Manuscripts and Medieval Song: Inscription, Performance, Context by Helen Deeming and Elizabeth Eva Leach

Abstract

Reviewed by: Manuscripts and Medieval Song: Inscription, Performance, Context by Helen Deeming and Elizabeth Eva Leach Adam Knight Gilbert Manuscripts and Medieval Song: Inscription, Performance, Context. By Helen Deeming and Elizabeth Eva Leach. (Music in Context.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015. [xxi, 324 p. ISBN 978-1-1070-6-2634. $99.99] In the introduction and concluding essay to Manu scripts and Medieval Song: Inscription, Performance, Context, editors Helen Deeming and Elizabeth Eva Leach describe their goal of re-examining important but overlooked sources and repertories, in three ways: Inscription, Performance, and Context. “Inscription” considers the benefits of viewing the repertory, text, or image as an integrated part of a complete source, rather than as a discrete entity divorced from its larger source, arguing for “a wider, more inclusive view of the nature of musical inscription and musical reading” (p. 272). “Performance” not only refers to ways in which the repertory might have been performed, it argues for expanded definitions of what constituted medieval performance to include “ a wide range of performative activities, including . . . singing aloud to an audience, singing aloud alongside companions, singing pieces but not necessarily straight through from beginning to end, and singing in a low voice—or even silently—to oneself ” (p. 279). “Context” refers to the editors’ conviction that “the material traces of song, in the form of the manuscripts that house them, can supply . . . a good deal of information about these lost social contexts, as well as providing . . . a direct written context for song that has not been fully acknowledged” (p. 282). To that end, this book gathers studies by respected scholars on ten important sources of medieval collections of and about medieval song. The result is a magisterial collection of studies that will be an indispensable resource for serious students of medieval music, music libraries, and teachers of music history. The studies will be of particular value to those interested in medieval performance, for their information about performance settings and practises, and with their invitation to explore expanded medieval repertories. While the topics do not lend themselves to breezy reading, the writing is never dry, and the chapters serve as models for joining engaging writing and rigorous scholarship. Each chapter introduces the repertory and source in question, seamlessly leading the reader from commonly known (and often inconsistent) names to their standard RISM sigla. This is followed by a detailed account of the history and current state of scholarship of each source and its repertory, including each author’s contribution. Case studies on individual compositions, images, and texts provide compelling arguments for how each repertory can be better understood within the larger context of its source, culture, and performance traditions. Each chapter also provides a concise and helpful summary of the issues raised. Sam Barrett views the Latin versus collection of “the earliest medieval songbook”, F-Pn Lat. 1154, as an integral part of a varied collection of litanies, prayers, and other texts. Using paleography and textual clues, he places the origins of the manuscript in the Abbey of St. Martial of Limoges, offers an informative account of its role in private monastic prayer, and shows how [End Page 313] its prayers reflect Alcuin’s instructions for personal devotion. Jeremy Llewellyn considers the “Cambridge Songs” as part of a larger collection, GB-Cu Gg.V.35, that includes theoretical texts and glosses. He places the songs in a rich pedagogical context, recounts the complex nature of variants and “a panoply of dialogues” between repertories, and considers the role of the “careful cantor” as one charged with both practical and moral responsibility. Rachel Golden examines monophonic and polyphonic settings of Latin song in the twelfth-century Aquitanian versarium GB-Lbl Add. 36881. In addition to placing the source in context of other versaria, she identifies images prompting readers to make the sign of the cross as a performative cue. Her fine editions of the monophonic Ave mater salvatoris and the two-voice Quam felix cubiculum, enhanced by analysis founded in contemporary theological allegory, inspired me to find her dissertation (“Devotion to the Virgin Mary in Twelfth-Century Aquitanian Versus [Ph.D. diss., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2000]), and left me glad I...