Historical Anthology of Music, Volume I: Oriental, Medieval, and Renaissance Music: Revised Edition

by Archibald T. Davidson, Willi Apel, Archibald T. Davison

This great anthology of music literature makes available to all music lovers a wonderful storehouse of hitherto inaccessible treasure. The volume includes the development of Oriental, Medieval, and Renaissance music from the beginning to 1600. Its more than 200 representative examples are individually complete compositions, each of sufficient length to illustrate clearly a form or style. The authors provide an explanatory commentary with bibliography,...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0674393007
• ISBN13: 9780674393004
• Release Date: January 1949
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Length: 270 Pages
• Weight: 2.86 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 9.5" x 12.3"

Customer Reviews

Justifiably in print after more than fifty years. Superbly done.

Willi Apel and Archibald Davidson put together the two-volume "Historical Anthology of Music" with such intelligence, taste, and care that it is still a definitive resource after fifty years in print. This volume begins with some fragments of ancient Oriental and Greek music and then moves to medieval music and that of the Renaissance. The examples are quite diverse, and while there are samples of the ancient notation, most of the pieces are provided in modern notation for ease of understanding by students. There is a nice balance of instrumental and vocal music, of sacred and secular music, and of various geographical locals and different times over the centuries. There is commentary on the pieces in the back along with translations of the texts into English. The book has a nice large format and is wonderfully easy to read.