Theology and Music at the Early University: The Case of Robert Grosseteste and Anonymous IV (Brill's Studies in Itellectual History) [Hardcover]

Nancy Van Deusen (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 9004100598 | ISBN-13: 978-9004100596 | Publication Date: August 1997

This work unites important theological-philosophical subjects discussed by Robert Grosseteste throughout his prodigious output, with those exemplified by an anonymous contemporary English writer on music. It shows how music collaborated with the other liberal arts, operating within the early university curriculum as a ministry discipline. Music made accessible through the "figurae" of its notation, and through sound, otherwise nearly unapproachable, new Aristotelian concepts. The influence was reciprocal in that new Aristotelian tools and conceptualization greatly influenced music notation and style. Music theory has been studied in isolation, as pertaining only to music. This study relates music of the early 13th century to its intellectual context, overturning dogma, uncritically accepted since the beginning of this century, concerning so-called "modal rhythm", and showing how "contrary motion", rather than forming a musical convention, demonstrated a key Aristotelian concept.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'"Van Deusen's pioneering research will be of interest to musicologists and semioticians alike...Theology and Musics "should absorb the attention of any scholar interested in the history of thought and its articulation as a syncretic and expansive process.'
Robert Podgurski, "English Language Notes, 1995.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 223 pages
• Publisher: Brill Academic Pub (August 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9004100598
• ISBN-13: 978-9004100596
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,878,077 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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