Overview

The main function of western musical notation is incidental: it prescribes and records sound. But during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, notation began to take on an aesthetic life all its own. In the early fifteenth century, a musician might be asked to sing a line slower, faster, or starting on a different pitch than what is written. By the end of the century composers had begun tasking singers with solving elaborate puzzles to produce sounds whose relationship to the written notes is anything but obvious. These instructions, which appear by turns unnecessary and confounding, challenge traditional conceptions of music writing that understand notation as an incidental consequence of the desire to record sound. This book explores innovations in late-medieval music writing as well as how modern scholarship on notation has informedDLsometimes erroneouslyDLideas about the premodern era. Drawing on both musical and music-theoretical evidence, this book reframes our understanding of late-medieval musical notation as a system that was innovative, cutting-edge, and dynamicDLone that could be used to generate music, not just preserve it.

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9780197551912

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Reviews

A fascinating examination of the notation of polyphonic works, showing how seemingly recondite formulas serve musical purposes. -- Alex Ross With the invention of the ars nova notational system in the early fourteenth century, composers could explore a vast array of previously unavailable rhythmic possibilities. Zazulia's groundbreaking book gives the first detailed account of how this played out in musical practice for the next two hundred years, coming up with new ideas and observations on virtually every page. A major achievement in the history of early music! -- Anna Maria Busse Berger, Distinguished Professor of Music, University of California DS Davis A masterful exploration of how late-medieval music notation works and why it matters. Bridging periods too often kept apart and illuminating repertoire both famous and little-known, Zazulia takes us inside a musical world in which writing could carry as much aesthetic weight as sound. Don't miss this terrific book. -- Jesse Rodin, Associate Professor of Music, Stanford University; Director, Cut Circle; Director, Josquin Research Project

With the invention of the ars nova notational system in the early fourteenth century, composers could explore a vast array of previously unavailable rhythmic possibilities.A Zazulia's ground-breaking book gives the first detailed account of how this played out in musical practice for the next two hundred years, coming up with new ideas and observations on virtually every page. A major achievement in the history of early music! * Anna Maria Busse Berger, Distinguished Professor of Music, University of California - Davis * A masterful exploration of how late-medieval music notation works and why it matters. Bridging periods too often kept apart and illuminating repertoire both famous and little-known, Zazulia takes us inside a musical world in which writing could carry as much aesthetic weight as sound. Don't miss this terrific book. * Jesse Rodin, Associate Professor of Music, Stanford University; Director, Cut Circle; Director, Josquin Research Project *

Author Information

Emily Zazulia is Assistant Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, where she holds the Shirley Shenker Chair in the Arts and Humanities. She has published widely on medieval and Renaissance music, particularly concerning the intersection of complex notation, musical style, and intellectual history. Her research has received support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, the American Musicological Society, the Renaissance Society of America, and the Hellman Foundation.

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