German Instrumental Music of the Late Middle Ages: Players, Patrons and Performance Practice (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780521612029)

This book describes instrumental music and its context in German society of the late middle ages - from about 1350 to 1520. Players at that time improvised, much like jazz musicians of our day, but because they did not use notated music, only scant remnants of their activity have survived in written sources, and much has been left obscure. This book attempts to reconstruct an image of their music, discussing the instruments, ensembles, and performance practices of the time. What emerges from this study is a fundamental reappraisal of late medieval culture. A musical life is reconstructed which was not only extraordinary in its own time, but which also laid the foundations of an artistic culture that later produced such giants as Schütz, Bach, Mozart and Beethoven.

Author: Keith Polk
ISBN-10: 0521612020
ISBN-13: 9780521612029
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 06/09/2005
Pages: 292
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.16lbs
Size: 9.69h x 7.44w x 0.61d