Medieval and Renaissance Music on Long-Playing Records by James Coover; Richard ColvigReview by: Klaus SpeerNotes, Second Series, Vol. 22, No. 4 (Jun., 1966), pp. 1235-1236Published by: Music Library AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/895223 .

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assured us that he, unlike many other per- formers, never changed notes in the scores he conducted, performing the music ex- actly as the composer had created it.

The text of this book is constructed in the form of travel letters from Mme Mon- teux, each of which digresses into a flash- back description of her husband's career, culminating in the quoted comments of the Maestro himself. The highly colored anecdotes and scenic descriptions, which tend to resemble tourist lectures, will ap- peal to ladies' club audiences, along with the touching story of the conductor's death. Scholars are served by a thirty-page discography and list of Monteux pre- mieres, though they will probably be more appreciative of what appears to be a care- ful verification of facts and editing of the text. Musicians will enjoy the anecdotes about performers, and benefit from an appendix listing the eight "musts" and twelve "don'ts" which make up M. Mon- teux's "Rules for Young Conductors."

DONALD W. KRUMMEL The Newberry Library

Kirchenmusik in okumenischer Schau. 2. Internationaler Kongress fur Kir- chenmusik in Bern, 22.-29. September 1962. Kongressbericht (Publikationen der schweizerischen musikforschenden Gesellschaft, Serie II, Vol. 11), Bern:

Verlag Paul Haupt [1964]. [101 pp., 8vo; & Gesamtprogramm, 67 p.; Sw. fr.

7.80] The local musicians and musicologists

of Bern have already organized two inter- national congresses for church music, the first one in 1952 and the second in 1962. It now appears that a third Congress is being planned for that city in 1972. The time interval of ten years is propitious for summing up the developments in scholar- ship in the intervening period. The Kon- gressbericht for the 1962 meeting is en- titled "Church Music in an Ecumenical View," yet a glance at the contents of the papers read at these meetings reveals a very heavy preponderance of essentially Swiss regional and European general mu- sicological problems. The volume contains nineteen papers, of which only nine are reproduced in full. The other ten reports are presented in substantial summaries,

assured us that he, unlike many other per- formers, never changed notes in the scores he conducted, performing the music ex- actly as the composer had created it.

The text of this book is constructed in the form of travel letters from Mme Mon- teux, each of which digresses into a flash- back description of her husband's career, culminating in the quoted comments of the Maestro himself. The highly colored anecdotes and scenic descriptions, which tend to resemble tourist lectures, will ap- peal to ladies' club audiences, along with the touching story of the conductor's death. Scholars are served by a thirty-page discography and list of Monteux pre- mieres, though they will probably be more appreciative of what appears to be a care- ful verification of facts and editing of the text. Musicians will enjoy the anecdotes about performers, and benefit from an appendix listing the eight "musts" and twelve "don'ts" which make up M. Mon- teux's "Rules for Young Conductors."

DONALD W. KRUMMEL The Newberry Library

Kirchenmusik in okumenischer Schau. 2. Internationaler Kongress fur Kir- chenmusik in Bern, 22.-29. September 1962. Kongressbericht (Publikationen der schweizerischen musikforschenden Gesellschaft, Serie II, Vol. 11), Bern:

Verlag Paul Haupt [1964]. [101 pp., 8vo; & Gesamtprogramm, 67 p.; Sw. fr.

7.80] The local musicians and musicologists

of Bern have already organized two inter- national congresses for church music, the first one in 1952 and the second in 1962. It now appears that a third Congress is being planned for that city in 1972. The time interval of ten years is propitious for summing up the developments in scholar- ship in the intervening period. The Kon- gressbericht for the 1962 meeting is en- titled "Church Music in an Ecumenical View," yet a glance at the contents of the papers read at these meetings reveals a very heavy preponderance of essentially Swiss regional and European general mu- sicological problems. The volume contains nineteen papers, of which only nine are reproduced in full. The other ten reports are presented in substantial summaries,

assured us that he, unlike many other per- formers, never changed notes in the scores he conducted, performing the music ex- actly as the composer had created it.

The text of this book is constructed in the form of travel letters from Mme Mon- teux, each of which digresses into a flash- back description of her husband's career, culminating in the quoted comments of the Maestro himself. The highly colored anecdotes and scenic descriptions, which tend to resemble tourist lectures, will ap- peal to ladies' club audiences, along with the touching story of the conductor's death. Scholars are served by a thirty-page discography and list of Monteux pre- mieres, though they will probably be more appreciative of what appears to be a care- ful verification of facts and editing of the text. Musicians will enjoy the anecdotes about performers, and benefit from an appendix listing the eight "musts" and twelve "don'ts" which make up M. Mon- teux's "Rules for Young Conductors."

