The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Music

摘要

It is often instructive to elicit peoples' views on medieval music and art in general. The lack of proportion or perspective, the flat, even dull, religious, hieratic scenery, that some see in art before the fifteenth century they hear also in the music of the era, an undifferentiated, vaguely hypnotic, monolithic sound. Its attraction, especially as a "chill-out" aid is obvious, but it apparently needs to be spiced up to be fully enjoyable, perhaps in the style of the Medieval Babes, who generously extend the notion of medieval well into the modern era. Against this the authors of this work are at pains to demonstrate the amazing variety of medieval music (it does after all span the best part of a millennium), but emphasise that, like any worthwhile endeavour, it requires patience, and a certain intellectual skill to approach.