Book Review
Dec. 27th, 2024 03:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariPlague and Music in the Renaissance
by Remi Chiu
This book was very good and very timely. Published in 2017, it also seems unintentionally prescient. Seeing some of the parallels and differences between the past experience of plague and our present pandemic was very illuminating. Chiu discusses how music was used and perceived in dealing with the recurrences of the Black Death that happened in Europe from the 15th through the 17th century. He covers how music was used to both commemorate and protect against the plague, with a focus on sacred works. I especially liked the discussion of the cult of St. Sebastian and how Chiu used music to explain and illustrate it. I also liked the examination of private and public devotional activity. A really nice touch is how Chiu labeled the music examples, adding brackets and other annotations to make it easy to see what he was discussing - it was really helpful for those of us who are a bit rusty on our score analysis skills.
by Remi Chiu
This book was very good and very timely. Published in 2017, it also seems unintentionally prescient. Seeing some of the parallels and differences between the past experience of plague and our present pandemic was very illuminating. Chiu discusses how music was used and perceived in dealing with the recurrences of the Black Death that happened in Europe from the 15th through the 17th century. He covers how music was used to both commemorate and protect against the plague, with a focus on sacred works. I especially liked the discussion of the cult of St. Sebastian and how Chiu used music to explain and illustrate it. I also liked the examination of private and public devotional activity. A really nice touch is how Chiu labeled the music examples, adding brackets and other annotations to make it easy to see what he was discussing - it was really helpful for those of us who are a bit rusty on our score analysis skills.
