medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Laura Jacobus asks:
> I have a vague impression, based on nothing in particular,
that it was unusual for medieval church music to include
musical >instruments, whereas by the seventeenth century
there might be at least an element of orchestration. Is
this even half right?
>and if so, where were the musicians put?
Despite the injunction of Psalm 150 (Laudate eum in sono
tubae . . . psalterio et cithara, etc.), it was not usual
for instruments (apart from the organ) to be used in
medieval church music, though we know that they sometimes
were on festive occasions (for example at Eugenius IV's
consecration of the dome of Florence Cathedral in 1436), and
increasingly so in the course of the fifteenth century.
Instruments, especially wind instruments, are often
mentioned in the sixteenth century, and were strongly
objected to by humanists, for example Erasmus: 'We have
introduced an artificial and theatrical music into the
church, a bawling and agitation of various voices, such as I
believe had never been heard in the theatres of the Greeks
and Romans. Horns, trumpets, pipes vie and sound along
constantly with the voices. Amorous and lascivious melodies
are heard such as elsewhere accompany only the dances of
courtesans and clowns. The people run into the churches as
if they were theatres, for the sake of the sensuous charm of
the ear.' (Annotations on the New Testament, I Cor. 14 n.
26)
Or this from a letter of an Italian humanist, Bernardo
Cirillo, in 1549: 'What should we say of the cornetts,
sackbuts and other wind instruments that some religious
houses permit? Their use ought to be extirpated. Monks who
allow the glossing, embellishing and disfiguration that
these and similar instruments frequently add, should blush
for shame. To add to the abuses which polyphony engenders,
the majority of the monks sit as mute as statues while a
select few gargle their runs.'
Where the musicians were put is difficult to say. A single
wind instrument could be put in the organ loft, but a group
would probably be on the ground.
Bonnie Blackburn
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Bonnie J. Blackburn
67 St Bernard's Road, Oxford, OX2 6EJ
tel. +44 (0)1865 552808
fax +44 1865 (0) 512237
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
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