The Notation of Medieval Music: the Development of Musical Notation From the 9th to the 15th Century

New York: Norton, 1957. First Edition. Large octavo with green cloth boards and gilt spine title in tan and dark brown pictorial jacket; 228p; ill.; index; 24 cm. A very good (-) copy, with minor bumping to corners and wear head/foot of spine; prior owner pen inscription on front flyleaf; sparse pencil annotations neatly written in margins; else tight and clean; price-clipped jacket is good (+); some chips and tears at edges and folds; spine has seen sun; jacket now in archival mylar. Hardcover.

"The present system of musical notation, broadly speaking, has not essentially changed since the early seventeenth century; but during th eseven centuries before that, many thoroughgoing changes which greatly influenced subsequent notation took place. Professor Parrish here presents the development of notation from the late ninth century, when the first written musical notation of Western Europe appeared, to the beginning of the fifteenth century. The heart of the book is a series of sixty-two facsimiles fom important manuscripts of that era. [...] Each period is introduced by a survey of the principles governing the notation of the period. The text includes the results of most recent studies in discussing each phase and presents the essential facts and principles for transcribing the facsimile examples. Carl Parris is Professor of Music at Vassar College and coauthor of Masterpieces of Music before 1750." --Jacket copy.