Polyphony in Medieval Paris

The Art of Composing with Plainchant

Catherine A. Bradley

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN:
  9781108418584
• eBook ISBN:
  9781108314183
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music History & Criticism

Polyphony associated with the Parisian cathedral of Notre Dame marks a historical turning point in medieval music. Yet a lack of analytical or theoretical systems has discouraged close study of twelfth- and thirteenth-century musical objects, despite the fact that such creations represent the beginnings of musical composition as we know it. Is musical analysis possible for such medieval repertoires? Catherine A. Bradley demonstrates that it is, presenting new methodologies to illuminate processes of musical and poetic creation, from monophonic plainchant and vernacular French songs, to polyphonic organa, clausulae, and motets in both Latin and French. This book engages with questions of text-music relationships, liturgy, and the development of notational technologies, exploring concepts of authorship and originality as well as practices of quotation and musical reworking.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Series information
• Title page
• Copyright information
• Table of contents
• List of figures
• List of musical examples
• List of tables
• Acknowledgments
• Note on the text
• Manuscript Sigla
• List of abbreviations
• Introduction
• 1 chant in Polyphony: The Gradual Propter veritatem in Organa, Clausulae, and Motets
• 2 Mini Clausulae and the Magnus liber organi
• 3 Texting Clausulae: Repetition and Regularity on the REGNAT Tenor
• 4 Transcribing Motets: Vernacular Refrain Melodies in Magnus liber Clausulae
• 5 Framing Motets: Quoting and Crafting Refrains against Plainchant Tenors
• 6 Intertextuality, Song, and Female Voices in Motets on a St Elizabeth of Hungary Tenor
• 7 From Florence to Fauvel: Rereading Musical Paradigms through a Long-Lived IOHANNE Motet
• 8 Conclusions
• Bibliography
• Index of Compositions
• General Index