Book contents
- The Cambridge History of Fifteenth-Century Music
- Series page
- The Cambridge History of Fifteenth-Century Music
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Music examples
- Notes on contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Historiography
- Part II Improvisation and composition
- Part III Humanism
- Part IV Music and other arts
- Part V Music in churches, courts, and cities
- Part VI Religious devotion and liturgy
- Part VII Theory and practice
- 30 Measuring measurable music in the fifteenth century
- 31 The transformative impulse
- 32 Transformations in music theory and music treatises
- Part VIII Sources
- Part IX Genres
- Part X Reception
- Index
31 - The transformative impulse
from Part VII - Theory and practice
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 July 2015
Book contents
- The Cambridge History of Fifteenth-Century Music
- Series page
- The Cambridge History of Fifteenth-Century Music
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Music examples
- Notes on contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Historiography
- Part II Improvisation and composition
- Part III Humanism
- Part IV Music and other arts
- Part V Music in churches, courts, and cities
- Part VI Religious devotion and liturgy
- Part VII Theory and practice
- 30 Measuring measurable music in the fifteenth century
- 31 The transformative impulse
- 32 Transformations in music theory and music treatises
- Part VIII Sources
- Part IX Genres
- Part X Reception
- Index
Summary
Rooted in musical language itself, the transformative impulse emanates from a drive to explore the semiotic potential of written song. Before about 1430, composers had written out series of intended mensurations in sometimes lengthy verbal instructions; thereafter they began to indicate mensural reinterpretation by using a different mensuration sign for each iteration. Mensuration was more often signaled intrinsically, through coloration, the grouping of note shapes, and dots of division and perfection, rather than a dedicated mensuration sign. Notes rely on metasigns to activate their meaning. A simple change of metasign has the potential to recast the pitch or rhythm of every note it governs. The aesthetics of notational fixity fueled the transformative impulse, evincing a fifteenth-century interest in things sounding other than what they seem. Canons specified the meaning of red notation, indicated mensural reinterpretation, and clarified individual signs.
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- The Cambridge History of Fifteenth-Century Music , pp. 587 - 601Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2015
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