[zorobnice]

I think if I can remember it was taught along with their other skills. I also only read the books once, so much else to read since then. It would make sense though as music is so important to them.

[Ollie]

yeah exactly...i knew what i was talking about ;) :D

ps They play Lyres don't they?

[zorobnice]

Not sure. really, maybe Bridie would be able to let us know when she wakes up and logs on. :D

[Ollie]

she'll be at skool dude, she's not half dead like i am :( :rolleyes:

[Bridie]

lol right... whats the question you wanted to ask? and what other thread that you need the link to? The other music thread got merged with this one.

[Silver Serpent]

I don't think there were any harmoicas in the books-yet.:rolleyes:
Mandolins and lutes are a form of medieval guitar-round bottomed instead of flat.

[zorobnice]

Thanks Bridie, noticed on Friday the two threads were merged.
Maybe we could ask our new member FANG to give us some info on musical instruments for bards. I will PM her and ask her to join this thread.:)

[Fang]

Hey hey all,

I was asked to join the thread on account of having a little medieval history expertise. Now I have to say that I actually no more about medieval literature *pushes Robin Hood out of the way* than music. In the three years I only had one class on music and that was about liturgical music...go figure.

Which btw, is really boring. You have Gregorian chanting...which doesn't sound so bad but if you listen to it for a while it all starts to sound alike, and then there is the Greek Orthodox liturgial music..which doesn't make sense at all.

I do know from some reading that not much information about music survives from the MA and when it does it's usually liturgical. There are some manuscripts that have information about notes and the more theoretical stuff of music and how they saw it, but I don't know much about that. So if you want to know about that go to Wiki and search for Medieval Music. I'm sure something will come up.

Now what I do know something about is what the common people practices. As they couldn't read of write they had simple ballads and poems that were meant to be sung outloud and were composed in such a manner they were able to easily remember a great many of these ballads. There's lots of rythm, alliteration, assonation, rhyme and so on.

For example you have the Robin Hood ballads *shows outlaw around* that tale the tale of the infamous outlaw and how he robbed monks, pestered the sheriff and even killed Gisborne a few times.

Then there is such a thing as drama. I'm not sure how familiar you all are with mummer's dances and plays. You can see tem as folk dancing and plays performed by the lower classes in disguises often accompanied by dancing.

The same goes for Morris Dancing and other sword dancing. It's not always so that they sang, but there was music of a sort, usually on a pipe or a filddle and the traditions lived through to modern times, though not the same as it was in the MA... There are still some songs survive from that ages.


And then there are the modern version of medieval music. Some new ages and some rather accurate such as the Medieval Babes (I know how it sounds, but they are good) and Omnia, Faun (who both play on traditional instruments, but their music can't be seen as medieval as they play Neo Pagan Celtic Music), Blackmore's Night (more the lyrics than instruments), David Arkenstone and some more.

Okay...talk about a very long rant ;)

[zorobnice]

Fang, thanks from all of us, tha is quite interesting. One continues to forget that most of the poeple in the books don't read, only the Bards and those sort (So they can do spells) so one can see how many of the Fantasy books set in more or less the same type of world as MA Earth, need to have the songs, the dances etc.

Thanks again.:D

[Fang]

Yer welcome ;)

And I'm pretty sure there is a lot more to bards and ministrels and all, but I don't come across them much, except in literature. I do know that Richard I was a big fan of having ministerel and bards around so they could tell stories to and about him, but that could have something to do with his upbringing. His mother was Eleanor of Aquitaine and that just about says it all :P