Synopsis
For at least two and a half millennia, the figure of Orpheus has haunted humanity. Half-man, half-god, musician, magician, theologian, poet, and lover, his story never leaves us. He may be myth, but his lyre still sounds, entrancing everything that hears it: animals, trees, water, stones, and men. In this extraordinary work, Ann Wroe goes in search of Orpheus, tracing the man and the power he represents through the myriad versions of a fantastical life: his birth in Thrace, his studies in Egypt, his voyage with the Argonauts to fetch the Golden Fleece, his love for Eurydice and the journey to Hades, and his terrible death. We see him tantalizing Cicero and Plato, and breathing new music into Gluck and Monteverdi; occupying the mind of Jung and the surreal dreams of Cocteau; scandalizing the Fathers of the early Church, and filling Rilke with poems like a whirlwind. He emerges as not simply another mythical figure but the force of creation itself, singing the song of light out of darkness and life out of death., Medieval Music by Richard H. Hoppin surveys the history and development of music in the Western world from its roots in early Christian liturgy up to the initial glimmerings of the Renaissance in the fifteenth century. Hoppin considers the sources and uses of monophonic chant, the development of increasingly complex polyphony, and the earliest surviving examples of secular songs and dances. Covering both national styles and major composers, Medieval Music provides a thorough overview of music's earliest recorded history. A companion anthology is available that includes scores for many of the examples discussed in the book. This is a volume from The Norton Introduction to Music History , presenting the music of the Western world to the nonspecialist in six volumes. In each one, an outstanding musicologist surveys the music of a specific period, discusses its major composers, and examines the forces that influenced and helped shape their works. The series is part of the tradition of excellence in musical scholarship that Norton has established in this field., Medieval Music by Richard H. Hoppin surveys the history and development of music in the Western world from its roots in early Christian liturgy up to the initial glimmerings of the Renaissance in the fifteenth century.
