Actually, Kassia (also known as Saint Kassia of the Byzantine/Eastern Roman Empire) is known as the first female composer we know by name. I love both the music of both Kassia and Hildegard von Bingen as well.
Thanks for the tips! Here are my top 5 medieval songs that I recommend to learn: - Stella Splendens - Douce Dame Jolie - Quand Je Bois Du Vin Clairet - Chanterai Por Mon Corage - A Que Por Mui Gran Fremosura
That “jumpy first finger” is a bagpipe grace note. Since there’s no embouchure involved in playing the pipes, all articulation is achieved this way. See grace, grip, throw, taorluath, lemluath, etc. These are all traditional ways of separating notes, sometimes in spectacular fashion! They account for all the “blips” and “burbles” that characterize that highland sound.
My intro to medieval and Renaissance music was accidentally getting to see David Munrow performing in a church in Sweden when I was 9, and I was hooked for life. His interpretations may not always be very orthodox, but his energy and lilt are very captivating. Well worth a listen.
@@NathanielDowell Yes, I know. Those trills and ornaments were so difficult for me that I put my whistle aside for a while and now I'm concentrating more on recorder. Maybe in a year or two I'll try again. What do you play?
I didn't inherit a lot of good genetic traits being very weak physically, but I'm glad to have a good ear to be able to replicate songs without any sheets or videos to learn them, only via trial and errors and listening.
Thank You, Sarah! I'd like to add about repertoire - it's Cantigas de Santa Maria, 13th century. A huge and beautiful collection of notated music (427 pieces). It was born in Spain, court of king Alfonso el Sabio. As for me the best translation into contemporary notation belongs to Chris Elmes's performance edition and the most "archeological" performances are made by Eduardo Paniagua and his ensemble.
Though i am a pianist, i always love people who can play the recorders. It is so refreshing to listen to and for me, when i listen to it, it reminds me of the past, of all the beautiful greenery, and how wonderful life is with God given gifts.
Sarah, I've just found your Intro to Medieval Music - EXCELLENT! However, I'm just beginning to learn the instrument, but I'm motivated to learn so I can play some of the music I love. Jim
Hello Sarah, as others have pointed out, you look positively radiant in this video and I'm happy about it. Medieval music is a hugely interesting topic and I'm glad you have made a video about it in your "usual" informative and entertaining way. I'm not sure of course, but I believe that the lack of instrumental music is due to the fact that it was primarily secular music destined to entertain. I can imagine rovering bands of musicians playing popular tunes at weddings and village holidays. They probably weren't literate and played by ear and would have left nothing about the material they played. On the other hand the church used vocal music only and there might have been several clerics noting the most important pieces down so we have a lot of Gregorian and poliphony. When we think about medieval music, we usually begin with Gregorian chants. Always the supporter of lost causes, I'd love to get an idea of the music played in the first millemnium. It is bound to have sounded a lot like the music of the Romans gradually transforming in what we are used to listen when we think about medieval. The influence of the invading Germanic and Slavic people must have had an influence... I'm hugely curious, but until time travel is invented we will now little to nothing about it. Not that we are lacking the material, by the way: the little we have is enough for a lifetime of playing.
I LOVE your channel!!! I am exploring Medieval music at the moment with my studio and so far have fallen madly in love with the Cantigas from Spain especially 353 and 100. There is also a lovely book of medieval renaissance music called Cantigas Renaissance Festival Favorites for All Instruments with Guitar Chords...that one doesn’t have everything in its original form...for example, things being in A Dorian vs D Dorian. Anyway, thank you for posting this, going to check those things you mentioned out immediately🙌🎻🥰
Im teaching myself how to play the recorder for a month now and thanks to your videos I am improving so much! thanks a lot, you're a wonderful teacher :)
I've really been wanting to get involved in music. I decided on recorder and when I came across this video I knew where I wanted to be. I'll probably end up with a plastic Alto recorder. The wood one you show in this video looks amazing but it's way out of my price range. I've already found the material and I have a lot to learn. It's going to be a wonderful journey I just want to say thank you for making this video it's changed my life. I realize there's a lot of basics to learn before you can even get to playing songs but at least I know now the area I want to go the direction I want. Sorry for long-windedness. Thank you again so much
Mediaeval baebes! OMG so much GOOOOOOD arrangements, recorders and all sorts of 'mediaeval-esque' sounding instruments. And beautiful singing too. I'm new to your channel but I think your love for music just radiates and you have totally inspired me to think about the recorder in a new light again :D
Thank you for posting this video. Medieval history is one of my biggest interests, and I chose to (try) to play the recorder partly because it's a medieval instrument.
