Music of the Middle Ages: Volume 2

A new and illuminating study of medieval polyphony.

F. Alberto Gallo (Author)

9780521284837, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 11 July 1985

176 pages
21.6 x 13.8 x 1.7 cm, 0.255 kg

This new and illuminating study of medieval polyphony examines the links between music and contemporary political, civil and religious events. The period from the second half of the twelfth century to the second half of the fifteenth is of great historical interest since it marks the development of polyphonic forms and the birth of mensural music. There is also the earliest evidence of individual composers, from Léonin and Pérotin to Machaut, Landini and Dufay. Alberto Gallo pays particular attention to the elaboration of refined techniques of composing, often drawing a parallel with the techniques of rhetoric and poetry. The writing down of music and also theory are shown to be essential stages of composition. Professor Gallo also describes the birth of the professional composer and the flowering of those permanent institutions within which musicians worked and which for centuries characterized European music. Professor Gallo has taken the opportunity of this first English edition to update the text, and to add notes.

List of illustrations
Abbreviations
Foreword
Maps
Part I. The Thirteenth Century: Part II. Fourteenth-Century France: Part III. Fourteenth-Century Italy: Part IV. The Fifteenth Century: Readings
Notes
General bibliography
Detailed bibliography
General index
Index of work titles.

Subject Areas: Music [AV]