DONALD W. KRUMMEL The Newberry Library

Kirchenmusik in okumenischer Schau. 2. Internationaler Kongress fur Kir- chenmusik in Bern, 22.-29. September 1962. Kongressbericht (Publikationen der schweizerischen musikforschenden Gesellschaft, Serie II, Vol. 11), Bern:

Verlag Paul Haupt [1964]. [101 pp., 8vo; & Gesamtprogramm, 67 p.; Sw. fr.

7.80] The local musicians and musicologists

of Bern have already organized two inter- national congresses for church music, the first one in 1952 and the second in 1962. It now appears that a third Congress is being planned for that city in 1972. The time interval of ten years is propitious for summing up the developments in scholar- ship in the intervening period. The Kon- gressbericht for the 1962 meeting is en- titled "Church Music in an Ecumenical View," yet a glance at the contents of the papers read at these meetings reveals a very heavy preponderance of essentially Swiss regional and European general mu- sicological problems. The volume contains nineteen papers, of which only nine are reproduced in full. The other ten reports are presented in substantial summaries,

since their full texts appeared elsewhere in the periodical literature. Among these, probably most important is that by Bruno Stablein on the trope, published in Acta Musicologica (1963).

The full-length reports include: a fer- vent plea by Angles for retaining Latin in the Roman Catholic services ("Das Alte und das Neue in der heutigen Kirchen- musik und die Vereinigung der Christen," pp. 9-14); an interesting paper on "Musik und Theologie" by O. Sohngen of Berlin (pp. 15-21); one paper on Eastern Ortho- dox church music, "La musique liturgique orthodoxe russe," presented with romantic overtones by Maxime Kovalevsky of Paris (pp. 32-38); and a very informative paper on "Psalmodie populaire" by Joseph Geli- neau of Paris (pp. 74-79), who tried unsuccessfully to provoke discussion by submitting an example of dance music rhythm applied to liturgical texts. Three papers deal with organological problems: Dufourcq's "Interd6pendance de la facture et de la musique d'orgue en France sous le r&gne de Louis XIV" (summary only, pp. 88-90); Hans Klotz, "A propos de 1' orgue de 1500 environ, de l'orgue bra- bancon de 1550 et de la maniere de les jouer" (pp. 91-96); and Friedrich Jakob, "Tendenzen des heutigen Orgelbaus" (pp. 96-100).

MILOg VELIMIROVIC Yale University

Medieval and Renaissance Music on Long-Playing Records. By James Coo- ver and Richard Colvig. (Detroit Stu- dies in Music Bibliography, No. 6.) [Detroit: Information Service, Inc.] 1964. [xii, 122 p.; $3.00]

Everyone concerned with Medieval or Renaissance music-be he teacher, student, or librarian-will acclaim this index. A wealth of music from these two historical periods has been recorded in the first decade of long-playing records. Much of this music, of course, is in the form of short pieces, so that the long-playing record is normally an anthology of music by one or more composers. Because it is expensive and a time-consuming task, complete analyses of these anthologies are seldom made for the library catalogue. Thus it is difficult, if not impossible, for

since their full texts appeared elsewhere in the periodical literature. Among these, probably most important is that by Bruno Stablein on the trope, published in Acta Musicologica (1963).

The full-length reports include: a fer- vent plea by Angles for retaining Latin in the Roman Catholic services ("Das Alte und das Neue in der heutigen Kirchen- musik und die Vereinigung der Christen," pp. 9-14); an interesting paper on "Musik und Theologie" by O. Sohngen of Berlin (pp. 15-21); one paper on Eastern Ortho- dox church music, "La musique liturgique orthodoxe russe," presented with romantic overtones by Maxime Kovalevsky of Paris (pp. 32-38); and a very informative paper on "Psalmodie populaire" by Joseph Geli- neau of Paris (pp. 74-79), who tried unsuccessfully to provoke discussion by submitting an example of dance music rhythm applied to liturgical texts. Three papers deal with organological problems: Dufourcq's "Interd6pendance de la facture et de la musique d'orgue en France sous le r&gne de Louis XIV" (summary only, pp. 88-90); Hans Klotz, "A propos de 1' orgue de 1500 environ, de l'orgue bra- bancon de 1550 et de la maniere de les jouer" (pp. 91-96); and Friedrich Jakob, "Tendenzen des heutigen Orgelbaus" (pp. 96-100).

