Musicology texts

I didn't understand what you mean by this

maxiteris wrote:

Possibly not from a "music school" to learn how to play, to be clear.

I mean solfeggio exercises, etc...

maxiteris wrote:

I mean solfège exercises, etc...

If I understood correctly, you don't want music theory texts, but only musicological ones.

I would start from the EDT volumes (there are about ten of them), particularly those dealing with the historical periods that interest you, and from there draw from the bibliography for the necessary in-depth studies

Yes exactly, musicology...

If you don't receive enough information here, I would turn to thallo and frank among the forum members

There is a very beautiful study by Lorenzo Bianconi, the fifth volume of the EDT history of music. It is a volume dedicated to the seventeenth century; the subject is treated from a historical point of view.

The issue regarding form is different, a technical subject that requires knowledge of music theory.

You could certainly contact someone from GATM and obtain material such as

http://www.gatm.it/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=111:suonar-di-fantasia-imparare-l-improvvisazione-secondo-le-fonti-del-xvii-e-xviii-secolo&catid=31:news&Itemid=121&lang=it

Another source is JSTOR, where you can find very useful material (articles, books).

Anyway, the indications are somewhat general; keep in mind that musicology is a "vertical" discipline.

Franck, since we are here, what can you tell me about the other 11 volumes? I have them all but I have only read the first one so far

But what about some university musicology textbooks?

Thank you

Any?

For Renaissance and Baroque musical semiography (reposting for convenience)

La notazione della musica polifonica dal X al XVII secolo (W. APEL)

Mensuration and Proportion Signs. Origin and Evolution (A.M. BUSSE BERGER)

La notation à la Renaissance (PH. VENDRIX)

Tactus Mensuration, and Rhythm in Renaissance Music (R. DEFORD)

Theoretical works are also indicated

For History of forms and compositional techniques (reposting for convenience)

Del cantar a libro... or on the viola. Vocal music in the Renaissance. Studies on profane vocal music in Italy in the 15th and 16th centuries (F. LUISI)

The two Orpheuses. From Poliziano to Monteverdi, with a critical essay on the scenography of Elena Povoledo (N. PIRROTTA)

Etc.

If I were you, I would spend half a day on this page:

http://musicologia.unipv.it/dipartimento/corsi.php

Choose the discipline and inside you will find all the bibliography with the texts that might interest you. As I was trying to explain to you, there is no such thing as an 'Allorto' of musicology; an infinity of texts are needed, all supporting a certain topic. Moreover, many texts are in foreign languages, so at least a comprehension of French and English is required; the Germans truly have a lot of great material, they are extremely precise and write about everything. It's a pity that there are few translations and I have strong limitations in comprehension.

antares86 wrote:

Franck, since we are here, what can you tell me about the other 11 volumes? I have them all but I have only read the first one so far

The EDT seems to be a good selection, so the texts are generally good. For those dedicated to the History of Music (edited by the Società Italiana di Musicologia), one must keep in mind the year of publication. If they are very dated (over time they have changed their graphic appearance and content), some volumes might be outdated; for example, the one by Lorenzo Bianconi that I mentioned has replaced another one dedicated to the same period. They are certainly texts worth knowing. The work Maxiteris is asking for is different, but it is achieved by mixing various parts of books selected based on the educational outcome. There isn't a single text on the Baroque; there are hundreds of texts that approach the Baroque from "infinite" different points of view. The website I suggested is a reliable source that offers a selection... useful for those who want to follow a university course on their own. If I were in Maxiteris's shoes, I would attend the courses that interest him as an auditor, so as to have direct contact with someone who can better direct his curiosities.

They woke me from my sleep and I am here :-)

many of the texts pointed out by Frank are excellent, at least those I know. I am not sure I understood your goal, Maxiteris, but often beautiful musicological texts do not limit themselves to giving you a list of forms and exercises for practical purposes; nowadays, the focus is on the panorama rather than the single event. For this reason, in Bianconi's volume, for example, there isn't a true list of possible 17th-century dances and forms.

