Shephard, T. and McMahon, P. (2019) Foolish Midas: Representing musical judgement and moral judgement in Italy c.1520. In: Butler, K. and Bassler, S., (eds.) Music, Myth and Story in Medieval and Early Modern Culture. Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Music . Boydell Press , pp. 87-104. ISBN 9781783273713
Abstract
In an ancient story told by Ovid in the Metamorphoses, the Phrygian king Midas, freshly released from his famous golden touch, retreats to the hills and becomes a devotee of the rustic god Pan. Enjoying the acclaim of the nymphs and of Midas for his piping, Pan challenges Apollo—another, much greater, god of the countryside—to a musical contest. The judge of the contest, the mountain Tmolus, declares Apollo the winner; but Midas disagrees, holding Pan to be the better musician. In anger, Apollo changes Midas’ ears into those of an ass. The argument of this study is that the myth of the Judgement of Midas was presented and encountered by Italians ca.1520, in both literary and visual modes, reshaped and retold in ways that engaged with the broader contemporary discourse on musical judgement. In studying Renaissance treatments of the myth, we are also studying articulations of the operation of musical judgement, which can reveal important features of elite musical culture in Italy and the values in which it was founded. Ultimately, to study the Judgement of Midas in Italy ca.1520 is to study musical taste and its construction through myth, as a component of the social ideology of elite culture.
Metadata
Item Type: | Book Section |
---|---|
Authors/Creators: |
|
Editors: |
|
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2019 Boydell Press. |
Dates: |
|
Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Arts and Humanities (Sheffield) > Department of Music (Sheffield) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number LEVERHULME TRUST (THE) RPG-2014-177 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 20 Apr 2016 11:16 |
Last Modified: | 22 Aug 2019 13:22 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Boydell Press |
Series Name: | Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Music |
Refereed: | Yes |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:97939 |