All thru our buikan existence, our. 5. Senses were in alert mode.The sounds were everywhere from ocean waves, wind blowing ,. Storm sleet & rain. Music. Brings. Memories as well.
Thank you so much for your videos and content. You have inspired me. I'm a 52-year-old male I've never played recorder but maybe for five minutes as a kid.
I recently have bought at an historical fair a medieval-style six-holed fipple flute, whose structure is very close to that of an early recorder, and it's interesting to compare it with my Baroque-style recorders.
It is actually listening to medieval music and hearing recorders in it that got me to really appreciate the instrument. For example, here on RU-vid there is a gorgeous instrumental recording of the virelai "E, Dame Jolie" (not to be mistaken with Machaut's "Douce Dame Jolie"!) and it has some sections with beautiful recorder harmonies.
Fans seeking modern take on medieval musical concepts should check out the genre called Dungeon Synth. As the name suggests, it's synthesizer-based music that fuses dark ambient and pseudo-medieval music using synthesized instruments. Sometimes it ends up sounding like early RPG video game music, like something you'd hear in a fantasy RPG in the 80s. Aesthetically, the concepts range from medieval and fantasy themes, to the extreme of the black metal world (corpse paint + casio keyboards) Artist examples: Fief, Old Tower, Sequestered Keep, Lord Lovidicus, Aufhocker, Kobold, Chaucerian Myth, Old Glow.
I was actually considering picking up the recorder specifically for medieval music so I could record multiple parts using strings and percussion as well. Thank you for the insights! I have been playing Stella Splendens and Ja nus hons pris and thought they would sound great with a recorder.
It's actually Saint Hildegard von Bingen: abbess, artist, author, composer, Catholic mystic, pharmacist, poet, preacher, theologian and Doctor of the Church. I really ought to play her compositions since she received them from God and understood them because only a woman could understand the harmomy. Even if you're not Catholic, damn what a thing to claim then, how beautiful those compositions must be!
I am an amateur flute player. I enjoy playing "Douce Dame Jolie" by Mr. Marchaud both in my concert flute and in my Yamaha YRF-21 Fife (it has an interesting sound quality on its own). Greetings!!!
Scaramella from David Munro is phantastic. I am a folkdance teachter and we dance besides international folkdances also Middle age courtdanses and barok dances. I love medieval music.
I have a collection of French music all from Codex 884 in the Bibliotheque Nationale. German edition by Noetzel edition, 'Zum Tanze aufgespielt'. From this codex you played 'La sexte estampie real'. Wonderful music.
4:02 wow I've never heard this instrument before, but the low sound and the vibrato really appeals 😲 maybe a tutorial of it would be a nice video idea? Love your channel btw (:
Lately I've been playing a song that I see commonly being called saltarello III or salve Regina (at the end of the video you actually play it, I wrote before that). And Ecco la primavera. Both Italian songs. Play them both by ear. And 'cantigas de santa Maria' were actually my introduction to recorder
Very nice intro :) I am pleased to have just discovered your videos! Since so much medieval music is vocal, you can also check out the Choral Public Domain Library (CPDL) - lots of medieval and renaissance music that can easily be appropriated for recorder.
