interest in the musical culture of these periods. Contributors include Rebecca A. Baltzer, Margaret Bent, M. Jennifer Bloxam, David Crook, James Haar, Paula Higgins, Joseph Kerman, Patrick Macey, Craig Monson, Robert Nosow, Jessie Ann Owens, Dolores Pesce, Joshua Rifkin, Anne Walters Robertson, Richard Sherr, and Rob C. Wegman.

The Southern Version of Cursor Mundi Vol I: Lines 1-9228
The Southern Version of Cursor Mundi Vol I: Lines 1-9228

Author: Sarah M. Horrall

Publisher: University of Ottawa Press

Published: 1978

Total Pages: 431

ISBN-13: 0776648055

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The medieval poem Cursor Mundi is a biblical verse account of the history of the world, offering a chronological overview of salvation history from Creation to Doomsday. Originating in northern England around the year 1300, the poem was frequently copied in the north before appearing in a southern version in substantially altered form. Although it is a storehouse of popular medieval biblical lore and a fascinating study in the eclectic use of more than a dozen sources, the poem has until now attracted little scholarly attention. This five-part collaborative edition presents the Arundel version of the poem with variants from three others. In addition, it provides a discussion of sources and analogues, detailed explanatory notes, and a bibliography. Published in English.