Medieval Music and Historiography by Anthony Pryer
Music and Musicans, 1977
In the late 14c music took an experimental turn. This article explores the causes and contexts of... more In the late 14c music took an experimental turn. This article explores the causes and contexts of that change
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Music and Musicians, 1977
Exploration of the reception of Guillaume de Machaut (c1300-1377) on the 600th anniversary of his... more Exploration of the reception of Guillaume de Machaut (c1300-1377) on the 600th anniversary of his death
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Anthony Pryer, Introduction for THE MEDIEVAL ENSEMBLE OF LONDON (CD) by Peter & Timothy Davies
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The Musical Times, 1994
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An explanation of the development of the liturgy and the context of sacred music in the medieval ... more An explanation of the development of the liturgy and the context of sacred music in the medieval period
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A substantial but concise history (twenty pages) of the systems of Western musical notation, c.90... more A substantial but concise history (twenty pages) of the systems of Western musical notation, c.900-c.1980, presented in chronological order with many music examples and a short bibliography. It originally appeared as an article in the 2-volume, New Oxford Companion to Music, edited by Denis Arnold, published in 1983.
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Monteverdi and the Baroque by Anthony Pryer
Alan Curtis, Ellen Rosand and others have suggested that this famous duet from the end of Monteve... more Alan Curtis, Ellen Rosand and others have suggested that this famous duet from the end of Monteverdi's Poppea may not be his composition. However, this paper assembles evidence and arguments that suggest he may have been the composer after all.
Pryer, Anthony J.. 1996. Authentic Performance, Authentic Experience and "Pur ti miro" from Poppea. In: Raffaello Monterosso, ed. Performing Practice in Monteverdi's Music: the Historic-Philological Background. Cremona: Fondazione Claudio Monteverdi, pp. 191-213. ISBN 88-86288-25-5 [Book Section]
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BBC Music Magazine Special Baroque Issue, 1997
An exploration of the background ideas that brought about changes in culture in the Baroque inclu... more An exploration of the background ideas that brought about changes in culture in the Baroque including music
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Pryer, Anthony J.. November 2012. Claudio Monteverdi: Sacrae Cantiunculae; Madrigali Spirituali; ... more Pryer, Anthony J.. November 2012. Claudio Monteverdi: Sacrae Cantiunculae; Madrigali Spirituali; Canzonette a 3 Voci. Cremona (Italy): Fondazione Claudio Monteverdi. ISBN 9788886288361.
This edition brings together the three earliest printed collections of music in Claudio Monteverdi’s output – the Sacrae Cantiunculae (1582), the Madrigali Spirituali (1583) and the Canzonette a tre voci (1584). The Sacrae Cantiunculae have never been presented before with a full liturgical commentary, the Madrigali Spirituali have hitherto only appeared in facsimile and without a commentary, and the Canzonette have never been edited so as to display all of the stanzas of the texts underlayed to the music, and with a flexible system of barring that takes proper account of the accentuation of the Italian words. Additionally, these new transcriptions correct numerous notational and textual errors in two earlier editions (1909, 1939), and a substantial ‘Introduction’ provides important new information on the creative context and performance of these items. These collections were clearly designed to demonstrate the precocious ability of the young Monteverdi (he was just fifteen years old in 1582), covering as they do three important, contrasting musical genres – the motet, the spiritual madrigal, and the canzonetta. Moreover, they all date from Monteverdi’s years in Cremona, and the printers, publishers and patrons involved reveal interesting details about exactly how he gained entry to the professional world of music.
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Musical Improvisation in the Baroque Era, 2019
The activities we subsume under the single term 'improvisation' comprise a complex and varied fie... more The activities we subsume under the single term 'improvisation' comprise a complex and varied field of musical behaviour, not all elements of which are quite as spontaneous or 'in the moment' as they might appear. This paper argues that the oral/written divide is less central for improvisation than the prepared/unprepared one. It also examines the constraining role of 'common practice' styles within improvisation and how 'spontaneity' frequently is not a compositional 'cause' but an arch style of performance presentation. Finally it examines in relation to Caccini and Monteverdi the dialectic between oral and written cultures when improvisational practices began to be recorded in print c.1600,
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Anthony Pryer 'Words and Music: Traditions of Intimacy and Independence', Programme Introduction:... more Anthony Pryer 'Words and Music: Traditions of Intimacy and Independence', Programme Introduction: The London Festival of Baroque Music. St Peter’s Church, Eaton Square, London. 15th May 2016]
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The Cambridge Companion to Monteverdi, 2007
This is an exploration of the reception history of Monteverdi. It examines how we have thrown a g... more This is an exploration of the reception history of Monteverdi. It examines how we have thrown a grid of our own cultural concepts and meanings (on national identity, originality, creative freedom, popular styles, 'revolutionary' music in the 'modernist vein, performance practices, etc.) across his own works and attitudes. Along the way it identifies new interpretations of his Innsbruck portrait, the concept of 'popular' music in relation to his works, the origins of 'Possente spirto' from Orfeo, and the Spanish influence on his compositional material.
