Plainsong To Polyphony

It is the variation in plainsong, its living quality, that these essays address.

Redefines musical analysis for a period that marks the beginnings of composition as we know it now.

Despite the world-wide association of music and dance with religion, this is the first full-length study of the subject from a global perspective. The work consists of 3,816 references divided among 37 chapters. It covers tribal, regional, and global religions and such subjects as shamanism, liturgical dance, healing, and the relationship of music, mathematics, and mysticism. The referenced materials display such diverse approaches as analysis of music and dance, description of context, direct experience, observation, and speculation. The references address topics from such disciplines as sociology, anthropology, history, linguistics, musicology, ethnomusicology, theology, medicine, semiotics, and computer technology. Chapter 1 consists of general references to religious music and dance. The remaining 36 chapters are organized according to major geographical areas. Most chapters begin with general reference works and bibliographies, then continue with topics specific to the region or religion. This book will be of use to anyone with an interest in music, dance, religion, or culture.

Essays on important topics in early music.

John Taverner was the leading composer of church music under Henry VIII. His contributions to the mass and votive antiphon are varied, distinguished and sometimes innovative; he has left more important settings for the office than any of his predecessors, and even a little secular music survives. Hugh Benham, editor of Taverners complete works for Early English Church Music, now provides the first full-length study of the composer for over twenty years. He places the music in context, with the help of biographical information, discussion of Taverners place in society, and explanation of how each piece was used in the pre-Reformation church services. He investigates the musical language of Taverners predecessors as background for a fresh examination and appraisal of the music in the course of which he traces similarities with the work of younger composers. Issues confronting the performer are considered, and the music is also approached from the listeners point of view, initially through close analytical inspection of the celebrated votive antiphon Gaude plurimum.