The only book on the subject available in English, this is a unique and fascinating account of all aspects of the music of ancient Greece, written by the authority in the field. It includes actual transcriptions of the surviving examples of ancient music, complete with musical analysis, and covers a whole range of topics - from the place of music in Greek life to instruments; scales; and ancient theories of music. It is fully illustrated. Whether or not we can 'sense a link between the Greeks and Mozart' (BBC Music Magazine), this is a 'must for anyone fascinated by this little known area of the culture of classical Greece.

This is a completely revised edition of the second volume of the New Oxford History of Music. In the last three decades there has been intense interest in the music of the Middle Ages and great advances in research have been made in facts as well as interpretation. Drawing on the work of leading British and American scholars, this volume presents an informed, up-to-date picture of a broad spectrum of music from the fourth century AD to 1300. Beginning with Christian chant in the Mediterranean, it continues through Latin (`Gregorian') chant, liturgical drama, medieval song, instrumental music, and early polyphony down to the monumental organa composed at the cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris in the twelfth century. Over 200 musical examples help to illustrate the discussion of 1,000 years of rich and complex musical development. Contributors: John Stevens, Milos Velimirovic, Kenneth Levy, Richard Crocker, Susan Rankin, Christopher Page, Sarah Fuller, and Janet Knapp.

for organ
Part of the progressive series for manuals, this fifth book includes 13 titles for the advanced organist.

for organ
Part of the progressive series for manuals, this fourth book includes 14 titles for the advanced organist.

The universally acclaimed and award-winning Oxford History of Western Music is the eminent musicologist Richard Taruskin's provocative, erudite telling of the story of Western music from its earliest days to the present. Each book in this superlative five-volume set illuminates-through a representative sampling of masterworks- the themes, styles, and currents that give shape and direction to a significant period in the history of Western music.
This first volume in Richard Taruskin's majestic history, Music from the Earliest Notations to the Sixteenth Century, sweeps across centuries of musical innovation to shed light on the early forces that shaped the development of the Western classical tradition. Beginning with the invention of musical notation more than a thousand years ago, Taruskin addresses topics such as the legend of Saint Gregory and Gregorian chant, Augustine's and Boethius's thoughts on music, the liturgical dramas of Hildegard of Bingen, the growth of the music printing business, the literary revolution and the English madrigal, the influence of the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation, and the operas of Monteverdi. Laced with brilliant observations, memorable musical analysis, and a panoramic sense of the interactions between history, culture, politics, art, literature, religion, and music, this book will be essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand this rich and diverse period.

Improvisation and Inventio in the Performance of Medieval Music: A Practical Approach is an innovative and groundbreaking approach to medieval music as living repertoire. The book provides philosophical frameworks, primary-source analysis, and clear, actionable practices and exercises aimed at recovering the improvisatory and inventive aspects of medieval music for contemporary musicians. Aimed at both instrumentalists and vocalists, the book explores the utilization of musical models, the inventive implications of medieval notation, and the ways in which memory, mode, rhetoric, and primary source paradigms inform the improvisatory process in both monophonic and polyphonic music of the Middle Ages. Angela Mariani, an experienced performer of both medieval music and folk and traditional musics, rediscovers and explicates the processes of imagination, invention, and improvisation which historically energized both medieval music in its own period and in its revival in our own time. Based on decades of research, university teaching, ensemble direction, collaboration, and performance, Mariani's impassioned stance that "the elusive element of inventio, as the medieval rhetoricians would have called it, must always be provided by the performer in the present," emphasizes medieval music performance practice as a dynamic and still-vital tradition. Students, teachers, directors, and those interested in the wealth of expressive beauty found in the music of the middle ages will likewise find value and meaning in her clear and accessible prose, and in the practical processes and exercises that make this book unique within the literature of medieval performance practice.

The Critical Nexus confronts an important and vexing enigma of early writings on music: why chant, which was understood to be divinely inspired, needed to be altered in order to work within the then-operative modal system. To unravel this mystery, Charles Atkinson creates a broad framework that moves from Greek harmonic theory to the various stages in the transmission of Roman chant, citing numerous music treatises from the sixth to the twelfth century. Out of this examination emerges the central point behind the problem: the tone-system advocated by writers coming from the Greek harmonic tradition was not suited to the notation of chant and that this basic incompatibility led to the creation of new theoretical constructs. By tracing the path of subsequent adaptation at the nexus of tone-system, mode, and notation, Atkinson promises new and far-reaching insights into what mode meant to the medieval musician and how the system responded to its inherent limitations. Through a detailed examination of the major musical treatises from the sixth through the twelfth centuries, this text establishes a central dichotomy between classical harmonic theory and the practices of the Christian church. Atkinson builds the foundation for a broad and original reinterpretation of the modal system and how it relates to melody, grammar, and notation. This book will be of interest to all musicologists, music theorists working on mode, early music specialists, chant scholars, and medievalists interested in music.

