Medieval Music in Europe - (CD) (CD)

Author: Jeremy Yudkin
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2005-12-01
Features: This book includes a considerable amount of music, far more than the other books in this series. Medieval music is more difficult to obtain than music from other periods, so it seems sensible to include as many representative examples as possible rather than expecting readers (and teachers) to search for difficult-to-understand different versions and rare publications. In fact, much of the music presented here has been re-edited according to near-authentic versions or directly transcribed from manuscripts. Only a very small number of older versions have been retained. The lyrics follow medieval spelling conventions, preserving the original irregularities and inconsistencies. This includes the removal of stress marks from Old French and other local languages. An exception is the superscript e (umlaut) in medieval High German, which appears in the manuscripts but has been modernized here. All lyrics, including both religious and secular, prose and verse, Latin and local languages, are newly translated. The presentation of musical examples and the layout, whether for lyrics or music, are designed to exhibit as clearly as possible the original form and structure of the works. Most pieces are presented in full. For a few longer works, only excerpts are used, but these provide a clear idea of the scope and size of the works, along with references to complete modern editions.