MILOg VELIMIROVIC Yale University

Medieval and Renaissance Music on Long-Playing Records. By James Coo- ver and Richard Colvig. (Detroit Stu- dies in Music Bibliography, No. 6.) [Detroit: Information Service, Inc.] 1964. [xii, 122 p.; $3.00]

Everyone concerned with Medieval or Renaissance music-be he teacher, student, or librarian-will acclaim this index. A wealth of music from these two historical periods has been recorded in the first decade of long-playing records. Much of this music, of course, is in the form of short pieces, so that the long-playing record is normally an anthology of music by one or more composers. Because it is expensive and a time-consuming task, complete analyses of these anthologies are seldom made for the library catalogue. Thus it is difficult, if not impossible, for

since their full texts appeared elsewhere in the periodical literature. Among these, probably most important is that by Bruno Stablein on the trope, published in Acta Musicologica (1963).

The full-length reports include: a fer- vent plea by Angles for retaining Latin in the Roman Catholic services ("Das Alte und das Neue in der heutigen Kirchen- musik und die Vereinigung der Christen," pp. 9-14); an interesting paper on "Musik und Theologie" by O. Sohngen of Berlin (pp. 15-21); one paper on Eastern Ortho- dox church music, "La musique liturgique orthodoxe russe," presented with romantic overtones by Maxime Kovalevsky of Paris (pp. 32-38); and a very informative paper on "Psalmodie populaire" by Joseph Geli- neau of Paris (pp. 74-79), who tried unsuccessfully to provoke discussion by submitting an example of dance music rhythm applied to liturgical texts. Three papers deal with organological problems: Dufourcq's "Interd6pendance de la facture et de la musique d'orgue en France sous le r&gne de Louis XIV" (summary only, pp. 88-90); Hans Klotz, "A propos de 1' orgue de 1500 environ, de l'orgue bra- bancon de 1550 et de la maniere de les jouer" (pp. 91-96); and Friedrich Jakob, "Tendenzen des heutigen Orgelbaus" (pp. 96-100).

MILOg VELIMIROVIC Yale University

Medieval and Renaissance Music on Long-Playing Records. By James Coo- ver and Richard Colvig. (Detroit Stu- dies in Music Bibliography, No. 6.) [Detroit: Information Service, Inc.] 1964. [xii, 122 p.; $3.00]

Everyone concerned with Medieval or Renaissance music-be he teacher, student, or librarian-will acclaim this index. A wealth of music from these two historical periods has been recorded in the first decade of long-playing records. Much of this music, of course, is in the form of short pieces, so that the long-playing record is normally an anthology of music by one or more composers. Because it is expensive and a time-consuming task, complete analyses of these anthologies are seldom made for the library catalogue. Thus it is difficult, if not impossible, for

1235 1235 1235

This content downloaded from 185.2.32.49 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 19:25:24 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

the user of the catalogue to locate the particular piece he needs.

The index, which is an enlarged version of a dittoed list prepared by Mr. Coover in 1957, is in two parts, anthologies of compositions by two or more composers and anthologies of compositions by one composer. Since the latter refers to the works in the former, it is a complete index to each composer's recorded works.

The cut-off date for the entries was 1961, though the date of publication is 1964. Not all of the records are still com- mercially available, of course, but the scholar can locate copies in some library. Every scholar working with Medieval and Renaissance music, every private record collector with an interest for this music, and every institutional record library will want to have a copy of this index (it in- cludes, by the way, foreign as well as domestic releases). The compilers of the index should be encouraged to prepare regular supplements. They might also at- tempt to write clearer instructions for the use of the index.

KLAUS SPEER Sibley Library

University of Rochester

This Is Music; A Guide to the Pleas- ures of Listening. By David Randolph. New York, Toronto, London: McGraw- Hill Book Company [c1964]. [viii, 273 p., 8vo; $6.50]

David Randolph has had a varied career as lecturer on music at New York Univer- sity, broadcaster of "Music for the Con- noisseur" over WNYC, and conductor of the Masterwork Chorus and Orchestra and the Randolph Singers. He now appears as the author of a rare kind of music appreci- ation book. The vast majority of such books are mass-produced with an eye for the great unwashed public, or designed as textbooks, to be stuffed down the throats of captive audiences in the classroom. This Is Music, however, belongs to a select minority of literate, non-technical works dedicated to the self-education of the intelligent layman.

It is divided into three sections, "How We Experience Music," "The Materials and Forms of Music," and "Your Approach to the Understanding and Enjoyment of Music." In the first and largest of these,

the user of the catalogue to locate the particular piece he needs.

The index, which is an enlarged version of a dittoed list prepared by Mr. Coover in 1957, is in two parts, anthologies of compositions by two or more composers and anthologies of compositions by one composer. Since the latter refers to the works in the former, it is a complete index to each composer's recorded works.

The cut-off date for the entries was 1961, though the date of publication is 1964. Not all of the records are still com- mercially available, of course, but the scholar can locate copies in some library. Every scholar working with Medieval and Renaissance music, every private record collector with an interest for this music, and every institutional record library will want to have a copy of this index (it in- cludes, by the way, foreign as well as domestic releases). The compilers of the index should be encouraged to prepare regular supplements. They might also at- tempt to write clearer instructions for the use of the index.

