Foreword to EMCO #4
For a variety
of reasons, some of them lost in the mists of time, issue number four
of EMCO never came out when it was scheduled to. Therefore, even
though this is the sixth issue to come out, it is numbered as the
fourth. It is not a collection of old articles and reviews, however;
all of the contents are new.
This issue is
yet another transitional one in EMCO's history. There are two firsts:
it is the first issue to contain HTML-format articles, to be read on a
screen, and it is the first issue to be published under the aegis of
BOAP (Bergen Open Access Publishing). There are also two endings: it is
the last issue to be published in the OJS version 2 format, and it
is probably the last general issue to contain as many articles and
reviews in one place as this one does. In the future, we hope to
publish smaller issues more frequently. One article can be an 'issue'
unto itself, or, rather, a 'volume' in an issue spanning one calendar
year.
In EMCO number
4, we are delighted to present to you as an illustration of the
journal's breadth, three very different articles, with very different
purposes. Perry McPartland's 'Political Shakespeare and the Blessing of
Art' reads political Shakespeare in an alternative way to New
Historicists and Cultural Materialists, through a focus on art's
relationship to culture in A Midsummer Night's Dream, and how this play
subverts and 'disfigures' myths often appropriated by Reactionary
worldviews, through art.
Fernando Cioni also looks at Shakespeare. Starting with his The Taming of the Shrew,
Cioni presents a survey of induction scenes and dumb shows in the
Elizabethan theatre, with reference to the Italian origins of these
scenic traditions. The article contains in an appendix a meticulously
assembled and exhaustive list of introductory scenes in English plays
from the period.
Robin Rolfhamre's article, '"Caprice
de
chaconne" (1671): Symmetry and proportions in Francesco
Corbetta’s work for
Baroque Guitar,' studies how the interpretation of meaning, the reading
of symbols and knowledge about the courtly context of early music can
influence current performance styles. Rolfhamre's analysis of the
compositional structures and techniques of Corbetta's piece of music is
illustrated with hyperlinked recordings - another first for EMCO.
As
for this issue's book reviews, this is something of a University of
Pennsylvania Press special. Three books on different early modern
topics, from alchemy via gardens to food recipes have been reviewed.
We hope you will enjoy EMCO number 4!