Theology and Music at the Early University: The Case of Robert Grosseteste and Anonymous IV

244 Pages·1995·18.306 MB·English

by  Nancy van Deusen

BRILL'S STUDIES
IN
INTELLECTUAL HISTORY
General Editor
A.J. VANDERJAGT, University of Groningen
Editonal Board
M. COLISH, Oberlin College
J.I. ISRAEL, University College, London
J.D. NORTH, University of Groningen
H.A. OBERMAN, University of Arizona, Tucson
R.H. POPKIN, Washington University, St. Louis-UCLA
VOLUME 57
*4
THEOLOGY AND MUSIC
AT THE EARLY UNIVERSITY
The Case of Robert Grosseteste and Anonymous IV
BY
NANCY VAN DEUSEN
lo
• S
E.J. BRILL
LEIDEN · NEW YORK · KÖLN
1995
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the
Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library
Resources.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
94-34149
CIP
Die Deutsche Bibliothek - CIP-Einheitsaufhahme
Deusen, Nancy van:
Theology and music at the early university : the case of Robert
Grosseteste and Anonymous IV / by Nancy van Deusen. -
Leiden ; New York ; Köln : Brill, 1994
(Brill's studies in intellectual history ; Vol. 57)
ISBN 90-04-10059-8
NE: GT
ISSN 0920-8607
ISBN 90 04 10059 8
© Copynght 1995 by E.J. Brill, Leiden, The Netherhnds
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction ix
I. Thirteenth-Century Motion Theories and Their Musical
Applications: Robert Grosseteste and Anonymous IV 1
II. Ubi Lex! Robert Grosseteste's Discussion of Law, Letter, and
Time and its Musical Exemplification 19
.ΙΠ Ductus, Tractus, Conductus: The Intellectual Context of a
Musical Genre 37
IV. Change in a Concept of "Mode" 54
V. Grosseteste's Concept of Figura and its Application to Music
Notation 76
VI. Operatio: Towards a Theory of Performance in Thirteenth-
Century Intellectual Culture 99
Vu. Composite Harmony: An Aspect of the Conceptual Background
to the Problem 113
VIE. A Theory of Composition and its Influence 127
IX. Opus: A Conception of the Musical Work 146
X. Firmamentum and Motet: A Theological Basis for a Musical
Genre 161
XL Planus, cantus planus: The Theological Background of a
Significant Concept 177
.ΠΧ The Musical Exemplification of Quadrivial Pursuits: The
Intellectual Relationship between Robert Grosseteste and
"Anonymous IV" 188
.ΠΙΧ Conclusions 205
Abbreviations of Works Cited 211
Bibliography 212
Index 219

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book was begun during a study period in a most conducive
atmosphere. I had been invited as a research fellow by the University of New
England, Armidale, New South Wales, Australia. Each week I gave a
seminar, and, since it was Friday, we—students, post-doctoral fellows, and
faculty— discussed the topic I had presented all afternoon. Most of the other
faculty members were specialists in ethnomusicology, and I began to be
more keenly aware, especially in conversation with the Australian aboriginal
music specialist, Professor Catherine J. Ellis, of the format of basic
principles. I am especially thankful to her for her penetrating questions, her
patience in discussion, her own intellectual development within her field.
She articulated to me the gaping expanse separating a "Western" sense of
logical progression, often unconsciously accepted, and what she had
encountered during years of sensitive, creatively open study of the music and
spiritual culture of Australian aboriginal musicians.
One day she asked me, what do you really think a paradox is? It was
through time, questioning, and dialogue with Cath Ellis that I realized that
basic analytical tools that helped me daily in my work, and which I took for
granted, were identified, discussed, expounded, tested, and incorporated into
the routine of intellectual activity during the early thirteenth century. This
book concerns these tools.
The individual chapters were given as papers throughout the world, at
Symposia for the International Musicological Society in Melbourne, and
Osaka, and at its meeting in Madrid, 1991; at the universities of British
Columbia, California (Berkeley, Davis, Los Angeles, Riverside), Dayton,
Iowa, Michigan, New Mexico, Southern California, Stanford, Toronto, and
Western Michigan, at California State University, Northridge, and The
Claremont Graduate School, at annual meetings of the American
Musicological Society, the Medieval Academy of America, the Medieval
Association of the Pacific, the Medieval Institute of Western Michigan
University, the Society for Ethnomusicology, and the Cantus planus
meeting in Eger, Hungary, 1993. The ideas contained in this book have been
exposed to many and diverse, albeit extremely knowledgeable, audiences, and
I am grateful for all of the comments and reflections from the scholarly
community that have, in many cases, shaped and refined details of my
arguments.
Finally, I wish to thank Marcia L. Colish, Richard C. Dales, Joseph
Goering, Edward Grant, Don Harrân, Sabine MacCormack, Thomas F. X.
Noble, and the editors of, as well as the readers selected by Brill Press, for
careful reading of my manuscript, in some cases, and, in all, for helpful
vin ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
discussion of the concepts and formulations contained therein; Petra Meyer-
Frazer for her editorial assistance and R. Chris Berry for help in the
production of this book.
Nancy van Deusen,
Los Angeles, 1993