Instrumentalists and Renaissance Culture, 1420–1600

Instrumentalists and Renaissance Culture, 1420–1600 PDF

Author: Victor Coelho

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2016-05-26

Total Pages: 353

ISBN-13: 1316571785

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This innovative and multi-layered study of the music and culture of Renaissance instrumentalists spans the early institutionalization of instrumental music from c.1420 to the rise of the basso continuo and newer roles for instrumentalists around 1600. Employing a broad cultural narrative interwoven with detailed case studies, close readings of eighteen essential musical sources, and analysis of musical images, Victor Coelho and Keith Polk show that instrumental music formed a vital and dynamic element in the artistic landscape, from rote function to creative fantasy. Instrumentalists occupied a central role in courtly ceremonies and private social rituals during the Renaissance, and banquets, dances, processions, religious celebrations and weddings all required their participation, regardless of social class. Instrumental genres were highly diverse artistic creations, from polyphonic repertories revealing knowledge of notated styles, to improvisation and flexible practices. Understanding the contributions of instrumentalists is essential for any accurate assessment of Renaissance culture.

The Jazz Bubble

The Jazz Bubble PDF

Author: Dale Chapman

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2018-03-23

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13: 0520968212

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Hailed by corporate, philanthropic, and governmental organizations as a metaphor for democratic interaction and business dynamics, contemporary jazz culture has a story to tell about the relationship between political economy and social practice in the era of neoliberal capitalism. The Jazz Bubble approaches the emergence of the neoclassical jazz aesthetic since the 1980s as a powerful, if unexpected, point of departure for a wide-ranging investigation of important social trends during this period, extending from the effects of financialization in the music industry to the structural upheaval created by urban redevelopment in major American cities. Dale Chapman draws from political and critical theory, oral history, and the public and trade press, making this a persuasive and compelling work for scholars across music, industry, and cultural studies.

Luxury Arts of the Renaissance

Luxury Arts of the Renaissance PDF

Author: Marina Belozerskaya

Publisher: Getty Publications

Published: 2005-10-01

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 0892367857

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Today we associate the Renaissance with painting, sculpture, and architecture—the “major” arts. Yet contemporaries often held the “minor” arts—gem-studded goldwork, richly embellished armor, splendid tapestries and embroideries, music, and ephemeral multi-media spectacles—in much higher esteem. Isabella d’Este, Marchesa of Mantua, was typical of the Italian nobility: she bequeathed to her children precious stone vases mounted in gold, engraved gems, ivories, and antique bronzes and marbles; her favorite ladies-in-waiting, by contrast, received mere paintings. Renaissance patrons and observers extolled finely wrought luxury artifacts for their exquisite craftsmanship and the symbolic capital of their components; paintings and sculptures in modest materials, although discussed by some literati, were of lesser consequence. This book endeavors to return to the mainstream material long marginalized as a result of historical and ideological biases of the intervening centuries. The author analyzes how luxury arts went from being lofty markers of ascendancy and discernment in the Renaissance to being dismissed as “decorative” or “minor” arts—extravagant trinkets of the rich unworthy of the status of Art. Then, by re-examining the objects themselves and their uses in their day, she shows how sumptuous creations constructed the world and taste of Renaissance women and men.

The Cambridge History of Fifteenth-Century Music

The Cambridge History of Fifteenth-Century Music PDF

Author: Anna Maria Busse Berger

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2015-07-16

Total Pages: 1058

ISBN-13: 1316298299

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Through forty-five creative and concise essays by an international team of authors, this Cambridge History brings the fifteenth century to life for both specialists and general readers. Combining the best qualities of survey texts and scholarly literature, the book offers authoritative overviews of central composers, genres, and musical institutions as well as new and provocative reassessments of the work concept, the boundaries between improvisation and composition, the practice of listening, humanism, musical borrowing, and other topics. Multidisciplinary studies of music and architecture, feasting, poetry, politics, liturgy, and religious devotion rub shoulders with studies of compositional techniques, musical notation, music manuscripts, and reception history. Generously illustrated with figures and examples, this volume paints a vibrant picture of musical life in a period characterized by extraordinary innovation and artistic achievement.

