Music and Riddle Culture in the Renaissance

Katelijne Schiltz

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN:
  9781107082298
• eBook ISBN:
  9781316309933
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music History & Criticism

Throughout the Renaissance, composers often expressed themselves in a language of riddles and puzzles, which they embedded within the music and lyrics of their compositions. This is the first book on the theory, practice and cultural context of musical riddles during the period. Katelijne Schiltz focuses on the compositional, notational, practical, social and theoretical aspects of musical riddle culture c.1450–1620, from the works of Antoine Busnoys, Jacob Obrecht and Josquin des Prez to Lodovico Zacconi's manuscript collection of Canoni musicali. Schiltz reveals how the riddle both invites and resists interpretation, the ways in which riddles imply a process of transformation and the consequences of these aspects for the riddle's conception, performance and reception. Lavishly illustrated and including a comprehensive catalogue by Bonnie J. Blackburn of enigmatic inscriptions, this book will be of interest to scholars of music, literature, art history, theology and the history of ideas.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Title page
• Copyright information
• Dedication
• Epigraph
• Table of contents
• List of plates
• List of figures
• List of music examples
• Acknowledgements
• List of abbreviations
• List of manuscript sigla
• List of printed music
• Introduction
• 1 The culture of the enigmatic from Classical Antiquity to the Renaissance
• 2 Devising musical riddles in the Renaissance
• 3 The reception of the enigmatic in music theory
• 4 Riddles visualised
• Conclusion
• Appendix 1 A brief introduction to mensural notation
• Appendix 2 Catalogue of enigmatic canonic inscriptions
• Bibliography
• Index of compositions
• General index