Music and culture in Italy from medieval to baroque : a collection of essays

Description

The eminent Italian musicologist here analyzes major developments in music during the golden era from Dante to the Italian Baroque. Nino Pirrotta aims at music history set in a broad cultural perspective. These essays are concerned with music and poetry in the age of Dante, the historical importance of unwritten music and popular forms, music in relation to current aesthetic ideas, the development of polyphonic styles, the growth of musical institutions, music in the theater, and the beginnings of opera. Half of the essays, originally published in Italian, have been translated for this volume; revisions have been made throughout to take account of the most recent scholarship. During the many years he taught at Harvard, Nino Pirrotta won the admiration of American musicologists and students. This volume will make his thought and graceful style available to everyone interested in music history. Frontmatter 1 Musica de sono humano and the Musical Poetic of Guido of Arezzo (page 1) 2 Dante Musicus: Gothicism, Scholasticism, and Music (page 13) 3 Ars Nova and Stil Novo (page 26) 4 Polyphonic Music for a Text Attributed to Frederick II (page 39) 5 New Glimpses of an Unwritten Tradition (page 51) 6 The Oral and Written Traditions of Music (page 72) 7 Music and Cultural Tendencies in Fifteenth-Century Italy (page 80) 8 Church Polyphony Apropos of a New Fragment at Foligno (page 113) 9 Zacara da Teramo (page 126) 10 Ricercare and Variations on O Rosa Bella (page 145) 11 Novelty and Renewal in Italy: 1300-1600 (page 159) 12 Willaert and the Canzone Villanesca (page 175) 13 Notes on Marenzio and Tasso (page 198) 14 The Orchestra and Stage in Renaissance Intermedi and Early Opera (page 210) 15 Temperaments and Tendencies in the Florentine Camerata (page 217) 16 Monteverdi and the Problems of Opera (page 235) 17 Theater, Sets, and Music in Monteverdi's Operas (page 254) 18 Monteverdi's Poetic Choices (page 271) 19 Early Venetian Libretti at Los Angeles (page 317) 20 The Lame Horse and the Coachman: News of the Operatic Parnassus in 1642 (page 325) 21 Falsirena and the Earliest Cavatina (page 335) 22 Commedia dell'Arte and Opera (page 343) Notes (page 363) Index (page 471)