Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Lindmayr-Brandl, Andrea
• McDonald, Grantley
• Giselbrecht, Elisabeth

Titel

Polyphonic music in early German print: Changing perspectives in music historiography 1

Ist Teil von

• Early Music Printing in German-Speaking Lands, 2018, p.245-259

Auflage

1

Ort / Verlag

Routledge

Erscheinungsjahr

2018

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• 'Quid est musica?' This question opens many early works of music theory and leads them to various formulations. Following this medieval tradition, the first chapter of the treatise Tetrachordum musices by Johannes Cochlaeus, printed 1511 at Nuremberg, begins with a definition of music. The author does not give just one answer, but offers three definitions drawn from ancient authorities: from Augustine (it is the science of modulating well), from Boethius (it is the ability to weigh differences of high and low sounds by sense and by reason) and from Bacchius (it is the knowledge of melodic species and those things that are related to melody). 2 The same question - what is music? - still echoes in the background of contemporary musicological research. It may remain hidden when we work on details, but as soon as fundamental questions arise, the question emerges again to the light. Today we are aware that this question can be interpreted in a number of ways. First is the ontological approach (What is music at all?), a question Cochlaeus also had in mind. But there is also the question of classification (What should be called music and what not?) as well as other terminological problems (e.g. What do we mean when we use the word 'music'?).