… “I would not like to finish without emphasizing the rich musical life of the city of Oxford, something which has both satisfied my spirit and left me wanting more….”
Do we need the concept of the ‘musical work’ to make a music history? This is a simple question to which it is not easy to offer an answer. If we answer it restrictively, we would have to say that its use is only relevant for the study of the music of the 19th century and much of the 20th century. But it is also quite possible that we might accept its validity for music from the 15th century onwards…