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Early Music, 1997
Using historical, analytic, and documentary methodologies this article establishes dates in 1607 ... more Using historical, analytic, and documentary methodologies this article establishes dates in 1607 for the composition of two madrigals by Monteverdi - “Ohime el bel viso”, and “Zefiro torna e’l bel tempo rimena”, both eventually published in 1614. It also demonstrates the exact process by which “Zefiro torna’” clearly began as a homage to a setting of the same text by Marenzio (including quotations from Marenzio’s music), but became creatively sidetracked into a reminiscence of the central moment in Monteverdi’s opera L’Orfeo. Thus ,even in the absence of compositional sketches, it has proved possible to uncover the “compositional archaeology” of these two works and the creative processes that led to their final form. It also establishes a methodology for distinguishing accidental similarity from deliberate allusion in compositional connections during the late Renaissance.
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Mozart and the 18c by Anthony Pryer
... Chigi Saracini) 1939 The Settimana Vivaldiana (Vivaldian Week) in Siena establishes Vivaldi i... more ... Chigi Saracini) 1939 The Settimana Vivaldiana (Vivaldian Week) in Siena establishes Vivaldi in the modern performance world. Works "prepared for performance by AlfredoCasella" (actually mostly by Olga Rudge). 1939 Nadia ...
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Eighteenth-Century Music, 2004
The content and purpose of Mozart's 1770 Milan concert on 12 March have been disputed. This new ... more The content and purpose of Mozart's 1770 Milan concert on 12 March have been disputed. This new examination makes the case for the performance of versions of the concert arias Kv 71, 77, and 83 (all based on Metastasio's libretto Demofoönte), presented together as - to use Mozart's phrase - an 'opera in aria'. The probable involvement of the singers Giuseppe Aprile, Antonia Bernasconi and Guglielmo Ettore is established, as is the location of the concert (Count Firmian's Palazzo Melzi). Strong evidence is also offered for re-dating Mozart's concert aria Fra cento affani (Kv 88).
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Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Music by Anthony Pryer
An assessment of contemporary music aesthetics through the work of Roger Scruton and Wayne D Bowm... more An assessment of contemporary music aesthetics through the work of Roger Scruton and Wayne D Bowman
Journal of the Royal Musical Association, 124/1 (1999), 134-152
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Christoph Landerer, Alex Wilfing, Meike Wilfing-Albrecht, eds., Hanslick im Kontext/Hanslick in Context (Vienna: Hollitzer, 2020), 2020
In his treatise Vom Musikalisch-Schönen ("On the Musically Beautiful", 1854), Eduard Hanslick fam... more In his treatise Vom Musikalisch-Schönen ("On the Musically Beautiful", 1854), Eduard Hanslick famously marginalised the role of performance and therefore, by default, the significance of performance interpretation. This chapter explores the context and consequences of that neglect.
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Anthony Pryer, 'Music Appreciation: Response, Interpretation and Value', British Library, Saul Se... more Anthony Pryer, 'Music Appreciation: Response, Interpretation and Value', British Library, Saul Seminar: Tuesday 2 November, 2004.
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Pryer, Anthony J.. March 2013. Hanslick, Legal Processes and Scientific Methodologies: How Not to... more Pryer, Anthony J.. March 2013. Hanslick, Legal Processes and Scientific Methodologies: How Not to Construct an Ontology of Music. In: Nicole Grimes; Siobhán Donovan and Wolfgang Marx, eds. Rethinking Hanslick: Music, Formalism and Expression. Rochester New York: University of Rochester Press, pp. 52-69. ISBN 9781580464321 [Book Section]
Downloadable item is the final draft version.
Hanslick's treatise On the Beautiful in Music (1854) is often taken to be a paradigm of 'scientific' and 'formalist' explanations of music. This article demonstrates that many of his key ideas came from Hanslick's legal training with its 'laws' based on 'rulings' rather than universal principles. That training also caused him to organise his treatise as if conducting a courtroom defence, with its emphasis on negative rebuttal and a verdict of 'not guilty as charged'. Finally, arising from his observations on musical performance, a new theory of the ontology of music is adumbrated.
