Companion to Medieval and Renaissance music

by Tess Knighton (Editor), David Fallows (Series Editor)

The years since the early music revival gathered momentum in the 1960s and 70s have witnessed many new developments in the field of pre-Baroque some revelatory recordings and concert performances have opened our ears to a new range of possible sound worlds for music of this period, and scholars have made discoveries that in many ways challenge the accepted views about this until recently neglected end of the repertory. Much pre-1600 music, the more so the further we go back in time, sound not only unfamiliar but also strange to modern ears accustomed to the harmonies and rhythms that later came to dominate the Western musical tradition. How to account for this strangeness and how to weave it into our own musical experience are questions that confront us whenever we attempt to draw nearer to the its beauty is readily appreciated, but its meaning is often elusive. David Fallows and Tess Knighton, scholars and critics in the field of medieval and Renaissance music, invited a number of international researchers and performers to contribute short essays on some of the most intriguing aspects of the subject. The aim was not so much a comprehensive reference book, although the Glossary gives brief definitions of terms and composer biographies, nor a strictly chronological survey, though the Chronology provides an overview of the main developments of the period, for these basic tools are already available. Rather, the Companion to Medieval and Renaissance Music, spanning over eight centuries of music-making, hopes to broaden and stimulate the reader's interest by discussing issues of live debate such as the original context for the music, how it was composed, and the ways in which it was performed. What was it like to be a composer in the Middle Ages? Can we appreciate the difference between a good and a bad piece of medieval polyphony? Why did certain musical genres flourish and others fall into disuse? What c

Genres: Music

428 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a collection of essays about the history, theory, and performance of medieval and renaissance music, written by scholars and performers. Most of the essays were quite good. One of the best essays was Rob Wigman's incredibly illuminating article on musica ficta. The only real low point of the collection was Ephraim Segerman's extremely dull section on tempo between 1500 and 1650. However, given the average length of each section, I often found that the essay was over just when I was really getting into the subject matter. Luckily, each essay included a brief but useful bibliography, making it easier to take a deeper look into the areas I found particularly interesting (early instruments, use of borrowed material, and the intricacies of mode).