German Instrumental Music of the Late Middle Ages
Players, Patrons and Performance Practice

This book describes instrumental music and its context in German society of the late middle ages.

Keith Polk (Author)

9780521612029, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 9 June 2005

292 pages
24.8 x 18.8 x 2.4 cm, 0.525 kg

This book describes instrumental music and its context in German society of the late middle ages - from about 1350 to 1520. Players at that time improvised, much like jazz musicians of our day, but because they did not use notated music, only scant remnants of their activity have survived in written sources, and much has been left obscure. This book attempts to reconstruct an image of their music, discussing the instruments, ensembles, and performance practices of the time. What emerges from this study is a fundamental reappraisal of late medieval culture. A musical life is reconstructed which was not only extraordinary in its own time, but which also laid the foundations of an artistic culture that later produced such giants as Schütz, Bach, Mozart and Beethoven.

List of illustrations
List of tables
Preface and acknowledgements
List of abbreviations
Note on the music examples and German text
1. Germany and instrumental music in the Late Middle Ages
2. German soft music, the instruments and ensembles
3. German loud music, the instruments and ensembles
4. The patrons: music in German courts
5. The patrons: music in German cities
6. The sources and the written repertory of instrumental polyphony
7. Approaches to instrumental performance practice: models of extemporaneous techniques
Notes
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Music [AV]