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The Performance of 16th-Century Music: Learning from the Theorists

by Anne Smith

A practical framework for approaching Renaissance polyphony on its own terms

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Paperback New English

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AlbakiReads Editorial

A practical framework for approaching Renaissance polyphony on its own terms

Anne Smith examines 16th-century music through the performance concepts and standards articulated by theorists of its own period. The book addresses the gap between later classical and Romantic training and Renaissance repertoire, concentrating on the technical and expressive questions that arise when performing polyphony. Topics include reading part-book notation, solmization, rhythmic flexibility, and the relationship between musical structure and contemporary rhetoric. By placing these areas alongside historical criteria for strong performance, it presents a period-focused set of tools for understanding how this repertoire functions in practice.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Performers working on 16th-century vocal or instrumental polyphony
  • Students of early music performance practice
  • Musicians interested in historical notation, solmization, and Renaissance rhetoric

Themes

Renaissance performance practice16th-century polyphonyPart-book notationSolmizationRhythm and musical rhetoric

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

Most modern performers, trained on the performance practices of the Classical and Romantic periods, come to the music of the Renaissance with well-honed but anachronistic ideas. Fundamental differences between 16th-century repertoire and that of later epochs thus tend to be overlooked-yet it is just these differences which can make a performance truly stunning.

The Performance of 16th-Century Music will enable the performer to better understand this music and advance their technical and expressive abilities. Early music specialist Anne Smith outlines several major areas of technical knowledge and skill needed to perform the music of this period. She takes readers through the significance of part-book notation; solmization; rhythmic flexibility; and elements of structure in relation to rhetoric of the time; while familiarizing them with contemporary criteria and standards of excellence for performance. Through The Performance of 16th-Century Music, today's musicians will gain fundamental insight into how 16th-century polyphony functions, and the tools necessary to perform this repertoire to its fullest, most glorious potential.
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