Music in Films on the Middle Ages

Music in Films on the Middle Ages
Author: John Haines
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 371
Release: 2013-10-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 1135927766

This book explores the role of music in the some five hundred feature-length films on the Middle Ages produced between the late 1890s and the present day. Haines focuses on the tension in these films between the surviving evidence for medieval music and the idiomatic tradition of cinematic music. The latter is taken broadly as any musical sound occurring in a film, from the clang of a bell off-screen to a minstrel singing his song. Medieval film music must be considered in the broader historical context of pre-cinematic medievalisms and of medievalist cinema’s main development in the course of the twentieth century as an American appropriation of European culture. The book treats six pervasive moments that define the genre of medieval film: the church-tower bell, the trumpet fanfare or horn call, the music of banquets and courts, the singing minstrel, performances of Gregorian chant, and the music that accompanies horse-riding knights, with each chapter visiting representative films as case studies. These six signal musical moments, that create a fundamental visual-aural core central to making a film feel medieval to modern audiences, originate in medievalist works predating cinema by some three centuries.

Music in Films on the Middle Ages

Music in Films on the Middle Ages
Author: John Haines
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 248
Release: 2013-10-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 1135927693

This book explores the role of music in the some five hundred feature-length films on the Middle Ages produced between the late 1890s and the present day. Haines focuses on the tension in these films between the surviving evidence for medieval music and the idiomatic tradition of cinematic music. The latter is taken broadly as any musical sound occurring in a film, from the clang of a bell off-screen to a minstrel singing his song. Medieval film music must be considered in the broader historical context of pre-cinematic medievalisms and of medievalist cinema’s main development in the course of the twentieth century as an American appropriation of European culture. The book treats six pervasive moments that define the genre of medieval film: the church-tower bell, the trumpet fanfare or horn call, the music of banquets and courts, the singing minstrel, performances of Gregorian chant, and the music that accompanies horse-riding knights, with each chapter visiting representative films as case studies. These six signal musical moments, that create a fundamental visual-aural core central to making a film feel medieval to modern audiences, originate in medievalist works predating cinema by some three centuries.

The Middle Ages and the Movies

The Middle Ages and the Movies
Author: Robert Bartlett
Publisher: Reaktion Books
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2022-08-04
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1789145538

From Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal to Monty Python, an investigation into how eight key films have shaped our understanding of the medieval world. In The Middle Ages and the Movies, eminent historian Robert Bartlett takes a fresh, cogent look at how our view of medieval history has been shaped by eight significant films of the twentieth century. The book ranges from the concoction of sex and nationalism in Mel Gibson’s Braveheart, to Fritz Lang’s silent epic Siegfried, the art-house classic The Seventh Seal, and the epic historical drama El Cid. Bartlett examines the historical accuracy of these films, as well as other salient aspects—how was Umberto Eco’s Name of the Rose translated from page to screen? Why is Monty Python and the Holy Grail funny? And how was Eisenstein’s Alexander Nevsky shaped by the Stalinist tyranny under which it was filmed?

Playing the Middle Ages

Playing the Middle Ages
Author: Robert Houghton
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2023-08-24
Genre: History
ISBN: 135024290X

The Middle Ages have provided rich source material for physical and digital games from Dungeons and Dragons to Assassin's Creed. This volume addresses the many ways in which different formats and genre of games represent the period. It considers the restrictions placed on these representations by the mechanical and gameplay requirements of the medium and by audience expectations of these products and the period, highlighting innovative attempts to overcome these limitations through game design and play. Playing the Middle Ages considers a number of important and timely issues within the field including: one, the connection between medieval games and political nationalistic rhetoric; two, trends in the presentation of religion, warfare and other aspects of medieval society and their connection to modern culture; three, the problematic representations of race; and four, the place of gender and sexuality within these games and the broader gaming community. The book draws on the experience of a wide-ranging and international group of academics across disciplines and from games designers. Through this combination of expertise, it provides a unique perspective on the representation of the Middle Ages in modern games and drives key discussions in the fields of history and game design.

