Review of Leach, Elizabeth Eva, ed.,'Machaut's Music: New Interpretations': Series: Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Music, vol. 1 Woodbridge: Boydell, 2003 Pp. xviii, 296 $120.00 (hb) 1843830167

Abstract

The origins of this volume lay in the interdisciplinary conference entitled 'Guillaume de Machaut: Music, Text and Image' convened by Margaret Bent and Elizabeth Eva Leach at All Souls College, Oxford, 28 June-1 July 2001. This collection of essays, some of which appeared in earlier versions at the conference, sets out to represent the breadth of approaches and wealth of ideas articulated at that conference and to encapsulate the significant growth in the analysis of this fourteenth century composer's music. Several papers discuss identical material, but often reach different conclusions. This is an admirable trait, providing the reader with a dialectical framework for forming their own views (not even necessarily those of the contributors) on Machaut's works.