Poetry and Music in Seventeenth-Century England
Poetry and Music in Seventeenth-Century England
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USDThis study explores the relationship between the poetic language of Donne, Herbert, Milton and other British poets, and the choral music and part-songs of composers including Tallis, Byrd, Gibbons, Weelkes and Tomkins. The seventeenth century was the time in English literary history when music was most consciously linked to words, and when the mingling of Renaissance and 'new' philosophy opened new discovery routes for the interpretation of art. McColley offers close readings of poems and the musical settings of analogous texts, and discusses the philosophy, performance, and disputed political and ecclesiastical implications of polyphony. She also enters into the discourse about the nature of language, relating poets' use of language and composers' use of music to larger questions concerning the arts, politics and theology.
- Exploration of the relationship between poetry and music in the seventeenth century, of interest to literary and musical scholars
- Offers revealing perspectives on the work of canonical poets such as Donne and Milton
- Helpful supporting materials including chronology and discography
Reviews & endorsements
"McColley's genuine love of the music and texts she examines is a persistent undercurrent in this book, and her willingness to submit her ideas to the scrutiny of a variety of specialists--even when, as in the opening chapter, her conclusions might seem a bit unoriginal, and her insights mostly on a local level--is laudable. Herein, I would submit lies the greatest value of this work for musicologists, and ultimately it is this quality that determines the success of McColley's endeavor. Reading the final pages, with their apostrophe to organs and parish choirs, one becomes aware tht McColley's book is, in a way, her own "song": an intensely personal statement from a respected scholar, and a compelling demonstration of the extent to which an ear for music and an ear for poetry can be mutually enriching." Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music
"...this book unquestionably enables us to "listen" to the seventeenth-century poets with greatly increased appreciation." Journal of English and Germanic Philology
Product details
April 2007Paperback
9780521036290
332 pages
228 × 150 × 14 mm
0.496kg
10 music examples
Available
Table of Contents
- List of musical examples
- Acknowledgements
- Editions and abbreviations
- Note on musical editions
- Note on orthography
- Introduction
- 1. Nature's voice: concent of words and music
- 2. The concinnity of the arts and the church music controversy
- 3. Tuning the instrument: Donne's temporal and extemporal song
- 4. The choir in Herbert's temple
- 5. 'Sole, or responsive': voices in Milton's choirs
- 6. Empire of the ear: the praise of music
- Appendix I. Music, poems and iconography for the liturgical year
- Appendix II. Chronology
- Appendix III. Glossary of musical and liturgical terms
- Notes
- Discography
- Bibliography
- Index.
