Modal Subjectivities covers the span of the sixteenth-century polyphonic madrigal, from its early manifestations in Philippe Verdelot's settings of Machiavelli in the 1520s through the tortured chromatic experiments of Carlo Gesualdo.
"This revelatory book distills thirty years of reflection on the sixteenth-century madrigal with an inimitable mixture of empathy, vivacity, conceptual boldness, and downright wisdom. Susan McClary renovates our understanding of the genre in the most fundamental terms and in the process rewrites a key chapter in the history of early modern culture. McClary gives us a different sixteenth-century Europe than the one we thought we knew. By asking what we can learn about the era from its music, and not just the other way around, she unveils a world of luxuriant introspection and complex self-division that we can actually learn to hear in the body of music for which she is now our most eloquent advocate."-Lawrence Kramer, author of Musical Meaning: Toward a Critical History and Opera and Modern Culture
"In this brilliant new book, Susan McClary perfectly balances post modern and early modern sensibilities. Modal Subjectivities is a virtuosic marriage between interdisciplinary cultural work and astute musical analyses, firmly grounded by an irresistibly lucid and persuasive explanation of mode in sixteenth century music, in which even the most familiar works offer up precious secrets. Insightful, bold, and brimming with McClary's incomparably effervescent prose, Modal Subjectivities is destined to transform our thinking about Renaissance secular music."-Wendy Heller, Associate Professor of Music, Princeton University, author of Emblems of Eloquence: Opera and Women's Voices
"...the book's engaging style, bold premise, and persuasive argument will reward and gratify the reader who possesses a modicum of music literacy and a general interest in Renaissance poetics, regardless of discipline."
