Studies in the History of Italian Music and Music Theory

Claude V. Palisca has long been acknowledged as a leading authority on Italian music of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. These nineteen essays, originally published between 1956 and 1989, draw together a body of significant research into Italian music and music theory, and make readily available papers widely scattered and most now out-of-print. They have further been selected because of their relevance to current research, as evidenced by their continued citation in publications and dissertations. The book is in two parts, providing studies on the History of Italian Music Theory and studies in the History of Italian Music. The thread that runs through the book is the interaction between music theory and practice and between the humanist revial of antiquity and modern ideals of expression in the decades around 1600, a time of transition between the Renaissance and Baroque. A prefatory note - sometimes extensive - accompanies each of the older essays, reviewing recent research on the topic, including the author's and reactions and responses to the original article. Footnote references have been brought up to date. The test is complemented by over a hundred music examples and a number of illustrations.

Review :
'The variety of subjects in this volume testifies both to Palisca's enormous range of knowlege and also to his narrative sjills. Musicologists and early music musicians will benefit greatly from this book.' Musical Times 'the Italian original text is hard to find elsewhere ... A good literary style facilitates comprehension of more complex music theory ... a well-presented volume' Katharine Hogg, Brio `...a fascinating volume' Sixteenth Century Journal `this is vintage ... Palisca: a series of superbly documented essays which focus on a wide variety of topics ... This is all splendid material ... there is a sense of an exciting panopoly ... it offers a great deal and provides a nice set of keys to an array of musical trunks that beg examination ... presented in a style which is a model of clarity and grace and which allows the reader to share the interest of - and one suspects, Palisca's very real delight in - the scholarly cause ... the detail is impeccable ... this collection is a must-have for every student of Italian music and, indeed, of the music of renaissance and baroque western Europe; no scholar should miss this glorious scholarly buffet, and any music library which views its ML and MT classifications with even remote seriousness should order it.' Seventeenth Century News, Fall-Winter 1998