Journal of Music Theory current issue

Editor's Note

Quinn, I. — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:28:26 PST

Introduction

Bain, J. — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:28:26 PST

A Sarah Fuller Bibliography

Bain, J., Evans, M. — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:28:26 PST

Interpreting Hucbald on Mode

Fuller, S. — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:28:26 PST

Hucbald of St. Amand's treatise Musica took shape in the late Carolingian era in a time of intense and independent music-theoretical activity. Hucbald has been recognized as a pioneer who brought elements from Greek music theory to bear upon plainsong, but his view of mode has been considered rather routine. Through scrutiny of modal references and explanatory rhetoric within the treatise, this study corrects some modern readings of Hucbald's teaching on mode and offers a new assessment of the relationship between modal lore and venerable Boethian theory in Hucbald's theoretical universe. In Musica, a substratum of preexistent modal knowledge replaces Boethian number relationships as the foundation underlying basic elements of music theory.

Music in Dialogue: Conversational, Literary, and Didactic Discourse about Music in the Renaissance

Judd, C. C. — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:28:26 PST

This article takes Thomas Morley's A Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Musicke (1597) as a point of departure for exploring a group of sixteenth-century texts that place music, especially as represented by musical notation, within the form of a dialogue. Music and musical writings have barely figured in the study of the Renaissance dialogue, yet these works offer specific insights about the nature of the genre. In addition to Morley's treatise, works discussed in detail include Anton Francesco Doni's Dialogo della musica (1544), Gioseffo Zarlino's Dimostrationi harmoniche (1571), and Ercole Bottrigari's Il desiderio overo de' concerti (1594). The article focuses on the uniquely hybrid nature of each of these texts and the ways in which various generic constraints and demands of format interact. Musical treatises in dialogue format offer a special means of understanding the broader history of the dialogue and the role of spatiality and temporality in creating verisimilitude. While Doni's Dialogo may be seen as an attempt at interpolating "real music" into the conversational and literary genre of the dialogue, Morley's didactic treatise represents the culmination of that interpolation: the means for taking part in the original conversation, namely the ability to sing.

Reconsidering "High Style" and "Low Style" in Medieval Song

Aubrey, E. — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:28:26 PST

Using the concept of "style" in analysis runs the risk of circularity, where features of individual works are identified as belonging to a style whose definition itself is derived from those features. This pitfall undermines studies of the songs of the twelfth- and thirteenth-century troubadours and trouvères that delineate a "high style," including chansons, and a "low style," including dances and pastourelles. The dichotomy originated in the nineteenth century with Gaston Paris's concept of amour courtois, from which Roger Dragonetti later derived the term grand chant courtois, now a common label for "high-style" songs. Other literary scholars, notably Paul Zumthor and Pierre Bec, have discussed problems in classifying styles and genres. References to genres in medieval texts are ambiguous, and manuscripts rarely group songs by genre. Theorists such as Raimon Vidal, Jofre de Foixà, and Johannes de Grocheio do not present a clear-cut or consistent stratification of genres. John Stevens, Christopher Page, and others have proposed features of "high style" and "low style" that do not entirely agree. An examination of their examples and additional ones demonstrates that a perception of "style" can be subjective and circular, and that the notion of "high style" and "low style" is an oversimplification.

Hildegard, Hermannus, and Late Chant Style

Bain, J. — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:28:26 PST

The music of Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) has often been described as standing outside medieval chant traditions. This article argues that although many features of her music deviate from early chant, her repertoire conforms instead in remarkable ways with a late chant style, which appeared first in the eleventh century. Detailed analysis and comparison of the music (and theory) of Hermannus Contractus (1013-1054) with Hildegard's demonstrates a shared emphasis on Hermannus's modal nodes of final, fifth, and octave. Further analyses of antiphons from the later Middle Ages for Saints Hubert and Roch, as found in the Salzinnes Antiphonal, confirm that this musical style prevailed for several centuries. A contextualization of Hildegard's musical output makes it clear that she was not as isolated musically (or as musically untutored) as generally thought, but rather immersed in the musical traditions of her day. A historiographical overview reveals that nineteenth-century scholars were already aware of these similarities, in contrast to scholarship of the last thirty years, which has focused on Hildegard's originality.

Music Theory from Boethius to Zarlino: A Bibliography and Guide

Maloy, R. — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:28:26 PST

Sung Birds: Music, Nature, and Poetry in the Later Middle Ages

Newes, V. — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:28:26 PST