Studies in the Printing, Publishing and Performance of Music in the 16th Century (review)

Many scholars will associate Stanley Boorman's name with the Venetian music printer Ottaviano Petrucci. While he is the acknowledged authority on that printer, his scholarship also extends to many other areas in the medieval and Renaissance periods. Ashgate has published this collection of his writings upon such varied topics as reception theory, liturgy, plainchant, and polyphony, in which Boorman discusses both printing and manuscripts in Italy, France, the Low Countries, and the Hapsburg Empire. He categorizes his eleven articles into three sections — printing, publishing, and performance. A few articles, particularly those concerning printed books, are consolidated in Boorman's 2006 monograph on Petrucci (reviewed in The Library, vii, 8 (2007), 76–79); the remainder offer an insight into the early music-publishing business and its effects upon performance and repertory. While some of these articles were published in mainstream academic publications, many were not. Not only do they provide expert and diverse information concerning Renaissance printed and manuscript sources, but they also challenge many preconceptions concerning the printing and publication of Renaissance music.

Boorman's skill lies in his ability to connect across a broad section of evidence, both musical and non-musical. In his analysis of the repertory of the Salzburg liturgy of the mid-Renaissance, he draws upon a collection of printed liturgical books from the diocese. Amongst his many astute observations he states that the technology to print red notes in a black notational framework may have influenced future printers such as Petrucci. In his comparison of editions published in Venice and Antwerp, Boorman reveals distinct contrasts in the perceived market and repertory: the northern printers tended to publish Protestant liturgical music, particularly Psalms, for the domestic market, while the Italians continued to produce more complex liturgical polyphony aimed at institutions and professionals. The secular market likewise showed contrast: the northerners liked mixed anthologies where the Italians printed single-composer volumes. Nor do the comparisons end there: Boorman's adroit musical analysis concludes that northern music was simpler than that of the Italians, suggesting a larger amateur market with less access to textbooks explaining the intricacies of notation.

'Early Music Printing: Working for a Specialized Market' addresses many important issues pertinent to the perception, reception, and transmission of music printing in the Renaissance, including the importance of printing for the amateur musician. Boorman provides evidence to suggest that the influence upon amateurs may have been more limited than previously assumed. Another issue presented is the notion that a printed publication deliberately represented a skeletal version of the musical text, acting more as a universal mnemonic than as an authority. Boorman observes that scribes at Padua and Casale Monferrato, copying from Petrucci and Antico publications in the 1520s, took great care to align syllables, suggesting that the information provided in the printed versions was not sufficient for performance. Petrucci or Antico would not have been surprised at such action: Boorman suggests that printers were similar to scribes in that their product reflected their own preferences. Printers' preferences are central to several articles in this collection, and Boorman reminds us that we must sometimes be wary of composer ascriptions in printed books. In 'Some Non-Conflicting Attributions, and some Newly Anonymous Compositions, from the Early Sixteenth Century', he analyses printers' working practices during the 1540s and shows how errors and assumptions could influence the practice of ascriptions. These practices were specific to music printing, caused by the majority of publications being compilations of several different composers' works and the need for running titles or headers to extend through various formes and gatherings. He argues that it was sometimes expedient for a printer to continue a 'running' ascription, particularly in anthologies where the headers were complex and he was unsure of authorship. Such practices suggest that it was sometimes convenient to ascribe anonymous pieces to the most popular composer in the anthology.

The...