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9780195148886

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A meticulously researched survey of early medieval theory and its application to plainsong, it will form the starting point for future research in the field. --James Grier, Professor of Music History, University of Western Ontario<br> A comprehensive study, fine-tuning our understanding of the challenges faced by medieval theorists as they adopted terminology and concepts from Antiquity to make sense of the music of their own time - the chant repertory of the Christian church. Professor Atkinson brings a unique perspective to this history of tone-system, mode, and notation through his command of Greek and Latin text sources, combined with his forage into the chant repertory itself. The scholarly community will prize this contribution for years to come. --Dolores Pesce, Professor of Music, Washington University in St. Louis<br> In this meticulous examination of the texts on music that were the most widely read from the ninth to the eleventh century, Charles Atkinson reveals how medieval theorist musicians reinterpreted the tone systems of ancient Greece and the writings of Latin grammarians to explain and notate the new practice of plainchant. His elegant and remarkably lucid argument is the crowning achievement of decades of scholarship: it not only explains early medieval tonality but resolves the longstanding problem of the derivation of the earliest Carolingian notations. It truly transforms our understanding of medieval music. Every musician and medievalist will benefit from reading it. -- Barbara Haggh-Huglo, Professor of Music, University of Maryland, College Park<br>

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Active as both clarinetist and musicologist, Charles M. Atkinson is a scholar whose work is devoted primarily to music within the intellectual history of Antiquity and the Middle Ages. His areas of research and publication range from ancient Greek conceptions of tó??? [tónos] to medieval liturgy and music to the early history of American jazz. He is Professor of Musicology at The Ohio State University and President of the American Musicological Society.

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