An Introduction to Music Philology. With Case Studies

The book is aimed at musicians (and music students) and musicologists (and musicology students): two categories of readers who are familiar with music, but in most cases unfamiliar with philology and its concepts. It is also aimed at scholars and students of the many branches of philology studied at university (classical, Byzantine, Romance, Germanic, Slavic, Italian, to name but a few) who, compared to musicians, find themselves in a reverse position: they are familiar with most of the philological concepts discussed, but often do not have as much knowledge of their repercussions in the musical sphere, perhaps because they have never received any musical training. For musicians, this book aims to make them realise that understanding what the composer left in writing is just as important as knowing how to play his music (and is a great help in understanding how to perform it). Before starting to play a composition, it is therefore not enough just to tune your instrument, but also to make sure that the musical edition you are about to use is correct. As far as non-musicians are concerned, the aim is to help them understand that, despite its specificities – first and foremost the fact (shared, moreover, with authorial theatre) that the intermediation of performers lies between the composer and the listener – music, whether set down in writing or otherwise (for example, through a recording), is a text just as in literature, poetry or theatre, and therefore, as a text, can and must be studied.