kenjari: (piano)
kenjari ([personal profile] kenjari) wrote2009-01-03 08:08 pm
Entry tags:

Book Review

Companion to Medieval and Renaissance Music
edited by Tess Knighton and David Fallows

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).

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