Abstract
Reviewed by: Eric Thomas, University of Huddersfield, UK
Victor Coelho and Keith Polk have both made significant contributions to the study of instrumental music in the Renaissance. Coelho specializes in late sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Italian lute music, while Polk’s research has centred on German instrumental music, and in Players of Fantasy and Function they combine their talents to provide a survey of instrumental music from 1420 to 1600. The only book-long survey of instrumental music in the Renaissance is Joseph W. Wasielewski’s Geschichte der Instrumentalmusik im XVI Jahrhundert from 1878, and much of the scholarship into Renaissance music focuses on vocal genres. Even though throughout the sixteenth century there was a consistent increase in the printing of instrumental music, the dominance of vocal models for instrumental compositions has led instrumental music to be seen as an appendage to Renaissance music; so, Players of Fantasy and Function is certainly a timely attempt to survey the research that has been done on the instrumental music of the Renaissance.
The presentation of Renaissance instrumental music, as noted in the introduction, ‘has proved challenging for music historians seeking to present a cohesive history of this sprawling repertory’ (1). Rather than adopt a chronological, geographical or genre-based history, Coelho and Polk present the history of instrumental music through six different lenses, each becoming a chapter, and slotted in are various case studies, providing in-depth examples of wider themes. Each chapter is designed to be self-contained and is intended for non-music specialists as well musicologists and performers. The text defines the ‘Renaissance’ in this context as being between 1420 and 1600, from the institutionalization of instrumental music at the Burgundian Court to the rise of basso continuo around 1600, and ‘Renaissance’ is used as a convenient term to describe this period, rather than being linked to any concept of ‘rebirth’.
The chapters can be organized into three groups: Chapters 1, 3 and 4 focus on the societal, economic and cultural roles, looking at patronage, the players themselves, and festivities; Chapters 2 and 5 focus on the music, with chapter 2 being a study of instrumental music sources and Chapter 5 examining the compositional process; and finally Chapter 6 stands alone as an image-based organological study. Chapter 1 establishes the narrative, the importance of instrumental music in Renaissance society and culture, and many of the themes and certain important events in the chapters to follow. The structure of each chapter is similar (with the exception of Chapters 2 and 6), with each organized under a variety of sub-headings related to its theme. For example, Chapter 3, is organized under themes related to income, education and employment, and Chapter 4 is structured by categories of festivities. Inserted in each chapter are case studies which present in-depth studies of events, with case studies varying from very insightful, such as ‘Case Study 4: Renaissance instrumentalists in the New World and cross-cultural encounters’, which illuminates the themes of power and economics in their relations to instrumental music in sixteenth-century South America, to surveys of the literature, such as in ‘Case Study 3: Patronage runs rampant: instrumental music at the court of Henry VIII’, which is a summary of secondary sources relating to instrumental music at the court of Henry VIII.
Each chapter in its own way tries to present a solution to the structure of a history of instrumental music, and the most successful is Chapter 2. Coelho and Polk base the chapter around sources to try to show, the ‘constant interaction between memory, adaptation, improvisation and … performance from written scores’ (63). Each source is used as a springboard for a discussion of related repertory, allowing the 1420–1600 time period to be extended slightly with the discussion of the Faenza MS (Faenza Biblioteca Comunale 117) going back to the repertoire of the late fourteenth century and English sources from the early seventeenth century also being used, where in other chapters information about English instrumental music after the court of Henry VIII is noticeably absent.
Chapter 2 notes a change in compositional style around 1480 and this has major ramifications in Chapter 5, a discussion on pedagogy and the compositional process. Here the ‘messy’ reality of the interaction of memory, adaptation, improvisation and notation are split into a binary opposition: composition and performance in the fifteenth century is mostly an improvised art while in the sixteenth century written compositions took prominence. To support their argument, Coelho and Polk discuss Tinctoris’ description of cantare super librum (singing on the book, i.e. improvisation) and res facta (written composition) and then an enlightening discussion on the predominance of intabulations and their role in the sixteenth century. There can be no doubt that improvisation was at the heart of fifteenth-century instrumental practice, and Coelho’s discussion of intabulations as translations makes an excellent case for seeing intabulations as being as legitimate as their vocal models. However, claims that improvisation became dominated by variations on ‘chordal patterns, accompaniment roles, and embellishment practices’ (208) does not engage with recent scholarship on improvised Renaissance musical practices, as can be seen in the work of Phillippe Canguilhem, Peter Schubert, Julie Cummings and Jean-Yves Haymoz.
Chapter 6 is a simpler affair and is a discussion of the main instruments and their development, with reference to important depictions in paintings and prints which are mostly reproduced in the text.
In Players of Function and Fantasy, Coelho and Polk make a welcome and much needed contribution to the scholarship of instrumental music in the Renaissance. While covering such a large topic in a single volume inevitably leads to some exclusions, Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 all provide a general overview of their specific topic, showcasing the importance of instrumental music to Renaissance society and culture. This book can be recommended for those looking for a general history or an introduction to instrumental music in the Renaissance, it is particularly accessible to scholars outside of musicology.