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The Cultural Context of Medieval Music
Nancy Van Deusen
ISBN: 0-275-99412-0
ISBN-13: 978-0-275-99412-9
224 pages
Praeger Publishers
Publication: 6/30/2010
List Price: $44.95 (UK Sterling Price: £31.95)
Availability: Not yet published. (Estimated publication date, 6/30/2010)
Media Type: Hardcover
Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
Description: This volume addresses the problem of music and composition in an anonymous creative milieu—the Middle Ages. Other examples of this include the Glossa ordinaria, whose Biblical commentators have remained maddeningly obscured. The problem is especially crucial for medieval music, having to do with a medieval concept of fame, as well as the basic concept of what a composer is and does, as well as creative originality and inspiration. The medieval idea of the creative process differs totally from our own today.

Most books on medieval music are incomprehensible for students and medievalists alike, not to mention the interested lay reader. This volume brings the medieval priorities with respect to music into focus. Music in the Middle Ages (broadly interpreted to the late 18th century), rather than existing solely for its educative or entertainment value, or as sefl-expression of the individual artist and composer, had the serious challenge of exemplifying the basic concepts that underlie the universe as well as everyday life in the world around us. These basic principles include the concepts of particularity within general, unlimited, inchoate mass, relationship, and movement. Far more than a luxury or entertainment, music as a discipline was utterly necessary within the medieval educational system, as well as within the mental universe of thinking individuals in the Middle Ages.
About the Author: NANCY VAN DEUSEN is Professor of Music, The Claremont Graduate School, Claremont, California.
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