Music and Cultural Politics in Greek and Chinese Societies, Volume 1: Greek Antiquity is the first part of a three-volume set that focuses on the intriguing but often underexplored interaction between music and song-making, on the one hand, and practices of cultural politics, on the other. The scope of this three-volume set is comparative and transhistorical. Given the abundance of relevant evidence with regard to Greek antiquity, the first volume investigates major aspects of this intricate sociocultural phenomenon exclusively in ancient Greek societies, with a special emphasis on archaic and classical song-making, Attic vase-painting, Athenian drama, Platonic philosophy, and Hellenistic performance culture. A second volume will explore parallel manifestations of the interplay between music and cultural politics in medieval and early modern Greek and Chinese societies. A third volume will focus on comparative material from ancient, medieval, and modern Chinese and Greek societies across a transhistorical scope of investigation, drawing on a variety of musical and performative genres.

The Eloquent Oboe is a history of the hautboy, the oboe of the Baroque period. It reflects recent interest in this instrument, which was the first of the woodwinds to join with strings in creating the new orchestra, and had by the end of the 20th century again become a regular presence on the concert scene. Between 1640 and 1760 this type of oboe underwent dramatic changes in both function and physical form, and the majority of its solo and chamber repertoire appeared. Haynes examines in detail the hautboy's structure, its players, makers, and composers, issues of performing style and period techniques, how and where the instrument was played, and who listened to it.

The name "mandolin" was used to refer to two quite different instruments: the gut-stringed mandolino, played with the fingers, and the later metal-stringed Neapolitan mandoline, which was played with a plectrum. This is the first book devoted exclusively to these two early instruments about which information in reference books is scant and often erroneous. The authors uncover their rich and varied musical history, examining contemporary playing techniques and revealing the full extent of the instruments' individual repertories, which include works by Vivaldi, Sammartini, Stamitz, and Beethoven. The book's ultimate aim is to help today's players to produce artistically satisfying performances through an understanding of the nature and historical playing style of these unjustly neglected instruments.

This is the first volume of a magisterial survey of English music that charts its development from its beginnings in the early monastic institutions to the rise of 17th-century opera and masque and instrumental music, culminating in the genius of Henry Purcell.

Papers in Anglo-Norman history including new research on music, the Bayeux Tapestry and Domesday studies. Papers on a very wide range of subjects include, for the first time, one on music, on changes in English chant repertories in the eleventh century; book migrations are examined over the same period, and one of the two papers on the Bayeaux Tapestry looks at changing representations of the "burgheat". There are important papers on law and church administration and the relations of Normandy and England with other regions. The development of Rouen is comparedwith that of Paris; William the Conqueror's relations with Blois and Champagne are discussed; papers on the frontier with the Scots and on Rhys ap Teudur, king of Deheubarth are included. Domesday studies, chronicles and poetry are also represented with new research. Contributors W.M. AIRD, ROBERT BABCOCK, PAUL BRAND, SHIRLEY ANN BROWN, MICHAEL HERREN, EDOARDO D'ANGELO, DAVID DUMVILLE, JEAN DUNBABIN, BERNARD GAUTHIEZ, DAVID HILEY, B.R. KEMP, DEREK RENN, MARY FRANCES SMITH, BENJAMIN THOMPSON, SALLY VAUGHN, JOHN BRYAN WILLIAMS. 16. 1993: St Cuthbert, the Scots and the Normans; Rhys ap Tewdwr; 13c Litigation; Bayeaux Tapestry; Falco of Benevento's Chronicle; Anglo-Saxon Books on Norman Hands; Geoffrey of Chaumont, Thibaud of Blois and William the Conqueror; Paris, un Rouen capetien? 11c English Chant Repertories; Appointment of Parochial Incumbents in 12c England; Burgheat and Gonfanon; ArchbishopStigand; Free Alms Tenure in 12c; Anselm in Italy 1097-1100; Judhael of Totnes.

This book provides a collection of some 400 passages on music from early Christian literature - New Testament to c. 450 AD - newly translated from the original Greek, Latin, and Syriac. As there are no musical sources of the period, music historians must rely upon remarks about music in literary sources to gain some knowledge of early Christian liturgical music. This volume makes a large and representative collection of the material conveniently available. The passages are arranged chronologically and regionally in eleven chapters with brief commentary. An introduction sets out the major subjects and themes of the original source material.

