Medieval Music and the Art of MemoryThis bold challenge to conventional notions about medieval music disputes the assumption of pure literacy and replaces it with a more complex picture of a world in which literacy and orality interacted. Asking such fundamental questions as how singers managed to memorize such an enormous amount of music and how music composed in the mind rather than in writing affected musical style, Anna Maria Busse Berger explores the impact of the art of memory on the composition and transmission of medieval music. Her fresh, innovative study shows that although writing allowed composers to work out pieces in the mind, it did not make memorization redundant but allowed for new ways to commit material to memory. Since some of the polyphonic music from the twelfth century and later was written down, scholars have long assumed that it was all composed and transmitted in written form. Our understanding of medieval music has been profoundly shaped by German philologists from the beginning of the last century who approached medieval music as if it were no different from music of the nineteenth century. But Medieval Music and the Art of Memory deftly demonstrates that the fact that a piece was written down does not necessarily mean that it was conceived and transmitted in writing. Busse Berger's new model, one that emphasizes the interplay of literate and oral composition and transmission, deepens and enriches current understandings of medieval music and opens the field for fresh interpretations. |
Contents
The First Great Dead White Male Composer | 9 |
the construction of the memorial archive | 45 |
Basic Theory Treatises | 85 |
The Memorization of Organum Discant and Counterpoint | 111 |
compositional process in polyphonic music | 159 |
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Common terms and phrases
Anonymous Anonymous IV antiphons art of memory beginning Book of Memory breves cantus Carruthers century chant chap chapter classification color composers consonances contrapuncti counterpoint Dame polyphony diminished counterpoint discant discussion dissonance Edited entire example faburden fifth florilegium Goody Guido Handschin hexachord Huglo Ibid imperfect important interval progressions isorhythmic motets Johannes learned Leech-Wilkinson Leonin liturgical Ludwig Magnus liber manuscript medieval music melismas melody memorized mensurabili meters Middle Ages mnemonic modal notation modal patterns modal rhythm music theory musicians musicology Musik neumes note values note-against-note octave Operibus sanctis oral organized Palestrina perfect performance Perotin pieces pitch plainchant poetry polyphony prolation prosimetrum psalm tone Pseudo-Chilston quod Regino of Prüm regula Repertorium repertory rhythmic modes rhythmic patterns Roesner rules scholars Similarly sing singers Smits van Waesberghe structure sung syllables talea tenor tenor progression theorists tion tonary trans triplum Vatican organum treatise verse visualized voice words writing written