The Cultural Life Of The Early Polyphonic Mass

Kirkman sheds new light on the polyphonic Mass, exploring the hidden meanings within its music and its legacy today.

The first ever book-length study of the a cappella masses which appeared in France in choirbook layout during the baroque era. After tracing the publishing history of this distinctive but little-known repertoire, the author places the works in their social, liturgical and musical context.

The mass is an extraordinary musical form. Whereas other Western art music genres from medieval times have fallen out of favour, the mass has not merely survived but flourished. A variety of historical forces within religious, secular, and musical arenas saw the mass expand well beyond its origins as a cycle of medieval chants, become concertised and ultimately bifurcate. Even as Western societies moved away from their Christian origins to become the religiously plural and politically secular societies of today, and the Church itself moved in favour of congregational singing, composers continued to compose masses. By the early twentieth century two forms of mass existed: the liturgical mass composed for church services, and the concert mass composed for secular venues. Spanning two millennia, The Origins and Ascendancy of the Concert Mass outlines the origins and meanings of the liturgical texts, defines the concert mass, explains how and why the split occurred, and provides examples that demonstrate composers’ gradual appropriation of the genre as a vehicle for personal expression on serious issues. By the end of the twentieth century the concert mass had become a repository for an eclectic range of theological and political ideas.

Through hundreds of published and unpublished sources, Alex J. Novikoff traces the evolution of disputation from its ancient origins to its broader influence in the scholastic culture and public sphere of the High Middle Ages.

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 essays in this volume offer diverse, innovative approaches to medieval music and culture.

This engaging study introduces Renaissance polyphony to a modern audience, balancing the listening experience with what lies beyond the notes.

The culture of the enigmatic from Classical Antiquity to the Renaissance -- Devising musical riddles in the Renaissance -- The reception of the enigmatic in music theory -- Riddles visualised.