(Stand: 25. Juli 2007) ANDERSON, Michael Alan ... - Universität Wien

MEDIEVAL & RENAISSANCE MUSIC CONFERENCE 2007 – WIEN, 7.-11. AUGUST ABSTRACTS
tioned (by Magnus Williamson and others). At the same time, a comparable stylistic appraisal
remains to be attempted. Such a task far exceeds the scope of this short paper; nevertheless,
I will examine a single feature that does appear to distinguish the Eton music
from both the repertorial groups evoked above, one furthermore that has not (as far as I
am aware) been previously discussed. Following its first substantive appearance in Eton, it
was to continue to distinguish English contrapuntal practice from its continental counterparts
well into the sixteenth century.
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FLOREA, Luminita (Department of Music, Eastern Illinois University)
A Feast of Senses: Thinking about Spices, Herbs, and Consonances in Late Medieval
and Renaissance Music Theory
Samstag/Saturday, 11.8., 9.45 Uhr, KuGe, SR 3
Music theorists speak from time to time of mundane delights such as fine food and wine,
and pungent flavors and smells. Sensory experiences conjured up in medieval and Renaissance
theory treatises involve hearing, seeing, and often smelling – as noted by Christopher
Page in his study on Tinctoris’s use of olfactory comparison (Christopher Page,
“Reading and Reminiscence: Tinctoris on the Beauty of Music,” Journal of the American
Musicological Society 49 (Spring 1996): 1-31.). Modern music historians, however, have not
given much consideration to the fact that medieval and Renaissance thinking about music
– as distinct from listening to it – often invoke the sense of taste as distinct from that of
smell; that some writers likened the musician to a cook; and that some regarded consonances
and medicines as analogous. Yet it is apparent that music theory, cooking, and
pharmacy were drawn together by virtue of a commonality of methods.
The association of auditory, olfactory, and palatal sensations, an Aristotelian stance
coming from the De anima and De sensu et sensibilibus, is a common locus in 14th-century
treatises, or in works by Renaissance theorists who were familiar with classical Greek.
Yet I propose that complex theoretical discourse on music was occasionally sprinkled
with references to palatal and odoriferous stimuli as described in more mundane
works: medieval cookbooks, herbals, antidotaries, gardening treatises, and household accounts
classified spices, herbs, and medicines in “simple” and “compound, ” and prescribed
rubbing, grinding, shredding, and mixing as primary methods; this in turn sheds
further light on the nature and “making” of consonances; furthermore, exotic spices commanded
exorbitant prices and enjoyed a privileged status in the kitchen and the apothecary’s
shop – which in turn explains their inclusion in a league with the noble musical
consonances.
From the 14 th century on, similes deliberately involving intervals and foods appeared
frequently: works in the tradition of Philippe de Vitry quoted St. Bernard’s view of the
semitone as the sweetness and condiment of chant. According to Jacques of Liège, palatal
sensations accumulating within a multi-course meal would lead to superior gastronomic
satisfaction; and repetitious rubbing and mincing would increase the scent released by the
species aromatice. The intellect should work in similar ways: repetition and accumulation of
previously analyzed and learned concords must be applied towards a better understanding
of those still to be learned. Furthermore, the joy derived from hearing sound mixtures is
similar to the satisfaction Epicure experienced from retaining the few aromata that he
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