-
Views
-
Cite
Cite
Francis Knights, Editorial, Early Music, Volume 42, Issue 2, May 2014, Page 165, https://doi.org/10.1093/em/cau052
Close - Share Icon Share
Extract
Following on from no fewer than four consecutive themed issues (Dowland, the French Baroque, the early Romantic guitar, and Gustav Leonhardt and the early music revival), the May 2014 issue returns to normal programming, with a varied survey of music from the 15th to the late 18th centuries. A rich palette of ideas drawn from iconography, notation, theory, institutions, archives, aesthetics and performing practice are brought to bear on a varied repertory, including sacred music, opera, dance and keyboard music.
We begin in the Vatican in the 15th century, with Stuart J. Robb’s new interpretation of Pintoricchio’s fresco Musica—famous for its depiction of an early vihuela—which he proposes may be the earliest depiction of music as a liberal art, combining performance, history and theory in its symbolism. Moving from the inevitably subjective interpretation of visual meaning to the more prescriptive application of words, Timothy McKinney takes us into the realm of musical rules, examining the theoretical and practical application of precepts applying to parallel congruent imperfect consonances in the mid-16th century. Adrian Willaert appears to be a key figure in a then-changing praxis. A further type of source from the same period is examined by Mary Ferer, who looks at the illuminating archival records of the personnel—which include many significant composers—from Charles V’s Capilla Flamenca. Both biographical details and the functioning of this important institution are thereby clarified.
