Overview

Study of musical manuscripts from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, opening a window on piety, liturgy and musical life in late medieval society. The musical culture of the Low Countries in the early modern period was a flourishing one, apparent beyond the big cathedrals and monasteries, and reaching down to smaller parish churches. Unfortunately, very few manuscripts containing the music have survived from the period, and what we know rests to a huge extent on six music books preserved from St Peter's Church, Leiden. This book describes the manuscripts, their provenance, history and repertory, and the zeven-getijdencollege, the ecclesiastical organisations which ordered the music books, in detail. These organisations have their roots in fifteenth-century piety, founded on the initiative of individuals and townadministrators throughout Holland, principally to ensure that prayers and Masses were said for those in the afterlife. Music, both chant and polyphony, played an important part in these commemorative practices; the volume also looks at the choristers and choirmasters, and how such services were organised. ERIC JAS is a lecturer in music at the university of Utrecht.

Full Product Details

9781783273263

Table of Contents

Reviews

Extremely detailed and informative. EARLY MUSIC

This fascinating account of the contents and function of the choirbooks of St Peter's church in Leiden has resonance far beyond the usual somewhat narrow focus of musicological studies of this period...this volume provides an important glimpse into some of the many treasures of music (as well as art) that fell victim to the religious zeal and, on occasion, the filching fingers of the Reformers of sixteenth-century Europe. As a study of the vibrancy and richness of the spiritual and musical life of the Catholic Netherlands at the time of the Reformation it is of great value. * THE CONSORT * Piety and polyphony in Sixteenth-Century Holland is a work that should appeal to anyone working in Renaissance history. . . . [A]n overall magnificent book. . . .As Jas states in his introduction, the musical life of Leiden almost certainly has many more secrets to yield to scholarly investigation, and musicologists and historians could do nothing better to prepare themselves for that journey than spending time with this admirable and impressive study. -- Graham Freeman * CANADIAN JOURNAL OF NETHERLANDIC STUDIES * Engaging reading for all who work on singing in the late medieval and early modern Low Countries and beyond. * EARLY MUSIC HISTORY * Extremely detailed and informative. * EARLY MUSIC *

Author Information

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available