Two-part compositions were one of the main means through which music was taught during the Renaissance and Baroque periods, and they therefore played an important role in preparing both professional and amateur musicians. This book deals with the published volumes of duos ranging in date from 1521, the year when the first collection was issued, to 1744, the date of publication of Angelo Bertalotti’s Solfeggi. The importance of duos during this period is evidenced by the number of extant collections – more than sixty in Italy alone – and these publications reveal an essential continuity in the teaching of music theory and practice over a period of 250 years. So far, only a fraction of the music used for this purpose has been studied by other scholars.
During this period all two-part didactic music served consistent and well-defined functions: the teaching of note-values and solmization; the teaching of modality and composition; as the basis for practising both vocal and instrumental music. This work traces the history of the genre, analyses aspects of the compositional structure of duos and examines in detail the various functions of duos. It also considers the intended readership of volumes of duos, through study of the publishers, composers and dedicatees involved.
• VOL. I (pp. 240)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
FOREWORD
1. THE DIDACTIC DUO: AN OVERVIEW
1.1. The Didactic Function of the Duo
1.2. Why Were Two-Part Structures Preferred in Early Didactic Music?
1.3. The Consistency of Duo Production throughout Two Centuries
1.4. When and Why Were Duo Collections First Printed?
1.5. Vocal and Instrumental Performance
1.6. The Duo as Composition Exercise
1.7. The Relationship between the Duo and Other Forms of Didactic Music
2. THE EARLY DUO
2.1. Duos in Johannes Tinctoris’ Treatises
2.2. Duos in Other Manuscripts
2.3. Duos on a Tenor: Costanzo Festa and La Spagna
2.4. Other Duos on La Spagna
2.5. Manuscript Duos not on a Tenor
2.6. Duos on Proportions
3. DIFFERENT KINDS OF DUO
3.1. Nomenclature
3.2. Vocal vs. Instrumental
3.3. The two-part Chanson
3.4. The madrigalian duo
3.5. Motets and Sacred Madrigals
3.6. Other Vocal Duos
4. DUOS AS COMPOSITIONS AND AS TEACHING MATERIALS
4.1. The Musical Fabric
4.2. Canons
4.3. Basic Concepts of Solmization
4.4. Obblighi, Perfidie and Inganni
4.5. Didacticism and Duos
5. OTHER DIDACTIC MUSIC IN DUO COLLECTIONS
5.1. Introduction
5.2. Three and Four-Part Music
5.3. Music to Sing and to Play
5.4. Two-Part Canons with an Added Part
5.5. Other Canons
6. CONCLUSION
BIBLIOGRAPHY
• VOL. II - APPENDICES (pp. 464)
• VOL. III - MUSIC APPENDIX (pp. 240)
Andrea Bornstein graduated in Flauto dolce at the Conservatoire of Bologna with 10/10 in 1981. From 1979 to 1996 he has been an active member of the Oswald von Wolkenstein Ensemble, and its artistic director from 1983.
In 1996 he moved to England and was awarded a PhD in Music at the University of Birmingham in 2001, under the supervision of Prof. John Whenham. This book is based on his doctoral dissertation.
Since 2003 he has been working in Italy, at the University of Rome 2 «Tor Vergata».
Catalogue
