Composing Community in Late Medieval Music
Self-Reference, Pedagogy, and Practice

An exploration of what self-referential compositions reveal about late medieval musical networks, linking choirboys to canons and performers to theorists.

Jane D. Hatter (Author)

9781108465595, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 19 August 2021

299 pages
24.4 x 17 x 1.6 cm, 0.54 kg

'… the book is stimulating and profitable to read because it brings together many well-known aspects in an interesting way and enriches them with detailed observations.' Nicole Schwindt, Die Musikforschung

When we sing lines in which a fifteenth-century musician uses ethereal polyphony to complain mundanely about money or hoarseness, more than half a millennium melts away. Equally intriguing are moments in which we experience solmization puns. These familiar worries and surprising jests break down temporal distances, humanizing the lives and endeavors of our musical forebears. Yet many instances of self-reference occur within otherwise serious pieces. Are these simply in-jokes, or are there more meaningful messages we risk neglecting if we dismiss them as comic relief? Music historian Jane D. Hatter takes seriously the pervasiveness of these features. Divided into two sections, this study considers pieces with self-referential features in the texts separately from discussions of pieces based on musical self-referential elements. Examining connections between self-referential repertoire from the years 1450–1530 and similar self-referential creations for painters' guilds, reveals musicians' agency in forming the first communities of early modern composers.

Introduction
Part I. Music about Musicians: 1. Paintings about painters to music about musicians
2. Miserere Supplicanti Du Fay: building community through musical devotions at Cambrai Cathedral
3. Ora Pro Nobis: forms of self-reference in musical prayers for musicians
4. Plorer, Gemir, Crier: musical mourning and the composer
Part II. Music about Music: 5. Paintings about painting and music about music-making
6. Simple lessons? Music theory as emblem of composition
7. Constructing the composer: symbolic use of the hexachord in compositions c.1500
8. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Theory of music & musicology [AVA], Music [AV], History of art: Byzantine & Medieval art c 500 CE to c 1400 [ACK]