Editorial Reviews:
Music Theory from Boethius to Zarlino is a companion volume to Music Theory from Zarlino to Schenker: A Bibliography and Guide by David Damschroder and David Russell Williams (Harmonologia, No. 4, Pendragon Press). Like the previous work, the goal of the volume is to create a logically organized introduction to the major theorists of the time and a thorough review of the scholarly work about these writers. While specialists in the history of music theory may find new materials in these pages, this work is primarily designed for the non-specialist as a practical and basic introduction to the treatises, people, and scholarship of Medieval and Renaissance theory. See also PPNo 386, Music Theory from Zarlino to Schenker. The two major sections of the work are the Dictionary of Theorists which includes individual chapters for approximately one hundred and twenty authors, arranged alphabetically and the Literature Supplement which lists articles, books and dissertations which pertain to several Dictionary of Theorists authors and which, therefore, would be inappropriately placed in any one of those chapters. The work begins with a listing of Abbreviations listing short entries used throughout the book for periodicals, series, congress reports, and Festschriften. The work concludes with Indices referencing names, titles, topics, and an approximate chronology of the works cited.
Customer Reviews:
 A wonderful resource for finding ancient materials about music and the study of music
This wonderful volume complements the earlier (and just as wonderful) "Music Theory from Zarlino to Schenker and follows the same format. Both are wonderful introductions to materials on music theory, their subject matter, and a couple of paragraphs about what we know about the people who wrote them. What I have quite enjoyed about both volumes is the way the authors have made the material accessible to all interested parties. Some of these materials may seem obscure to those not studying musicology or music theory, especially the ancient texts discussed here. With Boethius, we are back into the fifth and sixth centuries and discussing the core ideas of musical proportions and their place in the study of the liberal arts. His writings had a profound impact on the way Western education was formed during the middle ages and still has a residual impact today.
This is a rich resource with many helps and useful collections of information. It begins by listing the abbreviations of periodicals, special series, and so forth. There are many abbreviations to know and since you can't really know them all, this list is very helpful to anyone doing research in this area (granted specialists will know those relevant to their field already). The authors also provide sections on reports of musicological congress reports and important festschrifts (celebratory collections of articles in honor of a person or event). These are all from the 20th Century and most after the Second World War. It seems that these gatherings of scholars for the purpose of presenting papers around a unifying subject and publishing the papers as a collection is a recent invention.
The bulk of the book is a "Dictionary of Theorists". These articles provide the name, birth year, a short article about the theorist and his work, important editions of those works, and literature about the theorist and his work. There is also a literature supplement listing other works with a more general application. The Topical Index lets you find a subject such as modes, notation, and solmizattion and the theorists related to those subjects. The chronological index starts Augustine of Hippo circ 387 AD and lists the theorists and works of any given year and takes the reader through Hoffman of 1605. So, the title is not a strict delineation of the time covered, but gives the idea of the range of the book by using the most famous names.
Next is a title index, which helps tremendously if you know a work and are trying to find its author. The following name index helps you find not only the theorist, but also the pages in which he or she is mentioned in this book.
I think this book is very cool, very useful, and very well done. No, I don't think it is a book for everyone, but I think it is for people who don't suspect it is for them. Given the importance of the musical arts, anyone interested in ancient history and culture would benefit from consulting this great book.
I also think that if most serious musicians would think about it for a minute and get past their residual anxiety from their music theory courses, they would realize that they could get some benefit from reading a bit more deeply about their art. This resource could help them find works and material that could be or true interest and great use to them. Really!
Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI
Here is the companion volume:
Music Theory from Zarlino to Schenker: A Bibliography and Guide (Harmonologia)
|
