Content area
Full Text
A new comprehensive guide to medieval music, which includes a chapter by Ben Bagby called "Imagining the Early Medieval Harp," will soon be available from Indiana University Press. A Performer's Guide to Medieval Music will retail for $44.95 after its publication this fall. Editor Ross W. Duffin talks with Early Music America magazine about the new book.
What is the origin of A Performer's Guide to Medieval Music? How long has it been in the making?
It's been more than 10 years since I started corresponding with people about this book . The Performer's Guide to Renaissance Music (edited by Jeffery Kite-Powell) was already well on its way, and the need for a comparable volume in the medieval area was obvious. Medieval music is temporally and stylistically much more diverse than Renaissance music, however. It encompasses Gregorian Chant with manuscripts dating from the 10th century up to the polyphony of Dufay from the middle of the 15th century, so it took a long time to decide on the content and find the right people to write for it .
Who are some of the featured contributors, and what are some of the highlights of this collection of essays?
Actually, everyone is a "featured" contributor! There...