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Performance Theory by Anthony Pryer
Musical Times (September, 1995), 491-3
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Medieval Music and Historiography by Anthony Pryer
Monteverdi and the Baroque by Anthony Pryer
Pryer, Anthony J.. 1996. Authentic Performance, Authentic Experience and "Pur ti miro" from Poppea. In: Raffaello Monterosso, ed. Performing Practice in Monteverdi's Music: the Historic-Philological Background. Cremona: Fondazione Claudio Monteverdi, pp. 191-213. ISBN 88-86288-25-5 [Book Section]
This edition brings together the three earliest printed collections of music in Claudio Monteverdi’s output – the Sacrae Cantiunculae (1582), the Madrigali Spirituali (1583) and the Canzonette a tre voci (1584). The Sacrae Cantiunculae have never been presented before with a full liturgical commentary, the Madrigali Spirituali have hitherto only appeared in facsimile and without a commentary, and the Canzonette have never been edited so as to display all of the stanzas of the texts underlayed to the music, and with a flexible system of barring that takes proper account of the accentuation of the Italian words. Additionally, these new transcriptions correct numerous notational and textual errors in two earlier editions (1909, 1939), and a substantial ‘Introduction’ provides important new information on the creative context and performance of these items. These collections were clearly designed to demonstrate the precocious ability of the young Monteverdi (he was just fifteen years old in 1582), covering as they do three important, contrasting musical genres – the motet, the spiritual madrigal, and the canzonetta. Moreover, they all date from Monteverdi’s years in Cremona, and the printers, publishers and patrons involved reveal interesting details about exactly how he gained entry to the professional world of music.
Mozart and the 18c by Anthony Pryer
Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Music by Anthony Pryer
Journal of the Royal Musical Association, 124/1 (1999), 134-152
Downloadable item is the final draft version.
Hanslick's treatise On the Beautiful in Music (1854) is often taken to be a paradigm of 'scientific' and 'formalist' explanations of music. This article demonstrates that many of his key ideas came from Hanslick's legal training with its 'laws' based on 'rulings' rather than universal principles. That training also caused him to organise his treatise as if conducting a courtroom defence, with its emphasis on negative rebuttal and a verdict of 'not guilty as charged'. Finally, arising from his observations on musical performance, a new theory of the ontology of music is adumbrated.
Performance Theory by Anthony Pryer
Pryer, Anthony J.. 1996. Authentic Performance, Authentic Experience and "Pur ti miro" from Poppea. In: Raffaello Monterosso, ed. Performing Practice in Monteverdi's Music: the Historic-Philological Background. Cremona: Fondazione Claudio Monteverdi, pp. 191-213. ISBN 88-86288-25-5 [Book Section]
This edition brings together the three earliest printed collections of music in Claudio Monteverdi’s output – the Sacrae Cantiunculae (1582), the Madrigali Spirituali (1583) and the Canzonette a tre voci (1584). The Sacrae Cantiunculae have never been presented before with a full liturgical commentary, the Madrigali Spirituali have hitherto only appeared in facsimile and without a commentary, and the Canzonette have never been edited so as to display all of the stanzas of the texts underlayed to the music, and with a flexible system of barring that takes proper account of the accentuation of the Italian words. Additionally, these new transcriptions correct numerous notational and textual errors in two earlier editions (1909, 1939), and a substantial ‘Introduction’ provides important new information on the creative context and performance of these items. These collections were clearly designed to demonstrate the precocious ability of the young Monteverdi (he was just fifteen years old in 1582), covering as they do three important, contrasting musical genres – the motet, the spiritual madrigal, and the canzonetta. Moreover, they all date from Monteverdi’s years in Cremona, and the printers, publishers and patrons involved reveal interesting details about exactly how he gained entry to the professional world of music.
Journal of the Royal Musical Association, 124/1 (1999), 134-152
Downloadable item is the final draft version.
Hanslick's treatise On the Beautiful in Music (1854) is often taken to be a paradigm of 'scientific' and 'formalist' explanations of music. This article demonstrates that many of his key ideas came from Hanslick's legal training with its 'laws' based on 'rulings' rather than universal principles. That training also caused him to organise his treatise as if conducting a courtroom defence, with its emphasis on negative rebuttal and a verdict of 'not guilty as charged'. Finally, arising from his observations on musical performance, a new theory of the ontology of music is adumbrated.
Downloadable item is the final draft version.
Conference Paper: British Society of Aesthetics, St Edmund’s Hall, Oxford, September 1999.