My advice, instead, is to set aside a morning in a library (a musicological library, therefore, inside a conservatory, for example) and work with encyclopedias. Grove and MGG above all; Grove is more convenient because it is in English, MGG is in German... Look for the most generic entries and base yourself on the bibliography that the encyclopedia provides. So, I don't know, you look up "Suite" and go to check the individual entries of the common dances of the Suite. You will at least immediately have a definition and some very well-known examples. The exercise, then, follows naturally: in the same library (or online) you look for the score of an exemplary Giga and try to analyze it, perhaps by playing it or, even better, go home and watch all the interpretations of that Giga you find on YouTube, trying to understand the performance practice (that is, the way musicians expert in that repertoire play those pieces; when talking about Baroque or early music, this is a VERY important thing).

You will realize that it is neither a short nor a simple task...

Potentially every book of musical analysis has a section dedicated to forms. Little-known forms are another matter, and there the encyclopedia is the best (first) approach.

Postscript: a very easy way to understand how many different forms were practiced in the Baroque period (and before and after) is to take a catalog of a prolific author. I don't know, look at the catalog of Telemann's works (https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composizioni_di_Georg_Philipp_Telemann). On Wikipedia it is even incomplete and does not give you the possibility to look at the parts (and therefore their internal subdivision, for example). But this very simple little exercise leads us to discover forms that are never talked about: the canon (which seems easy but is very common in this period), the Rigaudon, the Passepied, Marches and Fanfares, Overtures. All this, I repeat, with books closed, in the sense that each of those Overtures will have movements in different forms; every Partita, every Concerto, every Opera will have very different forms. I won't tell you how much fun it is to look at Mozart's catalog :-)

...that you have to go to the library anyway. Many texts can no longer be purchased.

Thinking back to the "dictionaries, same story as Thallo for DEUMM (which is in Italian)"

First of all, thanks to everyone; let's just say I am analyzing your expert responses to draw a synthesis.

For the moment, there are two themes:

1. General musicology to establish the basics

2. Musical forms

Now I need to define how to approach them. For the 1st it is simpler: skim through university programs, at most a library.

For the 2nd it's a bit more difficult... we'll see, but for time reasons I would like to avoid doing "research," otherwise in the end it would be better for me to produce at least some kind of report, especially because I would then like to relate musical forms to ethnomusicology and, if possible, to musical archaeology.

Maxiteris, does all of this have to do with pure personal interest or some academic purpose? I don't know, do you study at a conservatory or at a university?

I ask because if you bring ethnomusicology and "musical archaeology" into play, things become a bit more complex. Ethnomusicology has a specific approach to forms. When talking about Baroque forms, or ancient ones in general, it is very difficult to distinguish an ethnomusicological-anthropological approach from a purely musicological one, simply because the sources often coincide and the musical event seen from an anthropological-social point of view (which should be the viewpoint of ethnomusicology) is inseparable from its nature as a high art work. To put it more simply, all the Turkish-inspired music from the 1700s that we possess was written by professional composers; it is not at all simple to divide what the composer decided to do from what the composer "found" already done in the existing musical tradition.

And this is one of the reasons why historical ethnomusicology (which I believe is what you call musical archaeology) is a very fascinating subject but still under development. And the problem is precisely the risk of ending up in musical archaeology, in the strict sense, i.e., in a generic discourse on musical antiquity that has no critical links to history and ethno-anthropology. That is, you risk ending up like Athanasius Kircher, who says that the Tarantella derives from a spider bite, and so on...

Hi Thallo, I realize that, which is why I am trying to understand the approach to follow. I don't study at a conservatory; in fact, I am a computer engineer and a linguistics enthusiast, and it is precisely the structural approach that I believe lies at the heart of musicology that I would like to use to satisfy these curiosities.

That is why I was saying to start with some texts on general musicology to have the basics, and then explore the world of the Baroque, which seems to me perhaps the most musically varied period.