The Oxford Handbook of Music and Medievalism

The Oxford Handbook of Music and Medievalism
Author: Stephen C. Meyer
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 736
Release: 2020-03-02
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0190658452

The Oxford Handbook of Music and Medievalism provides a snapshot of the diverse ways in which medievalism--the retrospective immersion in the images, sounds, narratives, and ideologies of the European Middle Ages--powerfully transforms many of the varied musical traditions of the last two centuries. Thirty-three chapters from an international group of scholars explore topics ranging from the representation of the Middle Ages in nineteenth-century opera to medievalism in contemporary video game music, thereby connecting disparate musical forms across typical musicological boundaries of chronology and geography. While some chapters focus on key medievalist works such as Orff's Carmina Burana or Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films, others explore medievalism in the oeuvre of a single composer (e.g. Richard Wagner or Arvo Pärt) or musical group (e.g. Led Zeppelin). The topics of the individual chapters include both well-known works such as John Boorman's film Excalibur and also less familiar examples such as Eduard Lalo's Le Roi d'Ys. The authors of the chapters approach their material from a wide array of disciplinary perspectives, including historical musicology, popular music studies, music theory, and film studies, examining the intersections of medievalism with nationalism, romanticism, ideology, nature, feminism, or spiritualism. Taken together, the contents of the Handbook develop new critical insights that venture outside traditional methodological constraints and provide a capstone and point of departure for future scholarship on music and medievalism.

Words and Music in the Middle Ages

Words and Music in the Middle Ages
Author: John Stevens
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 582
Release: 1986-10-16
Genre: Music
ISBN: 9780521245074

This book examines the relation of words and music in England and France during the three centuries following the Norman Conquest. The basic material of the study includes the chansons of the troubadours and trouvères and the varied Latin songs of the period. In addition to these 'lyric' forms, the author discusses the relations of music and poetry in dance-song, in narrative and in the ecclesiastical drama. Professor Stevens examines the ready-made, often unconscious, and misleading assumptions we bring to the study and performance of early music. In particular he affirms the importance of Number, in more than one sense, as a clue to the 'aesthetic' of the greater part of repertoire, to the relation of words and melody. and to the baffling problem of their rhythmic interpretation. This is the first wide-ranging study of words and music in this period in any language. It will be essential reading for scholars of the music and the literature of medieval Europe and will provide a basic and comprehensive introduction to the repertoire for students.

Music in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance

Music in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance
Author: Harold Gleason
Publisher: Alfred Music Publishing
Total Pages: 226
Release: 1981
Genre: Music
ISBN: 9780882843797

This is a complete revision of the second edition, designed as a guide and resource in the study of music from the earliest times through the Renaissance period. The authors have completely revised and updated the bibliographies; in general they are limited to English language sources. In order to facilitate study of this period and to use materials efficiently, references to facsimiles, monumental editions, complete composers' works and specialized anthologies are given. The authors present this systematic organization in this volume in the hope that students, teachers, and performers may find in it a ready tool for developing a comprehensive understanding of the music of this period.

Music of the Middle Ages

Music of the Middle Ages
Author: David Fenwick Wilson
Publisher: New York : Schirmer Books ; Toronto : Collier Macmillan Canada
Total Pages: 440
Release: 1990
Genre: Music
ISBN:

Music of the Middle Ages provides a comprehensive, chronological survey of musical style and compositional technique from early plainchant to the flourishing of fourteenth-century polyphony.--From publisher description.

Shakespeare and the Middle Ages

Shakespeare and the Middle Ages
Author: Martha W. Driver
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 285
Release: 2014-01-10
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0786491655

Every generation reinvents Shakespeare for its own needs, imagining through its particular choices and emphases the Shakespeare that it values. The man himself was deeply involved in his own kind of historical reimagining. This collection of essays examines the playwright's medieval sources and inspiration, and how they shaped his works. With a foreword by Michael Almereyda (director of the Hamlet starring Ethan Hawke) and dramaturge Dakin Matthews, these thirteen essays analyze the ways in which our modern understanding of medieval life has been influenced by our appreciation of Shakespeare's plays.

Medieval film

Medieval film
Author: Anke Bernau
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Total Pages: 252
Release: 2019-01-25
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1526141671

Medieval film explores theoretical questions about the ideological, artistic, emotional and financial investments inhering in cinematic renditions of the medieval period. What does it mean to create and watch a ‘medieval film’? What is a medieval film and why are they successful? This is the first work that attempts to answer these questions, drawing, for instance, on film theory, postcolonial theory, cultural studies and the growing body of work on medievalism. Contributors investigate British, German, Italian, Australian, French, Swedish and American film, exploring topics such translation, temporality, film noir, framing and period film – and find the medieval lurking in unexpected corners. In addition it provides in-depth studies of individual films from different countries including The Birth of a Nation to Nosferatu, and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Medieval film will be of interest to medievalists working in disciplines including literature, history, art history, to scholars working on film and in cultural studies. It will also be of interest to undergraduates, postgraduates and to an informed enthusiast in film or/and medieval culture.