Publisher's Synopsis
This Festschrift for William F. Prizer, on the occasion of his 65th birthday and retirement from University of California, Santa Barbara, features thirty articles by eminent scholars and former students. Professor Prizer's publications have focused on music in northern Italy during the Renaissance, drawing on archival research, textual criticism, and gender studies ranging from the noble patronage of Isabella d'Este to the racy repertories of carnival songs and of courtesans. He was also the first to link the ceremonies of the Order of the Golden Fleece to the enigmatic L'homme armé repertory. The volume's title and organization of the essays therefore draw on these scholarly interests, as well as his passion for mysteries. The studies span the Middle Ages to the present, offering topical categories such as Ceremony and Ritual; Liturgical Polyphony; Words and Music in the Humanist Era; Ribaldry in High and Low Places; On Stage in Church and Theater, Gender, Power, Virtù; Enigmatic Women; Musical Innovators and Innovations; and Mysteries and Secrets Revealed.
