Composers at Work: The Craft of Musical Composition 1450-1600

Composers at Work is the first comprehensive and systematic study of compositional process in Renaissance music. Owens draws on documentary, manuscript, and theoretical evidence to construct a striking new explanation of how composers actually worked. Through a study of autograph sketches, drafts, and fair copies of composers such as Henricus Isaac, Cipriano de Rore, Francesco Corteccia, and Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Owens reveals a process of working in separate parts, line by line, and not in full score, as in our modern editions. This discovery has major implications for the analysis, editorial interpretation, and performance of early music.