A 12th-Century Street MusicianAuthor(s): Christopher PageSource: Early Music, Vol. 6, No. 2 (Apr., 1978), p. 309Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3125627 .

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not revise it in the classical manner to which most people are accustomed. It is well known that medieval music is pre- dominantly polyrhythmic, in time as well as in number of parts. It is, in fact, impossible to fit the music of Machault into the rigid framework of 'modern' metre.

In my 'Commentaire Pratique', not

yet published, Professor Boorman will find, in the chapters 'Relations between note values' and 'Combinations' the solutions to the supposed rhythmical errors. An Errata section rectifying actual publisher's errors in Vols I and II will also be included. SYLVETTE LEGUY, 49 Avenue du Plessis, 92290 Chatenay-Malabry, France.

A 12th-century street musician Mary Remnant's article 'The Diversity of Medieval Fiddles' (EM, Jan 1975) includes a photograph of a fiddle player that is of particular interest as a repre- sentation of a 12th-century street musician. It was not to Miss Remnant's purpose to record these details, but the figure shown is on the left-hand face of a block (sculpted on two sides only), the front and largest face showing a shoe- maker at work aided by an apprentice (see illusn). Above this charming scene, which doubtless represents a shop- front, are the heads and shoulders of four animated figures. The whole scene is probably intended to represent a street with people coming and going around the shoemaker's open-fronted shop. The fiddler, who plays seated and apparently sings to his own accom- paniment, is presumably a street- musician busking for the passing crowds. Although musical scenes in French romanesque sculpture are often connected with the world of everyday music making, this block gives a par- ticularly full and interesting context for the musician's activities.

I am most grateful to Professor Kenneth J. Conant, the authority on

Cluny, for confirming these details. The

block almost certainly comes from a

Cluny shop (i.e. it is a shoemaker's

sign), not from the Abbey, as suggested by Miss Remnant's caption, and prob- ably dates from c1150. The capital is now in the Mus&e Ocnier, Cluny, where I examined it in August 1977. CHRISTOPHER PAGE,Jesus College, Oxford.

Double-dotting and ultra-dotting Professor Neumann (EM, July 1977) has confounded double-dotting and ultra- dotting (as in Dolmetsch's Messiah example). Double-dotting Handel's overtures goes back to Crotch (quoted in Watkins Shaw) and Battishill's II Pastor Fido arrangement, printed in HG 48 p. 196 and referred to by Terence Best in the preface to MHA IV/17.

Neumann says that the double-

dotting in the Orlando overture is fully written out. It is not: compare bar 1 with bars 5, 10 and 11.

The Overture to Handel's Suite No. 7 cited by Fuller also exists in an orches- tral version as the overture to Oreste (HG 48). Comparison of' the two versions is interesting.

In the Overture in Bach's Goldberg Variations it is noteworthy that Bach puts dots over the semiquavers in bars 8 and 9, just as if' he were a Frenchman

indicating that they are to be even.

Finally, Neumann's comments on the

'jerky' style are open to two objections: firstly, it is quite possible to make double-dotted or even ultra-dotted overtures sound majestic and secondly, is Neumann not setting up his own taste as arbiter and 'ceasing the claim of

authenticity' (his words)? RALPH LEAVIS, Lincoln College, Oxford.

I should like to respond to Frederick Neumann's letter in the January issue

by expressing my regret that it should have become necessary for him to take time better spent on the valuable work he has in progress in order to strike yet again at an old issue. I understand, nevertheless, that he could not have let

my article go unanswered, just as I could not have allowed it to remain unwritten.

In answer to one point, I should say that I read his article in the Arthur Mendel Festschrift with great care but did not discuss it because my assignment was to answer the one in Early Music. As I remarked, neither that article nor the one in April 1977 Musical Quarterly would have altered my arguments.

309

Dance symbolism The detail from The Effects of Good Government on the cover of the July 1977 issue of Early Music shows a number of dancers executing a winding dance whose symbolism was originally con- nected with fertility. On the front cover the dress of' the left hand dancer is decorated with a chrysalis pattern. On the back cover the robe of the middle

figure is decorated with dragonflies. I believe these to be symbols for the renewal of the human spirit after death. A similar symbolism is found on the

Ring of Nestor from Pylos dated c 1550- 1500 BC. It has been suggested that the

representation of a winged insect

emerging from the chrysalis developed eventually into an angelic figure. I would be grateful for comments about this and wonder if' there is any sym- bolism in the lines of the dress of the central dancer on the front cover ? MADEAU STEWART, Stream Farm Cottage, Nutbourne, nr Pulborough, W Sussex.

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