Music in the Western World: A History in Documents

580 Pages·1984·28.759 MB·English

by  Piero Weiss, Richard Taruskin

Music in the
Western World
A History in Documents
Selected and Annotated by
Piero Weiss and
Richard Taruskin

MUSIC IN THE
WESTERN WORLD

MUSIC IN THE
WESTERN WORLD
A History in Documents
Selected and Annotated by
PIERO WEISS and RICHARD TARUSKIN
Department of Music, Colu mbia University
SCHIRMER BOOKS
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NEW YORK
Collier Macmillan Publishers
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Copyright © 1984 by Schirmer Books
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Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 83-16171
Printed in the United States of America
printing number
123456789 10
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Main entry under title:
Music in the Western World.
Includes index.
1. Music—History and criticism—Sources. I. Weiss,
Piero. II. Taruskin, Richard.
ML160.M865 1984 780'.9 83-16171
ISBN 0-02-872900-5 (pbk.)
ISBN 0-02-872910-2
Contents
Preface xiii
PART I THE HERITAGE OF ANTIQUITY
1 Orpheus and the Magical Powers of Music (Ovid) 1
2 Pythagoras and the Numerical Properties of Music
(Nicomachus) 3
3 Plato’s Musical Idealism 6
4 Aristotle on the Purposes of Music 10
5 The Kinship of Music and Rhetoric (Quintilian) 12
6 Music in Temple and Synagogue: The Judaic Heritage
(Bible, Philo of Alexandria) 15
7 Music in the Christian Churches of Jerusalem, c. A.D.
400 (Egeria) 21
PART II THE MIDDLE AGES
8 The Church Fathers on Psalmody and on the Dangers
of Unholy Music (St. Basil, St. John Chrysostom,
Origen of Alexandria, Eusebius of Caesarea, Honorius
of Autun) 25
9 The Testimony of St. Augustine 29
10 The Transmission of the Classical Legacy (Boethius,
Shakespeare) 33
11 Music as a Liberal Art (Scholia enchiriadis) 38
12 Before Notation (Isidore of Seville, St. Augustine, John
the Deacon, Notker Balbulus, Costumal of St.
Benigne) 41
13 Embellishing the Liturgy (Notker Balbulus,
Ethelwold) 46
V
VI Contents
14 Musical Notation and Its Consequences (Odo of Cluny,
Guido of Arezzo, Chaucer) 48
15 Music in Courtly Life (Raimbaut de Vaqueiras, Roman
de la rose) 55
16 The Emergence of Polyphony (Aldhelm, Scotus
Erigena, Hucbald, Regino of Prixm, Giraldus
Cambrensis, Anon. IV, John of Salisbury) 59
17 The Forms and Practices of Music, c. 1300 (Johannes
de Grocheo, Aegidius of Murino) 63
18 The First Musical Avant-Garde (Jean de Muris,
Jacobus of Liege, John XXII, motet and madrigal
texts) 67
19 The Life of Francesco Landini (Filippo Villani) 72
20 A Letter from Guillaume de Machaut 76
PART III THE RENAISSANCE
21 The “Fount and Origin” (Martin Le Franc, Tinctoris) 79
22 Music at Church and State Festivities in the Early
Renaissance (Manetti, d’Escouchy) 81
23 The Triumph of Emperor Maximilian 83
24 Music as a business (Petrucci, Francis I, Tallis and
Byrd) 89
25 Music in Castiglione’s Courtier 94
26 Josquin des Prez in the Eyes of His Contemporaries
(Glareanus, “Gian,” Coclico, Luther) 97
27 Luther and Music (Luther, Walther, parody texts) 100
28 The Swiss Reformers (Calvin) 107
29 The Reformation in England (cathedral injunctions,
John Bull) 109
30 High Renaissance Style (Aron, Zarlino) 111
