Where Sight Meets Sound: The Poetics of Late-Medieval Music Writing

Western musical notation began to take on an aesthetic life in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, with musicians being asked to sing lines slower, faster, or starting on a different pitch than what is written. This challenged traditional conceptions of music writing and reframed our understanding of late-medieval musical notation as a system that was innovative, cutting-edge, and dynamic.

Format: Hardback
Length: 344 pages
Publication date: 24 March 2022
Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc

Western musical notation serves a primary purpose of prescribing and recording sound, but during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, it evolved to assume an aesthetic life of its own. In the early fifteenth century, musicians were occasionally requested to perform a line at a different tempo, speed, or starting pitch than what was indicated in the notation. By the end of the century, composers had started assigning singers with intricate tasks to create sounds that bear little resemblance to the written notes. These instructions, which can be either unnecessary or perplexing, challenge the conventional understanding of music writing, which views notation as a mere incidental outcome of the desire to capture sound.

This book delves into innovations in late-medieval music writing and examines how modern scholarship on notation has influenced—sometimes inaccurately—our understanding of the premodern era. By drawing on a combination of musical and music-theoretical evidence, this book reimagines our perception of late-medieval musical notation as a groundbreaking, cutting-edge, and dynamic system capable of generating music rather than solely preserving it.

In the early fifteenth century, musicians were occasionally requested to perform a line at a different tempo, speed, or starting pitch than what was indicated in the notation. By the end of the century, composers had started assigning singers with intricate tasks to create sounds that bear little resemblance to the written notes. These instructions, which can be either unnecessary or perplexing, challenge the conventional understanding of music writing, which views notation as a mere incidental outcome of the desire to capture sound.

This book delves into innovations in late-medieval music writing and examines how modern scholarship on notation has influenced—sometimes inaccurately—our understanding of the premodern era. By drawing on a combination of musical and music-theoretical evidence, this book reimagines our perception of late-medieval musical notation as a groundbreaking, cutting-edge, and dynamic system capable of generating music rather than solely preserving it.

In the early fifteenth century, musicians were occasionally requested to perform a line at a different tempo, speed, or starting pitch than what was indicated in the notation. By the end of the century, composers had started assigning singers with intricate tasks to create sounds that bear little resemblance to the written notes. These instructions, which can be either unnecessary or perplexing, challenge the conventional understanding of music writing, which views notation as a mere incidental outcome of the desire to capture sound.

This book delves into innovations in late-medieval music writing and examines how modern scholarship on notation has influenced—sometimes inaccurately—our understanding of the premodern era. By drawing on a combination of musical and music-theoretical evidence, this book reimagines our perception of late-medieval musical notation as a groundbreaking, cutting-edge, and dynamic system capable of generating music rather than solely preserving it.

Dimension: 235 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780197551912