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Music in Early Christian Literature (Cambridge Readings in the Literature of Music)

This book provides a collection of some 400 passages on music from early Christian literature – New Testament to c. 450 AD – newly translated from the original Greek, Latin, and Syriac. As there are no musical sources of the period, music historians must rely upon remarks about music in literary sources to gain some knowledge of early Christian liturgical music. This volume makes a large and representative collection of the material conveniently available. The passages are arranged chronologically and regionally in eleven chapters with brief commentary. An introduction sets out the major subjects and themes of the original source material.