Music education in the Middle ages and the Renaissance

Music Education in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance explores the teaching and learning of music in the early centuries of the Western art music tradition. The authors of these essays seek to understand the methods and philosophies of various teachers, as well as what students learned and how the act of learning is embedded in the broader context of music and music-making in this period. Gender, social status, and the role of the church are considered along with the educational rationale and motivations of medieval and early modern pedagogues. From England to Italy, these essays provide an expansive view of the beginnings of music pedagogy as a tradition. Opening the way and suggesting further avenues of inquiry, Murray, Weiss, Cyrus, and their contributors add invaluable nuance to the place of education in our current master narratives of music history.