Medieval instrumental dances (review)

164 Reviews practices and contemporary critical interpretive procedures which are shown by Masters to be inadequate and misleading by their failure to provide the basis for a just appreciation of the works crafted according to these principles in a milieu so different from our own. The book sets out to clear the ground for a new approach to these matters. I believe it does that successfully. Yet many will find the consequences of the arguments disturbing and uncomfortable. For, while the view Masters espouses may be more readily accepted in relation to the 'plastic' or 'visual' arts, it will not be so in relation to 'literature'. The m o d e m notions of 'original author', 'originality', 'scribal error', to mention just a few, will not be easily dislodged from most of our minds, so long have we learned to operate with them as part of our 'common sense'. Despite our discomfort we would be foolish to dismiss this voice too easUy. Profound scholarship and sensitive appreciation of matters as apparently diverse as Latin metrics, musical notation, sculpture, Biblical exegesis, and medieval phdosophy are apparent at every turn. The vibratory echoes, the shafts of coloured tight the waves of feelings set in motion by this energetic book will be heard, seen, and felt for some time to come. Resistance can be predicted but in the long term, its effects will be farreaching for the findings have the ring of truth, a truth arrived at through the patient and passionate efforts of orare et laborare, a truth based on an understand of the inherent congruity of unity and multiplicity, of the transcendent and the immanent in all the medieval crafted works examined. Finally, it is to be hoped that an English version of this book soon appears. The matters it touches on should be made accessible to the widest audience possible. J. Keith Atkinson Department of Romance Languages University of Queensland McGee, Timothy J., Medieval instrumental dances, Bloomington & Indianapolis, Indiana University Press, 1989; paper; pp. xiv, 177; 4 plates; R R P . US$27.95. This book is clearly structured as follows. An initial section deals with the historical and theoretical background of medieval instrumental dances and is subdivided as follows: 1) 'Dance in the Middle Ages' (reviewing the sources available, including the iconographic, archival, literary and theoretical); (2) 'The Repertory of Textless Dances' (matching the surviving repertory with the names and descriptions that have come down to us); (3) 'Dancing' (a short section which includes a consideration of the lack of knowledge of the actual choreography of these dances); and (4) 'Performance Practices' (including a discussion of instruments, tempo, ornamentation and improvisation). A second Reviews 165 section is composed of an edition of all known medieval instrumental dance music. The edition of the dances is the main intention of this publication and M c G e e provides a relatively cursory summary of the state of current understanding of this repertory in thefirstsection. It is annoying that there is no bibliography though copious endnotes support the essential content. These endnotes make this opening section rather meatier than its initial presentation suggests. Though a review is not the place to argue the point McGee's reading of Grocheio's description of the round is particularly simplistic. The analyses of the estampies also need closer examination. The author, in demonstrating that the 'two sets of estampies were composed according to different formal principles' (p. 9) elects to ignore issues of formal identity between the sets. There is also not enough evidence to support the contention that Grocheio's definition of the ductia matches that of the carol. Nor is there enough evidence to support the allusion made (pp. 10 & 24) to Eastern Mediterranean influences on the Italian estampies. Possibly one of the most valuable offerings of this publication is the summary presentation and interpretation of Jerome of Moravia's suggestions for melodic ornamentation (pp. 27-33). This is very thought-provoking and directs the scholar-performer to consider some of the possibilities while shying away from an overly prescriptive approach. In the 'Preface', M c G e e outlines his intention to provide an edition which 'contains all the compositions known or suspected...