ihatemusic

Hello,
I am looking for some recommendations on books about Medieval Music. I guess a theoretical one? Hopefully something that covers a lot of ground - plainchant, the heterophony in hebridean psalms, to the tangled polyphony of ars subtilior. I know it's a bit of a longshot, but this was the only place I could think of asking, outside my local library which turned up mostly empty.

Perhaps the appropriate volume(s) of Richard Taruskin's Oxford History of Western Music. A couple of grad students blogged their way through it, which might give you an idea of its scope. The blog also has a bibliography, plenty of room for perusal there.

yeah, i guess it's sort of an esoteric subject. thanks for the suggestion though.

cdeupree wrote:Perhaps the appropriate volume(s) of Richard Taruskin's Oxford History of Western Music. A couple of grad students blogged their way through it, which might give you an idea of its scope. The blog also has a bibliography, plenty of room for perusal there.

Could't agree more, i've used it for couple of essays about medieval music. If you want couple more i can give you some titles.

I like "Fence" and "Open City" which I think is no more but I could be wrong.???

Old thread, but I thought I'd contribute "Music in Medieval Europe" by Jeremy Yudkin. Read it for a class on medieval and renaissance music years ago and it was full of great musical selections and theoretical analysis. Also read 'Music in the Renaissance' by Howard M. Brown and Louise K. Stein.

Fwiw, I don't like Taruskin.