Sung Birds

by Leach, Elizabeth Eva

• ISBN13: 9780801444913
• ISBN10: 0801444918
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-12-01
• Publisher: Cornell Univ Pr

Summary

Is birdsong music? The most frequent answer to this question in the Middle Ages was resoundingly "no." In Sung Birds, Elizabeth Eva Leach traces postmedieval uses of birdsong within Western musical culture. She first explains why such melodious sound was

Author Biography

Elizabeth Eva Leach is Senior Lecturer in Music, Royal Holloway, University of London.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
List of Sigla and Abbreviations	xi
Introduction	1
1. Rational Song	11
2. Birdsong and Human Singing	55
3. Birds Sung	108
4. Silent Birds: The Musical Chase and Gace de la Buigne's Le Roman des Deduis	175
5. Feminine Birds and Immoral Song	238
6. Bird Debates Replayed	274
Appendix 1.1. Two Principal Voices in Grammar and Music	297
Appendix 1.2. Four Species and Two Principal Voices in Grammar and Music Superimposed	299
Appendix 2. Aegidius and Pliny on the Nightingale Compared	301
Appendix 3.1. The Birdsong Pieces and Their Sources	302
Appendix 3.2. A Note on the Music Examples	307
Appendix 4. Love of Birds Using Musical Authorities	311
Appendix 5. Arnulf's Borrowings from Alan of Lille, De planctu Naturae	314
Bibliography	315
Index	335