Musica Ficta: Theories of Accidental Inflections in Vocal Polyphony from Marchetto da Padova to Gioseffo Zarlino

Cambridge / New York / Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 1987. Hardcover. Very Good-/None. Violet cloth boards with gilt titling on spine and front, and spine toned. Corners are sharp and square; only a tiny bit of wear to tips of extremities. Tiny 'u' stamped on rear bottom board near spine. Binding is sound. Owner's name and year penned on FFEP. Text is unmarked. Upper page edges toned. Lacking dustjacket. 8vo. Our photos depict actual book offered for sale. Books are carefully packaged by hand and shipped from our family-owned bookshop in Easton, Pennsylvania, USA. BOOK INFO: See photos for Table of Contents and List of Figures. Illustrated with greyscale drawings and some musical scores. 'Music notation, like other forms of writing, aids memory by means of visual representation of what is intrinsically an aural medium. The development of music notation in Europe shows an increasing graphic control over various aspects of sound and its artistic organization. ... the principal innovations in music notation made during the high and late Middle Ages and the Renaissance were in the domain of rhythm and meter. However, although musicians of the period had at their disposal everything they needed to notate pitches unambiguously, modern readers of early music sources, be they textual critics, performers or historians, are bedevilled by a persistent problem in reconstructing the intended pitches. This is known somewhat informally as the problem of musica ficta.... The main purpose of the present book is to offer assistance by clarifying the meaning and use of the conventions governing the practice of implied accidentals in vocal polyphony from the early fourteenth to the mid sixteenth century.... The present study will also make new questions and areas of investigation possible. For instance, we will be able to distinguish between conventional and unconventional uses of accidental inflections, a distinction indispensable in studying the development of chromaticism in European music.' (-from the Preface). Includes bibliography and subject index. 'The main purpose of this book is to clarify the meaning and use of the conventions governing the practice of implied accidentals in vocal polyphony from the early fourteenth to the mid-sixteenth century - a problem which has fascinated musicologists for over a hundred years now. Professor Berger's study represents the first attempt to examine the whole surviving theoretical evidence relevant to the subject and thus lays an indispensable foundation for any future work in this area.' [~from the publisher].