Music of the Renaissance. By Giulio Ongaro. pp. xvi + 202. (Greenwood, Westport, Conn. and Oxford, 2003, £23.99. ISBN 0-313-32263-5.)

Abstract

Unlike other recent surveys with similar titles, this book is addressed to a general audience, aimed particularly at first-year undergraduates or the equivalent. As such, it attempts to distil the necessary information for an understanding of Renaissance music into a single-semester course for non-music majors with little or no musical literacy. This is not an easy task for a specialist, but it is a very important one to undertake at this time. While many may bemoan the lack of interest of present-day students in early music, at least compared to their counterparts of even ten years ago, Giulio Ongaro has set out to do something about it and has produced a readable account for the non-specialist, published by a press which concentrates on college textbooks and survey books. The focus of the book is not on the music itself but on those who composed and performed it and on the conditions under which it was created and performed. There are very few music examples—understandably, given the target readership. In the only chapter to deal with specific instances of the musical product (‘Musical Genres of the Renaissance’) the discussion is entirely confined to the literary texts of the particular frottola, madrigal, chanson, etc. chosen for a closer look (in sections marked off by italic type). This is, I feel, a weakness. While those who already know the music of the period can easily recall these well-known examples, for those who do not the discussion in this chapter and elsewhere lacks a musical context and provides no opportunity to auralize the music. It is difficult to imagine a similar book on the art of the Renaissance without any illustrations, and equally this book needs an aural accompaniment, which might have been provided via a CD or, probably more usefully these days, via the publisher’s website. Nor is there any attempt to recommend recordings, even for those eight pieces examined in some detail in the ‘Musical Genres’ chapter. At the end of the book, under the heading ‘Further readings: recordings’ the author bemoans the fact that ‘books surveying this period do not come with a set of CDs illustrating the music’ and cites the specialization in terms of repertory as a difficulty in recommending particular recordings. He suggests that the reader enquire at a good record shop—something of a cop-out, particularly given the demise of so many such specialized shops in recent years. When the book is used as a textbook the teacher can, of course, provide the necessary aural illustrations, but the general reader will be left unguided in exploring the actual sound of the music of the period (or at least modern re-creations of it).