OMG that "ma fin est mon commencement" thing sounds too cool. Thanks for mentioning it! I definitely like Hildegard's music, which can be found online at the International Society of Hildegard von Bingen Studies under "Music." (It's in something like modern notation, which I like although I do TRY to play from her codices as well.) I'm currently working on the "Songs to Mary." I use a 19th century 6-key flute in D to play it, and adore it to pieces. It does work on a keyless as well, if you play it in the flute's natural minor. If you want to play it on her clefs, you'll need a flute in C or F to do it; most women sing her stuff on the F clef, so that's nice since it's a smaller flute, and a keyless in F won't set you back too much. Someday I'd also love to set some of Amy Powell's poetry to music using chant notation, which is a bit weird but so am I so it all fits, I guess.
Wow, thanks for the Emily Askew tip! Being a big folk/trad fan as well as a recorder player I am thrilled to find out that the band includes Jamie Roberts from Gilmore & Roberts and that Emily was part of the Elizabethan Sessions (another great, great album btw) AND the Mediaeval Babes! Had a quick listen just now and I LOVE it! Just the sound I aim for!
Excellent info! Would it be possible to make one particular piece where you could show the style and embellishments one could use while playing medieval music with a recorder?
A couple of artists you can check out (both of these are available on Spotify) Medæval Bæbes - They cover medieval tunes, and I think they write their own in that style as well. I partly grew up on this stuff :) Pontir - A Russian artist I discovered recently. He’s only got one album but it’s great. Properly authentic sounding stuff.
This is a fantastic explanation of medieval music for the recorder. Thank you very much for dedicating the time to go over the recommendations, and for the pointers to the historical context. I was wondering: would you consider going through Jacob van Eyck's work in one of your videos, more specifically to Der Fluyten Lust-hof?
@Sarah Jeffery / Team Recorder Great video, thanks! Which recorder would you recommend to a total beginner who got interested into the instrument only to play medieval music? thanks a lot!
Unwritten (folk) musical traditions are important to flesh out the bare-bones of the written music that has survived. Interesting thought-experiment (assuming civilization on Earth lasts another 1500 years): imagine what people would think OUR musical environment was like if they only had 44 dance tunes from the last 900 years to go on. What melodies would you pick to represent the whole of instrumental music? 🤔
Thank you. I have loads of CDs of medieval music, but you've pointed me to some more. I didn't even know about the collection from Hawthorne's Music, so I'm going to order it.
A few of music historian are investigating a lot of folk songs in the countrysides because there is evidence that those places might preserve some of the old traditional songs that have been passed down
I'm getting a medieval recorder from Terry man in UK. What would be a good book for medieval tunes for 2 parts? I have a harmony ocarina that plays 2 parts. Love ancient music.
Hi Sarah ! I just discovered your channel as I was looking for stuff about the Recorder ! And I'm actually pretty glad i found it ! BUT ! (as always), in life i'm a student, in France, and I study Musicology... Especially medieval music ! So i'm quite happy to find that kind of stuff haha. I can be wrong, but this could be interesting to learn : 1. The gregorian chant : be careful about that, it may have been named affter the Pope Gregory the 1st, but we're not sure about that (i'm NOT talking about the fact that, contrary to what people use to think, he absolutely didn't write this because he died in like 600 AD if i have a good memory, and the fist gregorians are from like 750 AD (not so sure about the years but i'd bet we're quite close) but i just wanted to be careful about it). Indeed, if we now are able to indentfy it and define it pretty well, there are like a mountain of things that we don't know. It's a repertory such as Roman chant, Anglican chant, Florantin chant, etc (i only know names of the repertories in french, sorryyyyy), and today, there may be some "gregorian" that are actually NOT gregorian, if you see what i mean. We use the term "gregorian" for chant that could be Roman. It's pretty like (and i bet you'll know this exemple), when people use the term "classical music" for like... Bach, or Chopin. That makes me tilt a bit hahaha 2. It's not Guillaume Machaut but Guillaume DE Machaut ("de" means "from"). Indeed, he was not a noble guys, and even rather a poor, a plebeian, a guy from the people. And he came from a place called Machaut, that's it haha ! At the end of his life, he used to consider himeself like... almost a god, a supreme guy. That joins the idea that fist emerged in the text of Petrarch, on the top of the Mont Ventoux, in France. That's one of the most important change in history of christianism. I'm not sure to explain it well, but human start to feel things as they came to him, and not as God gave to him, you know ? That's the roots of Humanism, where human have a different place that he used to have, compared to God. That's also the emergency of the composer as a composer. Before that, music was composed, just composed. After that, it was composed BY a composer. Guillaume de Machaut totally got that, and considered himself like the best composer of all time. Thanks for reading, and don't hesitate to correct me if what i said is like crap, i only wish for the truth ! :) Sorry too if i did some english mistakes, i'm French and not totally at ease with english :) Great vids btw, really, they are cool and nice to watch ! :D
Loving your unstoppable enthusiasm Sarah, thanks for this video. Could I please ask you if there are any kind of “rules” or “standards” where Harmony is concerned, Anything that distinguishes Medeaval Harmony from modern harmony? Many Thanks.
