Murray et al., Music Education in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance

The essays collected in Music Education in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance show a wide diversity of approaches to musical pedagogy, which they illuminate in new and often suggestive ways; they make a significant contribution to the history of music pedagogy and will amply repay careful study. Collectively, the essays address five questions. What pedagogical methods were used? What did students learn? Who were the teachers, and who the students? Where and when was music learned? Why was music learned? Readers led by the book’s title to assume that the Middle Ages and the Renaissance will receive equal treatment may be disappointed: only three of the book's seventeen essays are devoted to medieval topics. “Early Modern” would have served the later period more appropriately than “Renaissance,” as publications addressed include those as late as Mace (1676) and Playford (1683). A comprehensive bibliography would have been a service to readers.