Aural images of lost traditions: sharps and flats in the sixteenth century (review)

Reviews 183 attractive and readable book by a scholar who has the capacity to become a major popularizer ofmedieval history for a general audience. Hilary M . Carey Department of History University of Newcastle Toft, Robert, Aural images of lost traditions: sharps and flats in the sixteent century, Toronto/Buffalo/London, University of Toronto Press, 1992; cloth; pp. viii, 199; 116 musical examples; R.R.P. CAN$60.00 After reading Robert Toft's elegantly produced, exhaustively researched, carefully edited, and judiciously argued monograph on the complexities of musicafictain late-sixteenth-century music one is likely to concur wholeheartedly with Juan Bermudo, one of the many theorists he quotes: 'I wish to God that composers would always specify all the accidentals they want [Declaracidn de instruments, (1555) 111:24, xlnH- The book deals with a tricky, yet very basic, question in Renaissance vocal music. What notes do you sing, what sharps or flats (Ficta) do you apply in those spots where the score is equivocal? In fact ambiguity arises not so much as a result of imprecision in the score as from our incomplete understanding of the applicable performance conventions that would have been understood by all trained singers. Much of the voluminous literature on the vagaries of musicafictaseeks answers in the theoretical writings of the period. They also, however, are often vague, inconsistent, and sometimes contradictory. Toft's approach combines a thorough interrogation of all the pertinent theoretical writings with evidence provided from a different source: intabulations of vocal repertoire for keyboard or fretted instruments. 'Intabulations reveal the diversity with which the theoretical doctrine was translated into actual practice' (p. 133). Tablature notation indicates the pitch of a note by means of letters orfiguresrelated tofingeringinstead of by means of notes on a stave. Passages in vocal notation that have become ambiguous due to our unfamiliarity with the interpretative conventions (the 'lost tradition') may sometimes be clarified by comparing the vocal score with intabulated versions ('aural images'). But using an intabulation to corroborate a reading of the vocal score is premised on there being 'no evidence which suggests that a separate theoretical system existed for instrumentalists' (p. 11). It also presumes that the lute or keyboard version is indeed the same 'piece' as the vocal version. That opens up a whole new area of dispute. H o w fixed was 'the piece' ? Quite apart from the worth of his analytical studies, Toft is particularly persuasive in his advocating a move away from the traditional, reductionist editorial approach to sixteenth-century repertoire, the quest for a texte intigrale. 'Perhaps now w e should be thinking in terms of a range of solutions to a particular problem rather than in terms of a single, definitive solution' (p. 131). 184 Reviews Toft's is a book for the specialist. It is likely, though, to be obligatory reading for those preparing more practically-oriented monographs, performers' guides and introductions to the topic of musica ficta. After all, ' . . . divergent performing traditions are exactly what existed at that time. W e should, in m y view, begin reflecting these traditions in our m o d e m performances ...' (p. 124). Robert Curry Conservatorium of Music Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts 3Y ...