A Good Quire of Voices: The Provision of Choral Music at St.George's Chapel, Windsor Castle and Eton College, c.1640-1733
A Good Quire of Voices: The Provision of Choral Music at St.George's Chapel, Windsor Castle and Eton College, c.1640-1733

Author: Keri Dexter

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-09-25

Total Pages: 603

ISBN-13: 1351735497

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This title was first published in 2002: Until relatively recently, musicologists' account of church music in post-Restoration and early Georgian England has been substantially incomplete due to an almost exclusive preoccupation with the music and musicians of the Chapel Royal. The balance is now being redressed and this book begins the task of filling one of the remaining gaps in our understanding of the field. The volume represents a detailed examination of the practical workings of a choral foundation during the later 17th and early 18th centuries, placing the musicians within their wider historical and social contexts, and based on a comprehensive survey of extant archival material.

Historical Dictionary of Choral Music
Historical Dictionary of Choral Music

Author: Melvin P. Unger

Publisher: Scarecrow Press

Published: 2010-06-17

Total Pages: 585

ISBN-13: 0810873923

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The human voice an incredibly beautiful and expressive instrument, and when multiple voices are unified in tone and purpose a powerful statement is realized. No wonder people have always wanted to sing in a communal context-a desire apparently stemming from a deeply rooted human instinct. Consequently, choral performance has often been related historically to human rituals and ceremonies, especially rites of a religious nature. This Historical Dictionary of Choral Music examines choral music and practice in the Western world from the Medieval era to the 21st century, focusing mostly on familiar figures like Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, and Britten. But its scope is considerably broader, and it includes all sorts of music-religious, secular, and popular-from sources throughout the world. It contains a chronology, an introduction, a bibliography, and more than 1,000 cross-referenced dictionary entries on important composers, genres, conductors, institutions, styles, and technical terms of choral music.

The A to Z of Sacred Music
The A to Z of Sacred Music

Author: Joseph P. Swain

Publisher: Scarecrow Press

Published: 2010-04-09

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 1461672120

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Nearly all religious traditions have reserved a special place for sacred music. Whether it is music accompanying a ritual or purely for devotional purposes, music composed for entire congregations or for the trained soloist, or music set to holy words or purely instrumental, in some form or another, music is present. In fact, in some traditions the relation between the music and the ritual is so intimate that to distinguish between them would be inaccurate. The A to Z of Sacred Music covers the most important aspects of the sacred music of Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and other smaller religious groups. It provides useful information on all the significant traditions of this music through the use of a chronology, an introductory essay, a bibliography, appendixes, and hundreds of cross-referenced dictionary entries on major types of music, composers, key religious figures, specialized positions, genres of composition, technical terms, instruments, fundamental documents and sources, significant places, and important musical compositions.

Historical Dictionary of Sacred Music
Historical Dictionary of Sacred Music

Author: Joseph P. Swain

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2016-10-11

Total Pages: 403

ISBN-13: 1442264632

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Sacred music is a universal phenomenon of humanity. Where there is faith, there is music to express it. Every major religious tradition and most minor ones have music and have it in abundance and variety. There is music to accompany ritual and music purely for devotion, music for large congregations and music for trained soloists, music that sets holy words and music without words at all. In some traditions—Islamic and many Native American, to name just two--the relation between music and religious ritual is so intimate that it is inaccurate to speak of the music accompanying the ritual. Rather, to perform the ritual is to sing, and to sing the ritual is to perform it. This second edition of Historical Dictionary of Sacred Music contains a chronology, an introduction, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 800 cross-referenced entries on major types of music, composers, key religious figures, specialized positions, genres of composition, technical terms, instruments, fundamental documents and sources, significant places, and important musical compositions. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about sacred music.

The Ashgate Research Companion to Henry Purcell
The Ashgate Research Companion to Henry Purcell

Author: Rebecca Herissone

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-04-01

Total Pages: 558

ISBN-13: 131704326X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Ashgate Research Companion to Henry Purcell provides a comprehensive and authoritative review of current research into Purcell and the environment of Restoration music, with contributions from leading experts in the field. Seen from the perspective of modern, interdisciplinary approaches to scholarship, the companion allows the reader to develop a rounded view of the environment in which Purcell lived, the people with whom he worked, the social conditions that influenced his activities, and the ways in which the modern perception of him has been affected by reception of his music after his death. In this sense the contributions do not privilege the individual over the environment: rather, they use the modern reader's familiarity with Purcell's music as a gateway into the broader Restoration world. Topics include a reassessment of our understanding of Purcell's sources and the transmission of his music; new ways of approaching the study of his creative methods; performance practice; the multi-faceted theatre environment in which his work was focused in the last five years of his life; the importance of the political and social contexts of late seventeenth-century England; and the ways in which the performance history and reception of his music have influenced modern appreciation of the composer. The book will be essential reading for anyone studying the music and culture of the seventeenth century.

