Keyboard Music - From The Middle Ages To The Beginning Of Th From the Middle Ages to the Beginning of the Baroque

KEYBOARD MUSIC FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE BEGINNINGS OF THE BAROQUE BY GERALD STARES BEDBROOK MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED ST. MARTINS STREET, LONDON 1949 COPYRIGHT PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIK To MARGARJET E. BROADBRIDGE KANSAS eir PREFACE A fiill account of keyboard music from the earliest records to the beginning of the baroque period cannot be expected in a volume of this size. Full justice cannot be done even to the major works, so immense is the material at hand. To the average musi cian and even to many who are highly trained, the music of the Middle Ages and to a large extent that of the Renaissance is un known territory. Yet the fields of composition therein are so vast and varied that in none is it possible not to find something of interest. This book deals only with keyboard music, and the reader is asked to bear in mind the nature and extent of the rest of the contemporary music. Many no doubt think of keyboard music as going no farther back than the singular productions of Byrd and Bull, yet from the turn of the fourteenth century, at the very least, there was a never interrupted stream of compositions. Since the second half of the nineteenth century German scholars have written volume after volume on the music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, followed by an almost equal number of transcriptions into modern notation, in which the keyboard music has been given a reasonable share. The subject was taken up by the musical historians of France, England and Italy, and is now a favourite field for the industrious scholarship of the America of to-day. Few of the major works, however, have been written in English, and most of the music collections, always expensive, are normallyunprocurable. While true understanding can come only from first-hand knowledge, the author has endeavoured to pass on his experience by representing what he feels to be the best and most typical of each period. . The assertion may as well be made at this moment that this music of the past, including that of the Middle Ages, is not properly regarded as archaic or experimental, but must be considered as no less perfect in its own way than that of later musicians. This applies PREFACE not to vocal compositions only, but also to keyboard. Pianists and organists have been slow to appreciate both the backward reach of their tradition in European history and the finesse and quality of the older music. Fifteenth-century organ composition has a charm of its own, once the nature of the style is grasped, while the key board music of the Renaissance is a mine of riches only waiting to be discovered. Even music of the baroque period, so varied and so intense in its expression, is not yet fully appreciated. It is for this reason that my book has been written, and with the hope that after this introduction some will seek out and perform the music for themselves. The terms Medieval and Renaissance have been used throughout this work in a musical sense rather than with an exact historic connotation. Music as an art developed somewhat later than other forms of culture. It is regretted that the examples from which I quote cannot be given in full, but I hope that an anthology of the composers mentioned will follow the present book to enlarge the glimpses here afforded of the glories that lie hidden in the undiscovered centuries of music, the value of which may one day be placed on a level with those of themore commonly recognized periods of the art. G. S. BEDBROOK LONDON 1947 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am indebted to the following for permission to reproduce various Plates in this volume the Directors of the British Museum, Plates I, IV, X, XII and the Frontispiece the Bodleian Library, Oxford, Plates VI, VII, DC and Ex. LH the Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia, U. S. A., Plate HI the Stifts bibliothek, St. Gallen, Plate V and Messrs. W. K Mansell for Fratelli Alinari of Florence for the reproduction of the Merulo portrait, Plate Vffl...