Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Performance and the Middle English Romance

Performance and the Middle English Romance

Zaerr, Linda Marie

Hardcover

Series: Studies in Medieval Romance, Book 17

Fiction Anthologies

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ISBN10: 1843843234
ISBN13: 9781843843238
Publisher: D S Brewer
Published: Aug 16 2012
Pages: 296
Weight: 1.80
Height: 0.90 Width: 6.30 Depth: 9.50
Language: English
An examination of if and how medieval romance was performed, uniquely uniting the perspective of a scholar and practitioner.

Although English medieval minstrels performed gestes, a genre closely related to romance, often playing the harp or the fiddle, the question of if, and how, Middle English romance was performed has been hotly debated. Here, the performance tradition is explored by combining textual, historical and musicological scholarship with practical experience from a noted musician. Using previously unrecognised evidence, the author reconstructs a realistic model of minstrel performance, showing how a simple melody can interact with the text, and vice versa. She argues that elements in Middle English romance which may seem simplistic or repetitive may in fact be incomplete, as missing an integral musical dimension; metrical irregularities, for example, may be relics of sophisticated rhythmic variation that make sense only with music. Overall, the study offers both a more accurate comprehension of minstrel performance, and a deeper appreciation of the romances themselves.

Linda Marie Zaerr is Professor of Medieval Studies at Boise State University.

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