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Hearing the City in Early Modern Europe. Tess Knighton and Ascensión Mazuela-Anguita, eds. Épitome musical. Turnhout: Brepols, 2018. 428 pp. €65.

Hartt also provides a thematic summary and a list of “contested areas” (12–13) revolving around chronology, compositional techniques, notation, and geography. Themes range from the textual to the notational, with emphasis on motets as cohesive wholes, textuality, borrowing, audibility, structure and notation, and the written archive. Textuality is particularly important as it intersects with intertextuality, monotextuality, materiality, and textual meaning. Attention is rightly paid to two-voice motets and monophonic motets in various chapters, and motet tenors receive ample discussion. Several chapters read like topic surveys, while others advance nuanced arguments; thus Critical Companion presents itself equally as a companion to the study of the medieval motet, laying out basic approaches, and also a critical collection of new scholarship that will shape future research. While the volume is highly admirable, variability is one of the few critiques that could be made. A distinction between a topics chapter and a case study is expected; however, chapters within each part range in complexity and accessibility. Since Hartt defines the audience as specialists, upper-level undergraduates, and graduate students (1)—commendable in breadth and fitting for a companion-type volume—most chapters demand some background in medieval music. For instance, certain examples and tables require sustained examination and dissection and the occasional lack of translations may stymie some. Included, however, is a helpful glossary defining many of the technical terms encountered throughout the chapters. There is much here for any seasoned scholar to digest, and many of the case studies will serve as excellent stand-alone chapters to assign in higher level courses. In the end, this volume stands as a central guide to future work on the medieval motet—indeed, medieval musicology as a whole will need to account for arguments made throughout its pages.