Instrumentalists and Renaissance Culture, 1420–1600 : Players of Function and Fantasy

This Innovative And Multi-layered Study Of The Music And Culture Of Renaissance Instrumentalists Spans The Early Institutionalization Of Instrumental Music From C.1420 To The Rise Of The Basso Continuo And Newer Roles For Instrumentalists Around 1600. Employing A Broad Cultural Narrative Interwoven With Detailed Case Studies, Close Readings Of Eighteen Essential Musical Sources, And Analysis Of Musical Images, Victor Coelho And Keith Polk Show That Instrumental Music Formed A Vital And Dynamic Element In The Artistic Landscape, From Rote Function To Creative Fantasy. Instrumentalists Occupied A Central Role In Courtly Ceremonies And Private Social Rituals During The Renaissance, And Banquets, Dances, Processions, Religious Celebrations And Weddings All Required Their Participation, Regardless Of Social Class. Instrumental Genres Were Highly Diverse Artistic Creations, From Polyphonic Repertories Revealing Knowledge Of Notated Styles, To Improvisation And Flexible Practices. Understanding The Contributions Of Instrumentalists Is Essential For Any Accurate Assessment Of Renaissance Culture [publisher Description] Renaissance Instrumental Music And Its Patrons : Patrons And Professionals -- A Source-based History Of Renaissance Instrumental Music -- The Players -- Instrumental Music For Celebration And Ceremony -- The Instrumentalist's Workshop : Pedagogy, Intabulation, And Compositional Process -- Renaissance Instruments : Images And Realities. Victor Coelho And Keith Polk. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. This innovative and multi-layered study of the music and culture of Renaissance instrumentalists spans the early institutionalization of instrumental music from c.1420 to the rise of the basso continuo and newer roles for instrumentalists around 1600. Employing a broad cultural narrative interwoven with detailed case studies, close readings of eighteen essential musical sources, and analysis of musical images, Victor Coelho and Keith Polk show that instrumental music formed a vital and dynamic element in the artistic landscape, from rote function to creative fantasy. Instrumentalists occupied a central role in courtly ceremonies and private social rituals during the Renaissance, and banquets, dances, processions, religious celebrations and weddings all required their participation, regardless of social class. Instrumental genres were highly diverse artistic creations, from polyphonic repertories revealing knowledge of notated styles, to improvisation and flexible practices. Understanding the contributions of instrumentalists is essential for any accurate assessment of Renaissance culture. - Victor Coelho is Professor of Music and Director of the Center for Early Music Studies at Boston University. A Fellow of Villa I Tatti, the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies in Florence, his books include "Music and Science in the Age of Galileo", "The Manuscript Sources of Seventeenth-Century Italian Lute Music", "Performance on Lute, Guitar, and Vihuela", and "The Cambridge Companion to the Guitar". Keith Polk is a Professor Emeritus at the University of New Hampshire, and has also taught at Brandeis University, the New England Conservatory, and Regents College, London. He is one of the foremost authorities on Renaissance instrumental music, and has produced numerous articles and several books on the subject, including "German Instrumental Music of the Late Middle Ages" (Cambridge, 1992) "Why did eighteenth-century writers employ digression as a literary form of diversion, and how did their readers come to enjoy linguistic and textual devices that self-consciously disrupt the reading experience? Darryl P. Domingo answers these questions through an examination of the formative period in the commercialization of leisure in England, and the coincidental coming of age of literary self-consciousness in works published between approximately 1690 and 1760. During this period, commercial entertainers tested out new ways of gratifying a public increasingly eager for amusement, while professional writers explored the rhetorical possibilities of intrusion, obstruction, and interruption through their characteristic use of devices like digression. Such devices adopt similar forms and fulfil similar functions in literature as do diversions in culture: they 'unbend the mind' and reveal the complex reciprocity between commercialized leisure and commercial literature in the age of Swift, Pope, and Fielding."--Publisher's description Dedication Contents List of figures Preface and acknowledgments List of abbreviations Prologue: The culture of Renaissance instrumental music 1 Renaissance instrumental music and its patrons 2 A source-based history of Renaissance instrumental music 3 The players 4 Instrumental music for celebration and ceremony 5 The instrumentalist’s workshop: pedagogy, intabulation, and compositional process 6 Renaissance instruments: images and realities Epilogue: function and fantasy Bibliography Index of primary sources General index This is the first in-depth study in any language exploring the vast cultural range of instrumental music during the Renaissance