Music and Culture in the Middle Ages and Beyond

Music and Culture in the Middle Ages and Beyond PDF

Author: Benjamin Brand

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2016-10-27

Total Pages: 379

ISBN-13: 131679895X

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It has become widely accepted among musicologists that medieval music is most profitably studied from interdisciplinary perspectives that situate it within broad cultural contexts. The origins of this consensus lie in a decisive reorientation of the field that began approximately four decades ago. For much of the twentieth century, research on medieval music had focused on the discovery and evaluation of musical and theoretical sources. The 1970s and 1980s, by contrast, witnessed calls for broader methodologies and more fully contextual approaches that in turn anticipated the emergence of the so-called 'New Musicology'. The fifteen essays in the present collection explore three interrelated areas of inquiry that proved particularly significant: the liturgy, sources (musical and archival), and musical symbolism. In so doing, these essays not only acknowledge past achievements but also illustrate how this broad, interdisciplinary approach remains a source for scholarly innovation.

Conducting the Brahms Symphonies

Conducting the Brahms Symphonies PDF

Author: Christopher Dyment

Publisher: Boydell & Brewer

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 270

ISBN-13: 1783271000

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How did Brahms conduct his four symphonies? What did he want from other conductors when they performed these works, and to which among them did he give his approval? And crucially, are there any stylistic pointers to these performances in early recordings of the symphonies made in the first half of the twentieth century? For the first time, Christopher Dyment provides a comprehensive and in-depth answer to these important issues. Drawing together thestrands of existing research with extensive new material from a wide range of sources - the views of musicians, contemporary journals, memoirs, biographies and other critical literature - Dyment presents a vivid picture of historic performance practice in Brahms's era and the half-century that followed. Here is a remarkable panorama showcasing Brahms himself conducting, together with those conductors whom he heard, among them Levi, Richter, Nikisch, Weingartner and Fritz Steinbach, and their disciples, such as Toscanini, Stokowski, Boult and Fritz Busch. Here, too, are other famed Brahms conductors of the early twentieth century, including Furtwängler and Abendroth, whose connections with the Brahms tradition are closely examined. Dyment then analyses recordings of the symphonies by these conductors and highlights aspects which the composer might well have commended. Finally, Dyment suggests the importanceof his conclusions for those contemporary conductors who are currently attempting to rediscover genuine performance traditions in their own re-creations of the symphonies. This major study is complemented with forty photographs and a frontispiece. It is sure to fascinate musicians, Brahms enthusiasts and those interested in the history of recorded music. CHRISTOPHER DYMENT is author of Felix Weingartner: Recollections and Recordings(Triad Press 1976) and Toscanini in Britain (The Boydell Press 2012). He has published many articles about historic conductors over the last forty years.

The Cambridge Companion to the Rolling Stones

The Cambridge Companion to the Rolling Stones PDF

Author: Victor Coelho

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2019-09-12

Total Pages: 247

ISBN-13: 1107030269

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The first collection of academic essays focused entirely on the musical, historical, cultural and media impact of the Rolling Stones.

Singing to the Lyre in Renaissance Italy

Singing to the Lyre in Renaissance Italy PDF

Author: Blake Wilson

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2019-11-21

Total Pages: 487

ISBN-13: 1108488072

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The first comprehensive study of the dominant form of solo singing in Renaissance Italy prior to the mid-sixteenth century.

Tielman Susato and the Music of His Time

Tielman Susato and the Music of His Time PDF

Author: Keith Polk

Publisher: Pendragon Press

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 232

ISBN-13: 9781576471067

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Ambitious, versatile, and extraordinarily talented, Tielman Susato carved out a distinguished place for himself in the Renaissance cultural scene. He began his professional life as a trombonist in the Antwerp civic band. This was one of the outstanding ensembles of the day, but he soon expanded his range of activity as a musical scribe, preparing manuscript collections for an avid market that developed in the rapidly growing Flemish urban centers. He subsequently moved on and established one of the foremost publishing houses in Europe, providing an impeccably selected musical repertory that found a ready market then and which engenders respect even today among musicians and students of Renaissance music. In addition, he was a composer of exceptional talent, supplying superb pieces in all the genres that would have been desired in the elite urban and courtly circles of the time. In this volume a group of prominent scholars has contributed essays surveying a broad range of topics concerning Susato. These provide details of his biography (some only recently available), discuss aspects of his publications, investigate his compositional techniques, and lay out contexts for Susato's highly varied and remarkable career.