It has become widely accepted among musicologists that medieval music is most profitably studied from interdisciplinary perspectives that situate it within broad culture 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.

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.

An urgently needed guide to understanding medieval music to be used as a text for the university undergraduate, graduate students in music and interdisciplinary medieval studies, and for the professional musicologist and medievalist. This book will also be appreciated by everyone interested in early music. Nancy van Deusen's The Cultural Context of Medieval Music addresses the mental landscape surrounding music that, especially, was sung and experienced in the Middle Ages. Largely anonymous in its composition, and apparently lacking the motivation of fame and commerce, music within a well thought-out system of education served a purpose that goes far beyond casual entertainment or personal professional advancement. Offering experience through performance, music exemplified the basic principles not only of the material and possible measurements of the visible world—such as of objects, relationships, and movement—but also of the invisible materials of sound and time, making it an ideal medium for working with unseen substances such as concepts, imaginations, and ideas. St. Augustine in the late fourth century reinforced the importance of music for the process of learning when he wrote that nothing could be truly understood without music. This book shows how this, in fact, is the case—a message of great relevance today.

Music was crucial to the learning process itself in the Middle Ages-and beyond. One learned basic concepts by doing them, and learned them well because music was "delicious" to the taste-a medieval insight that should be reclaimed

This book seeks to understand the music of the later Middle Ages in a fuller perspective, moving beyond the traditional focus on the creative work of composers in isolation to consider the participation of performers and listeners in music-making.

The complex relationship between myths and music is here investigated.

For many centuries, the Western imagination has pictured the medieval period as a kind of odyssey: a journey that took humankind to a strange country and ended in the Renaissance with its homecoming and the restoration of its inheritance. In this stimulating and provocative book, Christopher Page, Director of the acclaimed early music vocal group Gothic Voices, explores the kinds of generalizations that we habitually make about "the Middle Ages" and which, whether we know it or not, sustain the false image of a medieval odyssey. In chapters that proceed chronologically from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century, he examines what we suppose to be the serenity of medieval reflection on such matters as the "numerical" explanation of musical beauty, and he questions the modern tendency to regard Ars antiqua motets as music for "an intellectual elite." Turning to the Ars Nova and beyond, he discusses the relation between fourteenth century innovations and contemporary science. A final chapter explores the powerful influence of Johan Huizinga's classic The Waning of the Middle Ages upon musicology. Page's lively prose is full of provocative ideas, and is enriched by an uncommonly deep experience of medieval music.