31 Willaert the Reformer (Zarlino, Stocker) 114
32 Music at a Medici Wedding (Giunti) 115
33 Lasso and Palestrina as Revealed in Their Letters 121
34 The Life of the Church Musician (Constitutiones
Capellae Pontificiae, Zarlino, etc.) 124
35 The Genres of Music in the High Renaissance (Morley,
Cerone, Vicentino) 129
Contents
Vll
36 The Counter Reformation (Bishop Franco, Council of
Trent, Palestrina, Animuccia, Ruffo, Gregory XIII,
Coryat) 135
37 Palestrina: Fact and Legend (Agazzari, Cresollio,
Guidiccioni, Baini, Palestri na) 140
38 Madrigals and Madrigalism (Mazzone, Zarlino-Morley) 143
39 Gesualdo, Nobleman Musician (Fontanelli) 146
40 The Most Musical Court in Europe (Bottrigari,
Giustiniani) 147
41 Music and Dancing as Social Graces (anonymous
conversation book, Arbeau, Byrd, Morley,
Shakespeare) 150
42 Renaissance Instrumentalists (Tinetoris, Ventemille,
cathedral and municipal documents) 158
43 Radical Humanism: The End of the Renaissance
(Vicentino, Mersenne, Le Jeune, Galilei) 162
PART IV THE BAROQUE
44 The Birth of a “New Music” (Caccini) 169
45 The “Second Practice” (Artusi, Monteverdi) 171
46 The Earliest Operas (Gagliano, Striggio) 174
47 Basso Continuo and Figured Bass (Agazzari, Banchieri) 178
48 From the Letters of Monteverdi 180
49 Schiitz Recounts His Career 184
50 The Doctrine of Figures (Bernhard) 187
51 Music and Scientific Empiricism (Milton, Bacon) 189
52 Music in the Churches of Rome, 1639 (Maugars) 194
53 Music under the Sun King (Pierre Rameau) 197
54 Rationalistic Distaste for Opera (Corneille,
Saint-Evremond, La Bruyere) 200
55 A New Sound Ideal (Mersenne, Le Blanc) 204
56 The Baroque Sonata (North, Purcell, Couperin) 207
57 Modern Concert Life Is Born (North) 211
58 The Mature Baroque: The Doctrine of the Affections
(Descartes, Mattheson) 212
59 The Art of Music Reduced to Rational Principles (J.-P.
Rameau) 220
viii Contents
60 The Earliest Musical Conservatories (Burney) 222
61 Castrato Singers (Burney) 225
62 The Conventions of the Opera Seria (Goldoni) 229
63 Opera Audiences in Eighteenth-Century Italy (Sharp) 231
64 Domenico Scarlatti at the Harpsichord (Burney) 234
65 A Traveler’s Impressions of Vivaldi (Uffenbach) 235
66 Couperin on His Pieces de Clavecin 237
67 The Piano Is Invented (Malfei) 238
68 Addison and Steele Poke Fun at Handel’s First London
Opera 240
69 Some Contemporary Documents Relating to Handel’s
Oratorios 243
70 Bach’s Duties and Obligations at Leipzig 246
71 Bach Remembered by His Son 248
72 Bach’s Obituary (C. P. E. Bach, Agricola) 250
PART V THE PRE-CLASSICAL PERIOD
73 The Cult of the Natural (Heinichen, Scheibe) 255
74 The Advice and Opinions of an Italian Singing Master
(Tosi) 257
75 From Geminiani’s Violin Tutor 260
76 From Quantz’s Treatise on Flute Playing 263
77 Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach on Playing Keyboard
Instruments 268
78 The Rise of the Italian Comic Opera Style (La serva
padrona, d’Holbach, Hiller) 273
79 From Rousseau’s Dictionary of Music 283
PART VI THE CLASSICAL PERIOD
80 A Side Trip into Aesthetics (Rousseau, Avison, Beattie,
Twining, Smith, Kant) 287
81 Haydn’s Duties in the Service of Prince Esterhazy 298
82 Gluck’s Operatic Manifesto 301
83 Some General Thoughts on Music by Dr. Burney 302
84 Frederick the Great Gives a Concert (Burney) 304