Music and the Renaissance

This volume unites a collection of articles which illustrate brilliantly the complexity of European cultural history in the Renaissance. On the one hand, scholars of this period were inspired by classical narratives on the sublime effects of music and, on the other hand, were affected by the profound religious upheavals which destroyed the unity of Western Christianity and, in so doing, opened up new avenues in the world of music. These articles offer as broad a vision as possible of the ways of thinking about music which developed in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

Philippe Vendrix is Director of the Center for Advanced Studies of the Renaissance, Francois-Rabelais University Tours, France

Contents: Introduction: defining the Renaissance in music; Part I The Idea of a Musical Renaissance: Music, humanism, and the idea of a 'rebirth' of the arts, Reinhard Strohm; Music historiography and the definition of 'Renaissance', Jessie Ann Owens; Zum Paradigmenwechsel in der Musik der Renaissance: vom numerus sonorus zur musica poetica, Klaus Wolfgang Niemöller; Les humanistes florentins et la polyphonie liturgique, Giovanni Zanovello; Some English poems in praise of music, James Hutton; Number to sound: introduction, Paolo Gozza. Part II Réforme and Contre-Réforme: Music and religion in early modern European history, Helmut Georg Koenigsberger; Huldrych Zwingli - der Musiker, Hannes Reimann; Luther's theological understanding of music, Robin A. Leaver; The origins of Calvin's theology of music, 1536-1543, Charles Garside Jr; Liturgical necessity in the English Church, Robin A. Leaver; Music and the early Jesuits (1540-1565), Thomas D. Culley and Clement J. McNaspy; The Council of Trent revisited, Craig A. Monson; The repertory of the Papal chapel and the Counter-Reformation, Mitchell P. Brauner; Between stage and divine service: Jesuits and theatrical music, Franz Körndle; Name index.