The Modern Invention of Medieval Music Scholarship, Ideology, Performance [Hardcover]

A challenging book which questions how much is really known about the way medieval music sounded.Medieval music has become hugely popular. But it is largely a modern invention. Scholars and performers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries hoped to bring back to life music that could evoke the Middle Ages. Yet all the time they were inventing new sounds and new ways of understanding how the music worked. The story of the reinvention of medieval music is told here for the first time.--a story of individuals, the societies in which they worked, their tastes and beliefs, all interacting to remake a lost musical world.Medieval music has become hugely popular. But it is largely a modern invention. Scholars and performers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries hoped to bring back to life music that could evoke the Middle Ages. Yet all the time they were inventing new sounds and new ways of understanding how the music worked. The story of the reinvention of medieval music is told here for the first time.--a story of individuals, the societies in which they worked, their tastes and beliefs, all interacting to remake a lost musical world.Scholars and performers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries attempted to revive music that could evoke the Middle Ages. They invented new sounds and new ways of understanding medieval music. This is the fascinating story of the musicians and the societies in which they worked to remake a lost musical world.Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1. The invention of the voices-and-instruments hypothesis; 2. The re-invention of the a cappella hypothesis; 3. Hearing medieval harmonies; 4. Evidence, interpretation, power and persuasion; Conclusion; Notes; Bibliography; Index. This book is a good read for anyone who is interested in medieval music or has an interest in how history, particularly music history, is written and developed. Music Educators Journal Part histoiography and part reception history, this meticulously researched volumelC–