The Oxford History of English Music: From the Beginnings to C. 1715, Vol. 1 Book

This first volume of a magisterial two-volume survey of English music charts its development from its beginnings to about 1715. It looks at the music of early monastic institutions and the development of polyphony, including the extraordinarily advanced mid-thirteenth-century canon, "Sumeris icumen in." It deals with the first Golden Age of English music, namely the mid-fifteenth-century composers represented in the Old Hall Manuscript, such as Dunstable and Power. It looks at the remarkable flowering of sixteenth-century choral music, of which Tallis's 'Spem in Alium' is a splendid example. And it charts the rise of the carol, the madrigal, and the seventeenth-century opera and masque and instrumental music, culminating in the genius of Henry Purcell. A well-balanced, judicious survey, with a unity of style and outlook resulting from its single author, the book makes a discussion of the actual music the focus of each chapter, without excluding social and historical comment.

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This first of two volumes surveying the whole field of music by English composers begins with the settlement of the North German peoples and the cultivation of church music following the mission of St. Augustine in 597, and concludes with Handel's decision to remain in England and the end of the Stuart monarchy. The contribution of each major figure is placed in the context of the music of his contemporaries and against the social, religious, and historical background. There are 217 musical examples and 16 pages of plates. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)