Editing Early Music is designed as a guide to editorial procedures suitable for music written from the Middle Ages to about 1830. Some of the suggestions are relevant to the editing of any music no longer in copyright. There is an introductory chapter on the principles of editing and transcribing, followed by three chronologically arranged chapters devoted to medieval and early renaissance music, the Renaissance, and baroque and classical music. The final chapter deals with the preparation of copy and other practical matters. Some of the technicalities are presented in the form of tables and appendices; there are musical illustrations and sample score-layouts, and a bibliography. While the book does not aim to descript early notations in detail, some of the basic information is conveyed, particularly through the extensive discussion of such matters as reduced time values and the treatment of accidentals. For this revised edition, the author has incorporated a number of corrections, brought the bibliography up to date, and added a Postscript on stemmatics and textual criticism.

Part history, part explanation of early music, this book also plays devil's advocate, criticizing current practices and urging experimentation. Haynes, a veteran of the movement, describes a vision of the future that involves improvisation, rhetorical expression, and composition. Written for musicians and non-musicians alike.

Improvisation and Inventio in the Performance of Medieval Music: A Practical Approach is an innovative and groundbreaking approach to medieval music as living repertoire. The book provides philosophical frameworks, primary-source analysis, and clear, actionable practices and exercises aimed at recovering the improvisatory and inventive aspects of medieval music for contemporary musicians. Aimed at both instrumentalists and vocalists, the book explores the utilization of musical models, the inventive implications of medieval notation, and the ways in which memory, mode, rhetoric, and primary source paradigms inform the improvisatory process in both monophonic and polyphonic music of the Middle Ages. Angela Mariani, an experienced performer of both medieval music and folk and traditional musics, rediscovers and explicates the processes of imagination, invention, and improvisation which historically energized both medieval music in its own period and in its revival in our own time. Based on decades of research, university teaching, ensemble direction, collaboration, and performance, Mariani's impassioned stance that "the elusive element of inventio, as the medieval rhetoricians would have called it, must always be provided by the performer in the present," emphasizes medieval music performance practice as a dynamic and still-vital tradition. Students, teachers, directors, and those interested in the wealth of expressive beauty found in the music of the middle ages will likewise find value and meaning in her clear and accessible prose, and in the practical processes and exercises that make this book unique within the literature of medieval performance practice.

This is the first in-depth survey of the oboe during its Golden Age, tracing the history of the instrument from its invention through its many mutations as it adapted to the changing demands of composers. The author describes in detail the instruments, players, makers, and composers, how and where it was played, and who listened to it.

This work attempts to catalogue all the extant British music intended for performance on a solo keyboard instrument, both in manuscript and printed sources, from the earliest extant piece to the end of the Commonwealth period. The work is in two parts, volume one containing the list of sources and their contents, and volume two a thematic index of all the British pieces in those sources. Composers represented include, among others, John Bull, William Byrd, Giles Farnaby, Orlando Gibbons, William Lawes, Peter Philips, Thomas Tallis, and Thomas Tomkins.

The concept of raga forms the basis of melodic composition and improvization in Indian classical music. This study traces the early history and development of the concept in the pre-Islamic period. It draws on early Indian theoretical sources, and focuses especially on the examples of notated melodies that they contain. This book should be of interest to musicologists and music students interested in ethnomusicology, historical musicology, music theory, mode and monody, and improvisation as well as sanskritists and other Indologists.

It is the only anthology which includes all thirty-one English lyrics from MS Harley 2253, all the verses by Friar Herebert printed in Brown XIV, and all the important poems given in Robbins' Secular Lyrics. In all there are 245 lyrics, arranged thematically. To make these delightful poems accessible to the modern reader, the editors have removed many of the orthographic impediments inherent in Middle English verse and have modernized punctuation, capitalization, and obsolete letters while scrupulously seeking to retain the substantive integrity of the poems. "Critical and Historical Backgrounds" are provided in essays by Peter Dronke, Stephen Manning, Raymond Oliver, and Rosemary Woolf. In a special section, six poems are singled out for critical comment by A. K. Moore, Edmund Reiss, D. W. Robertson, Jr., E. T. Donaldson, John Speirs, Thomas Jemielity, D. G. Halliburton, Leo Spitzer, and others. Two of these lyrics, "Maiden in the mor lay" and "I sing of a maiden," are discussed by four different scholars. In all, twenty-five poems are discussed in the essays. The volume also includes a list of Abbreviations, a Table of Textual Sources and Dates, a Select Bibliography, and an Index of First Lines.

