Description:
During the eleventh and early twelfth centuries, the imperial abbey of Farfa was one of the most powerful institutions on the Italian peninsula. In this period many of the lands of central Italy fell under its sway, and it enjoyed the protection of...
Brief description: Susan Boynton is Associate Professor of Historical Musicology at Columbia University.
Review Quotes:
Boynton's book is original, interesting, meticulously researched, and cogently argued.... She shows, elegantly, in detail, how... local adaptations of the majestic monastic liturgy can reveal a great deal about how monasteries viewed themselves and promoted their interests.... A traditional historian could have done much of Boynton has accomplished. But only an expert musicologist like Boynton could have identified and interpreted some of the critical subtleties in the liturgy.
--Thomas F. X. Noble "Church History"