Full Description
This is a detailed and comprehensive survey of music in the late middle ages and early Renaissance. By limiting its scope to the 120 years which witnessed perhaps the most dramatic expansion of our musical heritage, the book responds, in the 1990s, to the tremendous increase in specialised research and public awareness of that period. Three of the four main Parts (I, II, IV) describe the development of polyphony and its cultural contexts in many European countries, from the successors of Machaut (d. 1377) to the achievements of Josquin des Prez and his contemporaries working in Renaissance Italy around 1500. Part III, by contrast, illustrates the musical life of the institutions, and musical practices outside the realm of composed polyphony that were traditional and common all over Europe. The book proposes fresh views in each chapter, discussing dozens of musical examples adducing well-known and hitherto unknown documents, and referring to and evaluating the most recent scholarship in the field.
Contents
List of illustrations; List of tables; Preface; Introduction; Part I. The Age of the Great Schism (1378-1417): Introduction; 1. The central tradition; 2. The lateral traditions; 3. The Council of Constance; Part II. The Age of Dufay and Dunstable: Introduction; 1. North and south; 2. West and east; Part III. The Common Traditions: 1. Music in the life of the institutions; 2. Monophonic song, simple polyphony and instrumental music; Part IV. Europe After 1450: Diversity and Participation: 1. Britain: homegrown glories; 2. France and low countries: the invention of the masterwork; 3. Central Europe: masters and apprentices; 4. Italy and Spain: the encounter of music and Renaissance; List of music manuscripts; Bibliography; Index.
