Agricola and the rhizome : an aesthetic of the late Cantus-Firmus mass.

Abstract

This paper evaluates the use of borrowed material in the work of the composer Alexander agricola (ca. 1456-1506). It is argued that Agricola's reputation in his lifetime has but little informed the scholarly attention afforded to him in modern times, and that the reasons for this neglect have been predominantly aesthetic ones. Accordingly an aesthetic framework is proposed through which to evaluate his music, following the work of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari _Rhizome_. This concept of Rhizome is shown to inform many of the underlying principles of Agricola's deployment of borrowed materials.