I've been listening via the net to a BBC series about "Great Composers", recorded earlier this year (I presume this year). Goodall and Klein discuss John Dunstable in the section on that composer. Goodall does an excellent job of explaing the function of "countenance Anglaise" and Dunstable's "discovery" of the interval of a third, which he took to Europe, thus enabling 'consonant' harmony in music. Goodall crows that Dunstable is England's "one big moment" when that country influenced the course of music history. This got me thinking about the Winchester Troper, which contains early Organum and the original Quem Queritis trope for the Catholic mass. Surely these pieces PRE-date the Nostre Dame School of Leonin and Perotin who have generally been regarded as the creators of harmony and counterpoint.
The reason that I raise the issue of the WT is that Dunstable, in fact, would have been England's "second" big moment - and not the first - to influence the course of music history!
The reason that I raise the issue of the WT is that Dunstable, in fact, would have been England's "second" big moment - and not the first - to influence the course of music history!
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