Hyun-Ah Kim, The Renaissance Ethics of Music: Singing, Contemplation and Musica Humana. London: Pickering & Chatto, 2015. xii+181 pp. £95.00. ISBN-10: 1848935498; ISBN-13: 978-1848935495.

magnifying its most characteristic features in the course of embodying them’ (p. 232), and the entirety of this final discussion must become required reading for anyone wishing to generate a historically sensitive analysis of medieval music henceforth. In sum, The Monstrous New Art is not only a fascinating exploration of an exciting topic (the monstrous in ars novamusic) but a book of much wider importance. Future work that addresses medieval motets, the analysis of any early music, and the question of how texts and music relate in the pre-Renaissance repertory will be much the richer for taking account of it. The text is copiously and helpfully illustrated,admirably lucid and highly pleasurable to read: though the analyses demand a lot from the reader because of their complexity and subtlety, they produce ample rewards, and I look forward to introducing this book to advanced undergraduate and graduate student readers as amodel of engaging and persuasive analytical writing.