Full Description
Through forty-five creative and concise essays by an international team of authors, this Cambridge History brings the fifteenth century to life for both specialists and general readers. Combining the best qualities of survey texts and scholarly literature, the book offers authoritative overviews of central composers, genres, and musical institutions as well as new and provocative reassessments of the work concept, the boundaries between improvisation and composition, the practice of listening, humanism, musical borrowing, and other topics. Multidisciplinary studies of music and architecture, feasting, poetry, politics, liturgy, and religious devotion rub shoulders with studies of compositional techniques, musical notation, music manuscripts, and reception history. Generously illustrated with figures and examples, this volume paints a vibrant picture of musical life in a period characterized by extraordinary innovation and artistic achievement.
Contents
Introduction Anna Maria Busse Berger and Jesse Rodin; Part I. Historiography: (a) Listening: 1. Hearing Josquin hearing Busnoys Michael Long; 2. Religion and the senses in fifteenth-century Europe Klaus Pietschmann; (b) Terms and Concepts: 3. The work concept Laurenz Lütteken; 4. The L'homme armé tradition - and the limits of musical borrowing Jesse Rodin; (c) Composer Studies: 5. Guillaume Du Fay: evidence and interpretation Alejandro Enrique Planchart; 6. Jean d'Ockeghem Lawrence F. Bernstein; 7. Josquin and epistemology Jesse Rodin; Part II. Improvisation and Composition: 8. Oral composition in fifteenth-century music Anna Maria Busse Berger; 9. Improvisation as concept and musical practice in the fifteenth century Philippe Canguilhem; 10. How did Oswald von Wolkenstein make his contrafacta? Anna Maria Busse Berger; 11. Making a motet: Josquin's Ave Maria...virgo serena John Milsom; 12. The origins of pervasive imitation Julie E. Cumming and Peter Schubert; Part III. Humanism: 13. Humanism and music in Italy James Hankins; 14. Fifteenth-century humanism and music outside Italy Reinhard Strohm; 15. Poetic humanism and music in the fifteenth century Leofranc Holford-Strevens; 16. Canterino and Improvvisatore: oral poetry and performance Blake Wilson; 17. Liturgical Humanism: saints' offices from the Italian peninsula in the fifteenth century Alison K. Frazier; Part IV. Music and Other Arts: 18. Architecture and music in fifteenth-century Italy Deborah Howard; 19. Music and feasts in the fifteenth century Anthony M. Cummings; 20. French lyrics and songs for the New Year, c.1380-1420 Yolanda Plumley; Part V. Music in Churches, Courts, and Cities: 21. Musical institutions in the fifteenth century and their political contexts Klaus Pietschmann; 22. Music and musicians at the Burgundian court in the fifteenth century David Fiala; 23. The papal chapel in the late fifteenth century Richard Sherr; 24. The beneficial system and fifteenth-century polyphony Pamela F. Starr; 25. Professional women singers in the fifteenth century: a tale of two Annas Bonnie J. Blackburn; 26. Savonarola and the boys of Florence: songs and politics Patrick Macey; Part VI. Religious Devotion and Liturgy: 27. Music and ritual M. Jennifer Bloxam; 28. Marian devotion in the fifteenth century David J. Rothenberg; 29. Affective literature and sacred themes in fifteenth-century music Anne Walters Robertson; Part VII. Theory and Practice: 30. Measuring measurable music in the fifteenth century Anne Stone; 31. The transformative impulse Emily Zazulia; 32. Transformations in music theory and music treatises Evan A. MacCarthy; Part VIII. Sources: 33. Polyphonic sources, c.1400-50 Margaret Bent; 34. Polyphonic sources, c.1450-1500 Thomas Schmidt-Beste; Part IX. Genres: 35. The polyphonic mass in the fifteenth century Andrew Kirkman; 36. The fifteenth-century motet Laurenz Lütteken; 37. Fifteenth-century song Nicole Schwindt; 38. Instrumental music in the fifteenth century Keith Polk; 39. Sacred song in the fifteenth century: cantio, carol, lauda, Kirchenlied Reinhard Strohm; 40. Plainsong in the age of polyphony Richard Sherr; Part X. Reception: 41. The most popular songs of the fifteenth century David Fallows; 42. The nineteenth-century reception of fifteenth-century sacred music Andrew Kirkman; 43. The modern reception of the music of Jean d'Ockeghem Lawrence F. Bernstein; 44. Recordings of fifteenth-century music Honey Meconi; 45. Solidarity with the long-departed: fifteenth-century echoes in twentieth-century music Richard Taruskin.
