[Bards] I need knew songs

Michael Silverhands silverhands at sbcglobal.net
Tue Dec 12 11:33:05 PST 2006


On Dec 12, 2006, at 1:19 PM, SuTillery at comcast.net wrote:

> Along the same lines, what is the best way to pick up a more  
> medieval sound.  Most of what I know is childe ballads set to  
> probably 18th and 19th century tunes.  Good sources for northern  
> England would be lovely.
>
> AEla

Not to be facetious, but the best way I can think of would be to  
learn some songs documented from the Medieval period, in the original  
Medieval language, from someone who has researched the style that  
would be "correct" for that time, place and type of song. Learning  
modern songs (and by "modern" I mean anything post-period) and trying  
to "filk" them to a "period-ish" style or sound can be done, but why  
go that route when there are actual period songs available?

For example: the Cantigas de Santa Maria[1], in 13th c. Galician[2],  
is one of the earliest collections of monophonic (solo) songs from  
that period. There are numerous sources for these works on the web,  
and several great recordings to learn from are available. Here's a  
web site with lots of info, including a link to a page with MIDI  
versions of many of the cantigas: <http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/ 
cantigas/>.

Or just try to catch Istanpitta (a professional ensemble headed by  
Master Avatar) when they're performing the cantigas in concert. :-)

Michael

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantigas_de_Santa_Maria>
[2] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galician_language>



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