Medieval and Renaissance Music: A Performer's Guide

by Timothy J. McGee

Good/Good in Blue Boards; 8vo; Hard Cover W/ Dust Jacket; 273 pages; B/W Illustrations; University of Toronto Press; 1985; First Edition; A Performer's Guide; Minor shelf wear and minor soiling to edges of text block; Ink stamp and ink marking to half title; Pencil marking to text; Edge wear and rubbing to DJ; Small closed tear to foot of spine of DJ; DJ in archival mylar jacket.

273 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1985

Reviews

[Mirjam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although this book dates back to 1985, it still is impressively relevant for practicioners of early music, both instrumental and vocal.
These are the highlights for me:
Modern editions of early music most often feature bars and barlines. However, the melodic-rhythmic flow of early music is not dictated by barlines, but rather by the length of notes in a melody. The longest notes receive the most stress, which results in irregular rhythmic groupings. Applying these stresses create an exciting flow of (especially polyphonic) music.
The rules for text underlay are a bit basic, but very clear. They may be a bit outdated, but one handly can go wrong applying these rules.
The summary of several theoretical sources on how to use the singing voice is still useful and entertaining. Especially the warning not to start each new note in a melisma with 'h', which would result in a ky-ri-he-he-he-he, is a nice illustration of a practice that even today pervades many churches.
The chapter on instruments features charts on the ascent and decline of important instruments.
Finally, the chapter on ornamentation provides a step-by-step strucured manual how to embellish a melody. I have never seen such a clear guide for ornamentation before.

[Silvio Curtis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book for modern musicians who want to play early western European music in as close as possible to the original way. Since I don't play or read music I didn't understand it completely, but it doesn't look like you would have to be a specialist in music history either. Some information is out of date by now, but the book seems very complete and I have no idea whether anything more up-to-date covers all the same information. There are both descriptions of what the original performers did, like which compositions or musical lines of them were sung and which played on instruments, and practical advice, like a step-by-step breakdown of how to learn original-style improvised ornamentation. There are some big charts of which instruments and playing styles were most common in which centuries and regions. A repeating theme is that when certain information is available or when the original performers had a range of options (both situations are common) characteristics of the music itself can determine how it will be easiest to play.