Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
  1. Home
  2. Search

Refine search

Refine search

Access:
Content type:
Publication date:
Apply   From and To filters
Subject: Show more
Journals Show more
Publishers: Show more
Societies Show more
Series: Show more
Collections: Show more

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

1 results

  • 32 - Transformations in music theory and music treatises

  • from Part VII - Theory and practice
  • Edited by Anna Maria Busse Berger, University of California, Davis, Jesse Rodin, Stanford University, California
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Fifteenth-Century Music
    Published online:
    05 July 2015
    Print publication:
    16 July 2015, pp 602-614

  • Summary

    This chapter discusses the evolution of the medieval beneficial system and its culmination in the fifteenth-century. It demonstrates how the system worked. The chapter also discusses the salutary effects of the system upon musicians, patrons, rulers, and the papacy, as well as one's understanding of music and musicians of that century. The fifteenth century saw the flowering of secular princely chapels, staffed with musicians adept at the performance, and frequently the composition, of sacred polyphony. The chapel served as the most visible emblem of political power and authority, impressing visiting diplomats, courtiers, and nobility with courtly civility and wealth represented by a sacred establishment highlighted by the performance of polyphony. The possession of one or more benefices served musicians as comfortable retirement plans, when it was time to end active service as a salaried member of a music chapel.