Music and Ceremonial at British Coronations
Music and Ceremonial at British Coronations

Author: Matthias Range

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2012-08-23

Total Pages: 343

ISBN-13: 1139560999

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Coronations are the grandest of all state occasions. This is the first comprehensive in-depth study of the music that was performed at British coronations from 1603 to the present, encompassing the sixteen coronations that have taken place in Westminster Abbey and the last two Scottish coronations. Range describes how music played a crucial role at the coronations and how the practical requirements of the ceremonial proceedings affected its structure and performance. The programme of music at each coronation is reconstructed, accompanied by a wealth of transcriptions of newly discovered primary source material, revealing findings that lead to fresh conclusions about performance practices. The coronation ceremonies are placed in their historical context, including the political background and the concept of invented traditions. The study is an invaluable resource not only for musicologists and historians, but also for performers, providing a fascinating insight into the greatest of all Royal events.

Musical Creativity in Restoration England
Musical Creativity in Restoration England

Author: Rebecca Herissone

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2013-10-10

Total Pages: 461

ISBN-13: 1107292328

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Musical Creativity in Restoration England is the first comprehensive investigation of approaches to creating music in late seventeenth-century England. Understanding creativity during this period is particularly challenging because many of our basic assumptions about composition - such as concepts of originality, inspiration and genius - were not yet fully developed. In adopting a new methodology that takes into account the historical contexts in which sources were produced, Rebecca Herissone challenges current assumptions about compositional processes and offers new interpretations of the relationships between notation, performance, improvisation and musical memory. She uncovers a creative culture that was predominantly communal, and reveals several distinct approaches to composition, determined not by individuals, but by the practical function of the music. Herissone's new and original interpretations pose a fundamental challenge to our preconceptions about what it meant to be a composer in the seventeenth century and raise broader questions about the interpretation of early modern notation.

Choral Music
Choral Music

Author: James Michael Floyd

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2012-07-26

Total Pages: 389

ISBN-13: 1135848203

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This is an annotated bibliography to books, recordings, videos, and websites on choral music. This book will serve as an excellent tool for librarians, researchers, and scholars in sorting through the massive amount of new material that has appeared since publication of the previous edition.

Choral Music
Choral Music

Author: Avery T. Sharp

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 389

ISBN-13: 0415994195

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This is an annotated bibliography to books, recordings, videos, and websites on choral music. This book will serve as an excellent tool for librarians, researchers, and scholars in sorting through the massive amount of new material that has appeared since publication of the previous edition.

Humanism and the Reform of Sacred Music in Early Modern England
Humanism and the Reform of Sacred Music in Early Modern England

Author: Hyun-Ah Kim

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-05-13

Total Pages: 298

ISBN-13: 1317119584

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

John Merbecke (c.1505-c.1585) is most famous as the composer of the first musical setting of the English liturgy, The Booke of Common Praier Noted (BCPN), published in 1550. Not only was Merbecke a pioneer in setting English prose to music but also the compiler of the first Concordance of the whole English Bible (1550) and of the first English encyclopaedia of biblical and theological studies, A Booke of Notes and Common Places (1581). By situating Merbecke and his work within a broader intellectual and religio-cultural context of Tudor England, this book challenges the existing studies of Merbecke based on the narrow theological approach to the Reformation. Furthermore, it suggests a re-thinking of the prevailing interpretative framework of Reformation musical history. On the basis of the new contextual study of Merbecke, this book seeks to re-interpret his work, particularly BCPN, in the light of humanist rhetoric. It sees Merbecke as embodying the ideal of the 'Christian-musical orator', demonstrating that BCPN is an Anglican epitome of the Erasmian synthesis of eloquence, theology and music. The book thus depicts Merbecke as a humanist reformer, through re-evaluation of his contributions to the developments of vernacular music and literature in early modern England. As such it will be of interest, not only to church musicians, but also to historians of the Reformation and students of wider Tudor culture.