Indeed - an extraordinary book. Wouldn't go down so well with HIP positivists, though. His chapter in Knighton and Fallows is also well worth reading as well.

Speaking of which - we've never had a wider HIP thread on here (about the whole business of historically-informed performance, its positives and negatives, and so on), though the subject has been touched upon briefly in other threads. What do you think?

That looks like it might be an interesting read. What does he end up concluding about the presence or absence of instruments in vocal music? I've tended to be suspicious of the no-instruments brigade; while I dare say there were very few occasions on which a Munrow-style truckload of instruments would be present, it's clear that there were instruments around in the Middle Ages and it seems to me logical if not inevitable that they'd be used for accompanying voices in one way or another. It's also clear though that "authenticity" in performing mediaeval music isn't there to be had, as opposed to presenting the music in such a way that what one sees as its attractive qualities (including, I suppose, its "oldness") are transmitted to the audience.

I can't remember if he has a firm conclusion on that, but it's not really that type of book. More about how we have recreated the Middle Ages in our own image, or rather to become what we would like it to be. A book about historiography, with a certain nod in the direction of postmodern ideas on that front.

FWIW an EM section would be encouraging at least for those of us (i.e. self) who would like to know more.

On the subject of HIP, until some way of circumventing the constraints of time can be found, we have the ingredients and the recipe. What we don't have is the meal. But even with the same ingredients and the same recipe every cook prepares a meal that is slightly different.