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Polyphonic music in thirteenth-century France : aspects of sources and distribution

The investigation of primary sources of thirteenth-century polyphony has been closely related to questions of the date and provenance of the surviving manuscripts. Previous studies have taken a single book and attempted to place it chronologically and topographically within the history of music of the thirteenth century. This thesis considers surviving material related to thirteenth-century polyphony and evaluates the patterns of production found there. These considerations are supported by a review of chronology in the period. Using techniques derived from the fields of paleography, codicology, and art history, the manuscripts are loosely divided into Parisian and non-Parisian, and the contrasting types of book-production are placed in the context of the contemporary production of other types of book. At the most basic level, Parisian books betray a professional and organised system of production which relates to the generation of books which preceded the establishment of the pecia system whilst provincial manuscripts seem to suggest a more informal and ad-hoc construction and circulation. The data obtained from such source-critical inquiry are then used to ask questions concerning the distribution of genre with the discussion focused primarily on the motet and its various sub-species: bilingual motet, rondeau-motet, etc. Conclusions as regards distribution of the music suggest a distinction between Parisian practices and provincial, particularly Artesian, musical cultures. It is argued that concordance-bases and origins of surviving sources suggest the exclusive cultivation of some genres in Paris, and, of others, in Artois or the provinces.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:580787
Date January 1985
CreatorsEverist, Mark
PublisherUniversity of Oxford
Source SetsEthos UK
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation
Sourcehttp://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:0912c195-4c7f-4acb-bd43-17fd0b2bbce0

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