Play the Viol is the first comprehensive guide to appear in modern times and covers the treble, tenor, and bass viol. Its detailed technical instruction is based on original sources and on Alison Crum's extensive experience of performing and teaching. The book assumes no knowledge beyond an ability to read music, but aims to help players to reach an advanced standard, even without regular access to a teacher.

The musical achievements of the so-called `Franco-Flemish School' have attracted many writers, yet Bruges itself has still to be put back on the map of European music history. This book describes how the people of Bruges shaped their acoustic environment and gave musical expression to their spiritual needs. It is based on a scrutiny of musical sources, stylistic trends in music, composers' achievements, and the function of musical genres; all these are seen against a reconstruction, from archival sources, of the socio-economic context of the art of music - an art which, in all its various manifestations, `high' and `low', sacred and secular, courtly and civic, polyphonic and monophonic, mirrors later medieval urban culture as a whole.

Bacchylides: Politics, Performance, Poetic Tradition combines close literary analysis of Bacchylides' poetry with detailed discussion of the central role poetry played in a variety of differing political contexts throughout Greece in the early fifth century BC. In Bacchylides' praise poetry, David Fearn argues, the poet manipulates a wide range of earlier Greek literature not only to elevate the status of his wealthy patrons, but also to provoke thought about the nature of political power and aristocratic society. New light is also shed on Bacchylides' Dithyrambs, through detailed discussion of the evidence for the kuklios khoros ('circular chorus') and its relation to a variety of different religious festivals, especially within democratic Athens. The links created between literary concerns and cultural contexts reinvigorate these underappreciated poems and reveal their central importance for the self-definition of political communities.

The attempt to play music with the styles and instruments of its era--commonly referred to as the early music movement--has become immensely popular in recent years. For instance, Billboard's "Top Classical Albums" of 1993 and 1994 featured Anonymous 4, who sing medieval music, and the best-selling Beethoven recording of 1995 was a period-instruments symphony cycle led by John Eliot Gardiner, who is Deutsche Grammophon's top-selling living conductor. But the movement has generated as much controversy as it has best-selling records, not only about the merits of its results, but also about the validity of its approach. To what degree can we recreate long-lost performing styles? How important are historical period instruments for the performance of a piece? Why should musicians bother with historical information? Are they sacrificing art to scholarship?
Now, in Inside Early Music, Bernard D. Sherman has invited many of the leading practitioners to speak out about their passion for early music--why they are attracted to this movement and how it shapes their work. Readers listen in on conversations with conductors Gardiner, William Christie, and Roger Norrington, Peter Phillips of the Tallis Scholars, vocalists Susan Hellauer of Anonymous 4, forte pianist Robert Levin, cellist Anner Bylsma, and many other leading artists. The book is divided into musical eras--Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, and Classic and Romantic--with each interview focusing on particular composers or styles, touching on heated topics such as the debate over what is "authentic," the value of playing on period instruments, and how to interpret the composer's intentions. Whether debating how to perform Monteverdi'smadrigals or comparing Andrew Lawrence-King's Renaissance harp playing to jazz, the performers convey not only a devotion to the spirit of period performance, but the joy of discovery as they struggle to bring the music most truthfully to life. Spurred on by Sherman's probing questions and immense knowledge of the subject, these conversations movingly document the aspirations, growing pains, and emerging maturity of the most exciting movement in contemporary classical performance, allowing each artist's personality and love for his or her craft to shine through.
From medieval plainchant to Brahms' orchestral works, Inside Early Music takes readers-whether enthusiasts or detractors-behind the scenes to provide a masterful portrait of early music's controversies, challenges, and rewards.

A comedy of Aristophanes was in large measure a musical performance, and his lyric verse covers a wide range of styles - from popular song to parody of tragedy. The music is lost, and our only way of recovering something of the experience of an Athenian audience is by studying the rhythms of the poetry. This book provides a full text, with scansions, of the lyric of the surviving plays, and an introduction to the different rhythms used by Aristophanes, their origins, and literary associations. Dr Parker pays particular attention to showing the role played by lyric metre in the structure of the plays and to distinguishing the different levels of musical style, thus illustrating the integral part metre plays in Aristophanes' dramatic art and satire. She also discusses fully the metrical aspects of textual problems in Aristophanes' lyric, and a section of the introduction traces the evolution of the study of Aristophanes' metres and the influence this has on the text.