The Production and Reading of Music Sources

Book excerpt: Renaissance sources of polyphonic music not only convey a rich repertoire of some of the most impressive music ever written. From the point of view of their layout or mise-en-page, they are also amongst the most complex books of their time. They typically combine verbal text, musical notation and other graphic devices, and the different voice parts are arranged to be read separately by the performers, yet to be performed simultaneously. As an integral part of the production and use of these books, the mise-en-page thus provides crucial information for the understanding of the repertoire that is transmitted through them. The present volume combines a number of studies resulting from a research project funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) into this question, combining the examination of a number of overarching themes (e.g. luxury codices, printed polyphony, music theory books, illumination) with case studies of individual sources.