General synthesis essay trying to consider, as an example, the causes of the notoriety of Johann Sebastian Bach, particularly in comparison whit his contemporary Vivaldi. Is the notoriety of the greats composers due to the real musical interest of their masterpieces for the people or to the result of a complex alchemy in which ideology mainly intervenes ? The name of Bach seems particularly to illustrate the influence of extra-musicals factors in the recognition of genius, real or supposed. The comparison with his contemporary Vivaldi allow to show the importance of such factors.

This book provides an overview of the current state of research on Machaut, the major figure of 14th-century French music and poetry, giving fair representation to the many areas of Machaut research that are pursued in fields outside music.Coverage of the current state of knowledge on each of the manuscripts includes the newly discovered Aberystwyth manuscript, described in detail here for the first time. A section on the large narrative poems pulls together recent research of several scholars and offers new views. An up-to-date concordance of the miniatures in all of the illustrated Machaut manuscripts gives information on where published studies and facsimiles may be found. The discography is the most complete list of Machaut recordings yet compiled and provides critical evaluations of recordings most valuable for instruction, according to our latest conception of performance practice in the 14th-century.A biography section organizes the documentary material in a way that will facilitate further research. The bibliography of secondary works cites books, editions, articles, and dissertations (including forthcoming works) from 1740 to 1991, in French, English, the other western European languages, Polish, Russian, and Japanese. The volume is fully indexed.

Historians of instruments and instrumental music have long recognised that there was a period of profound change in the seventeenth century, when the consorts or families of instruments developed during the Renaissance were replaced by the new models of the Baroque period. Yet the process is still poorly understood, in part because each instrument has traditionally been considered in isolation, and changes in design have rarely been related to changes in the way instruments were used, or what they played. The essays in this book are by distinguished international authors that include specialists in particular instruments together with those interested in such topics as the early history of the orchestra, iconography, pitch and continuo practice. The book will appeal to instrument makers and academics who have an interest in achieving a better understanding of the process of change in the seventeenth century, but the book also raises questions that any historically aware performer ought to be asking about the performance of Baroque music. What sorts of instruments should be used? At what pitch? In which temperament? In what numbers and/or combinations? For this reason, the book will be invaluable to performers, academics, instrument makers and anyone interested in the fascinating period of change from the 'Renaissance' to the 'Baroque'.

Over the past century and a half, the voices and bodies of animals have been used by scientists and music experts as a benchmark for measures of natural difference. Animal Musicalities traces music's taxonomies from Darwin to digital bird guides to show how animal song has become the starting point for enduring evaluations of species, races, and cultures. By examining the influential efforts made by a small group of men and women to define human diversity in relation to animal voices, this book raises profound questions about the creation of modern human identity, and the foundations of modern humanism.

Examines questions raised, in antiquity and now, by mythical narratives about humans transforming into non-human musical beings.

Scholars have long known that world music was not merely the globalized product of modern media, but rather that it connected religions, cultures, languages and nations throughout world history. The chapters in this History take readers to foundational historical moments – in Europe, Oceania, China, India, the Muslim world, North and South America – in search of the connections provided by a truly world music. Historically, world music emerged from ritual and religion, labor and life-cycles, which occupy chapters on Native American musicians, religious practices in India and Indonesia, and nationalism in Argentina and Portugal. The contributors critically examine music in cultural encounter and conflict, and as the critical core of scientific theories from the Arabic Middle Ages through the Enlightenment to postmodernism. Overall, the book contains the histories of the music of diverse cultures, which increasingly become the folk, popular and classical music of our own era.