KLAUS SPEER Sibley Library

University of Rochester

This Is Music; A Guide to the Pleas- ures of Listening. By David Randolph. New York, Toronto, London: McGraw- Hill Book Company [c1964]. [viii, 273 p., 8vo; $6.50]

David Randolph has had a varied career as lecturer on music at New York Univer- sity, broadcaster of "Music for the Con- noisseur" over WNYC, and conductor of the Masterwork Chorus and Orchestra and the Randolph Singers. He now appears as the author of a rare kind of music appreci- ation book. The vast majority of such books are mass-produced with an eye for the great unwashed public, or designed as textbooks, to be stuffed down the throats of captive audiences in the classroom. This Is Music, however, belongs to a select minority of literate, non-technical works dedicated to the self-education of the intelligent layman.

It is divided into three sections, "How We Experience Music," "The Materials and Forms of Music," and "Your Approach to the Understanding and Enjoyment of Music." In the first and largest of these,

Randolph rejects the basic popular-ro- mantic notions that music has specific meanings ("The Myth of Storytelling in Music") understood by those who have special insight or technical knowledge, or that it can serve to express or affect the emotions of the composer, performer, or listener. Instead, Randolph tries to ac- count for music's peculiar appeal by draw- ing on the socially conditioned response ("Our emotional responses to music are largely learned reactions, shaped by usage, convention, and association," p. 125), the distinction between "real emotions" and "esthetic emotions" ("Let us realize that we do not go to music for real emotions. We go, instead, for an esthetic experience -or, for what we might term 'esthetic emotions,'" p. 140), and the isomorphism of the forms of feeling with music ("[Mu- sic] has certain dynamic properties in com- mon with our feelings and emotions. ... Just because music has no vocabulary of discrete significances as words do, it is better able to match the changing course -the flow-of our feelings.... Music sounds the way our emotions feel," p. 135). Randolph's debt to the psychologist Car- roll C. Pratt and the philosopher Susanne K. Langer, who also reject the popular- romantic notions as a prelude to develop- ing an isomorphic theory of musical sig- nificance, will be immediately evident to those familiar with their works.

In his second section, Randolph discusses the rudiments of music and the most com- mon musical forms, mentioning appropri- ate musical examples as he goes along. Then, in his concluding section, he stresses that listening for form takes precedence over listening for such sensuous values as tone color. Finally, although he admits that "listening to music is an integral part of living, and [that] it would be undesir- able, even if it were possible, to separate [music] completely from all other associa- tions," he warns the reader against giving too much attention to extramusical stim- uli: "Music is its own subject matter, and it requires no other reason for being" (p. 264).

For the man who says, "I like music, but I don't know anything about it," we heartily recommend this readable and en- joyable book.

FRED BLUM Library of Congress

Randolph rejects the basic popular-ro- mantic notions that music has specific meanings ("The Myth of Storytelling in Music") understood by those who have special insight or technical knowledge, or that it can serve to express or affect the emotions of the composer, performer, or listener. Instead, Randolph tries to ac- count for music's peculiar appeal by draw- ing on the socially conditioned response ("Our emotional responses to music are largely learned reactions, shaped by usage, convention, and association," p. 125), the distinction between "real emotions" and "esthetic emotions" ("Let us realize that we do not go to music for real emotions. We go, instead, for an esthetic experience -or, for what we might term 'esthetic emotions,'" p. 140), and the isomorphism of the forms of feeling with music ("[Mu- sic] has certain dynamic properties in com- mon with our feelings and emotions. ... Just because music has no vocabulary of discrete significances as words do, it is better able to match the changing course -the flow-of our feelings.... Music sounds the way our emotions feel," p. 135). Randolph's debt to the psychologist Car- roll C. Pratt and the philosopher Susanne K. Langer, who also reject the popular- romantic notions as a prelude to develop- ing an isomorphic theory of musical sig- nificance, will be immediately evident to those familiar with their works.

In his second section, Randolph discusses the rudiments of music and the most com- mon musical forms, mentioning appropri- ate musical examples as he goes along. Then, in his concluding section, he stresses that listening for form takes precedence over listening for such sensuous values as tone color. Finally, although he admits that "listening to music is an integral part of living, and [that] it would be undesir- able, even if it were possible, to separate [music] completely from all other associa- tions," he warns the reader against giving too much attention to extramusical stim- uli: "Music is its own subject matter, and it requires no other reason for being" (p. 264).

For the man who says, "I like music, but I don't know anything about it," we heartily recommend this readable and en- joyable book.

FRED BLUM Library of Congress

1236 1236

This content downloaded from 185.2.32.49 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 19:25:24 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions