The Heaven Singing

The Heaven Singing PDF Author: Richard Rastall
Publisher: University of Rochester Press
ISBN: 9780859914284
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 422

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Book Description
Where should there be music in an anonymous English religious play of the fifteenth or sixteenth century? What sort of music should it be, and by what forces should it be performed? This volume shows how music was used at the time of the plays' production, both through a close examination of individual texts, and of the place of music in the intellectual and artistic life of the middle ages. Dr Rastall begins by discussing the internal literary evidence of the play texts, the surviving notated music in the plays, and the documentary evidence of the productions before turning to the wider cultural context in which the plays were composed and performed. He considers the representational and dynamic functions of music in the plays, the relationship between music, drama and liturgy, and the performers themselves - who they were, and what they might be expected to do. Related factors necessary to the discovery of how music was used in late medieval drama are also considered, from medieval cosmology and the numerical construction of plays to the age and size of boy actors. -- A discussion of the use of music in late medieval religious plays through examination of individual texts and the wider cultural context of the age.

The Heaven Singing

The Heaven Singing PDF Author: Richard Rastall
Publisher: University of Rochester Press
ISBN: 9780859914284
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 422

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Book Description
Where should there be music in an anonymous English religious play of the fifteenth or sixteenth century? What sort of music should it be, and by what forces should it be performed? This volume shows how music was used at the time of the plays' production, both through a close examination of individual texts, and of the place of music in the intellectual and artistic life of the middle ages. Dr Rastall begins by discussing the internal literary evidence of the play texts, the surviving notated music in the plays, and the documentary evidence of the productions before turning to the wider cultural context in which the plays were composed and performed. He considers the representational and dynamic functions of music in the plays, the relationship between music, drama and liturgy, and the performers themselves - who they were, and what they might be expected to do. Related factors necessary to the discovery of how music was used in late medieval drama are also considered, from medieval cosmology and the numerical construction of plays to the age and size of boy actors. -- A discussion of the use of music in late medieval religious plays through examination of individual texts and the wider cultural context of the age.

Music in Early English Religious Drama: Minstrels playing

Music in Early English Religious Drama: Minstrels playing PDF Author: Richard Rastall
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd
ISBN: 9780859915854
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 576

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Book Description
MEDIUM AEVUM says of Heaven Singing, the general discussion of the subject from which the present volume follows on with examination of the individual plays: 'A formidable achievement, indispensable for any serious and comprehensive study of early English drama.'

Music in Early English Religious Drama: The heaven singing

Music in Early English Religious Drama: The heaven singing PDF Author: Richard Rastall
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780859914284
Category : Drama, Medieval
Languages : en
Pages : 422

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Book Description


The Heaven Singing

The Heaven Singing PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Minstrels and Minstrelsy in Late Medieval England

Minstrels and Minstrelsy in Late Medieval England PDF Author: Richard Rastall
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 183765039X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 477

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Book Description
A major new study piecing together the intriguing but fragmentary evidence surrounding the lives of minstrels to highlight how these seemingly peripheral figures were keenly involved with all aspects of late medieval communities. Minstrels were a common sight and sound in the late Middle Ages. Aristocrats, knights and ladies heard them on great occasions (such as Edward I's wedding feast for his daughter Elizabeth in 1296) and in quieter moments in their chambers; town-dwellers heard and saw them in civic processions (when their sound drew attention to the spectacle); and even in the countryside people heard them at weddings, church-ales and other parish celebrations. But who were the minstrels, and what did they do? How did they live, and how easily did they make a living? How did they perform, and in what conditions? The evidence is intriguing but fragmentary, including literary and iconographic sources and, most importantly, the financial records of royal and aristocratic households and of towns. These offer many insights, although they are often hard to fit into any coherent picture of the minstrels' lives and their place in society. It is easy to see the minstrels as peripheral figures, entertainers who had no central place in the medieval world. Yet they were full members of it, interacting with the ordinary people around them, as well as with the ruling classes: carrying letters and important verbal messages, some lending huge sums of money to the king (to finance Henry V's Agincourt campaign in 1415, for instance), some regular and necessary civic servants, some committing crimes or suffering the crimes of others. In this book Rastall and Taylor bring to bear the available evidence to enlarge and enrich our view of the minstrel in late medieval society.

The Oxford Handbook of Medieval Literature in English

The Oxford Handbook of Medieval Literature in English PDF Author: Elaine Treharne
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199229120
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 789

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Book Description
Bringing together the insights of new fields and approaches with those of more familiar texts and methods, this handbook provides a comprehensive overview of the state of Medieval Literature today. It discusses texts such as Beowulf, Wulf and Eadwacer, and Ancrene Wisse and authors from Ælfric to Chaucer, Langland, and the Gawain Poet.

Medieval Drama

Medieval Drama PDF Author: David Bevington
Publisher: Hackett Publishing
ISBN: 1624665667
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 1105

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Book Description
This reprint (with updated 'Suggestions for Further Reading') of the Houghton Mifflin edition makes David Bevington's classic anthology of medieval drama available again at an affordable price.

The N-Town Plays

The N-Town Plays PDF Author: Victor I Scherb
Publisher: Medieval Institute Publications
ISBN: 1580444385
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 516

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Book Description
In the late 1400s in eastern England, a scribe was in the process of compiling a large dramatic manuscript of over two hundred vellum folios. The manuscript contains components of an independent Mary Play, parts one and two of an independent Passion Play and an independent Assumption of Mary Play, as well as ten play subjects that appear in no other English cycles - the killing of Lamech in the Noah Play, the Root of Jesse, the story of Joachim and Anne, the Presentation of Mary in the Temple, the Parliament of Heaven, the Trial of Mary and Joseph, the scene of Mary and the cherry tree in the Nativity Play, the Death of Herod, the scene of Veronica's handkerchief in the Procession to Calvary, and the appearance of the risen Christ to the Virgin Mary in her Assumption Play. This edition acknowledges the N-Town compiler who took plays from various contexts and integrated them into an existing cycle of plays, thus treating the manuscript as if it were a superstructure whose parts could be replaced, renovated, and supplemented without altering the fundamental coherence of the overarching design.

The Cambridge History of Medieval Music

The Cambridge History of Medieval Music PDF Author: Mark Everist
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108577075
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Spanning a millennium of musical history, this monumental volume brings together nearly forty leading authorities to survey the music of Western Europe in the Middle Ages. All of the major aspects of medieval music are considered, making use of the latest research and thinking to discuss everything from the earliest genres of chant, through the music of the liturgy, to the riches of the vernacular song of the trouvères and troubadours. Alongside this account of the core repertory of monophony, The Cambridge History of Medieval Music tells the story of the birth of polyphonic music, and studies the genres of organum, conductus, motet and polyphonic song. Key composers of the period are introduced, such as Leoninus, Perotinus, Adam de la Halle, Philippe de Vitry and Guillaume de Machaut, and other chapters examine topics ranging from musical theory and performance to institutions, culture and collections.

The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Theatre

The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Theatre PDF Author: Richard Beadle
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139827928
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 402

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Book Description
The drama of the English Middle Ages is perennially popular with students and theatre audiences alike, and this is an updated edition of a book which has established itself as a standard guide to the field. The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Theatre, second edition continues to provide an authoritative introduction and an up-to-date, illustrated guide to the mystery cycles, morality drama and saints' plays which flourished from the late fourteenth to the mid-sixteenth centuries. The book emphasises regional diversity in the period and engages with the literary and particularly the theatrical values of the plays. Existing chapters have been revised and updated where necessary, and there are three entirely new chapters, including one on the cultural significance of early drama. A thoroughly revised reference section includes a guide to scholarship and criticism, an enlarged classified bibliography and a chronological table.