Your videos and knowledge are incredible! I am learning so much from them. I am teaching myself to play tenor recorder.i play piano and can already read music. I am having a terrible problem with the pinkie finger of my left hand sticking out. I've tried scales, reminding myself about it, even putting tape loosely from my pinkie to my ring finger. I am left handed, so I don't know if that's the source of my problem. Are there any recommendations as to how to deal with this problem? I've looked everywhere online for answers.
Hello Sarah, Is there a specific recorder do you need to play these songs? I have 0 experience in recorders, But I found a few on local online shop that is affordable. I think it's good for hobby since it's not too loud, and Ive been really liking the tunes from fantasy rpgs. Does the material matter? like should it be made out of wood etc? what's the difference of a flute and a recorder? also I thought it was small.
I play classical flute, but I love medieval, Indian, country. Hard question I know, but do you have any recommendations for the key and recorder? . I’m near northumberland and love the pipes. Again what would you look out for. I can play by ear so specific music isn’t an issue. Thankyou in advance. Steve
I always wanted to play medieval music so I can’t wait to get started. You should totally try to play folk metal! One of the songs i would totally recommend is an instrumental is „ eluveitie - giamonios“
I want to learn how to play flute but I do not know what kind of flute to start with... I have heard several wooden mid evil transverse flute that are beautiful... Could you suggest a starting place to look?
It's funny, I happened to learn about this just now because I will have my last exam today from this topic. :D thank you it will be much easier to memorize everything because of your video =^^=
Medieval Dances, ed. Greg Lewin (EE2) is available from Recorder Music Mail www.recordermail.co.uk (takes you direct to the search page). Or use the Call Now button on Facebook. Hawthorn Music prints much of the catalogue to order. Quick turn round, and Alyson Lewin is really helpful. And a lovely article about Sarah in the current issue of the Recorder Magazine, published by Recorder Music Mail.
+Janis Cortese - That too! I oftentimes play "Hava Nagila," and tunes from the movie "Fiddler on the Roof" on my soprano, alto and tenor recorders. However, I do prefer to play klezmer music on my concertina, violin and Bb clarinet. 😊
Wuderbar! Medieval music really touches the spot for me. Check out 'Machaut and His Age' by the Early Music Consort of London Director David Munrow. ' Lucente Stella', Pierre Hamon. 'Mi Ris, Mi Plours' by Ensemble Faenza. And of course The Dufay Collective with 'A L'estampida'...superlative music performed by superlative musicians. Thanks for this Ms. Jeffrey. Ever in your debt.Harry
Also there are lots of Hildegard von Bingen sheet music, text, and related RU-vid video. www.hildegard-society.org/p/music.html?m=1 Scores are in modern notation. I tried before and works well when playing on recorders.
So helpfull great video👍i have my music theory mock exam next week (a serious one😬) i got my practical mark back and i got an A nearly and A* i really hope i match my mark on this paper😂
"millions of centuries"???? lol That literally made me laugh out loud. Very charming. Thanks for this video- great playing! Also, Hildegarde Von Bingen is not only the first known woman but the first known non-anonymous HUMAN composer that we know of, so far as I know.
@@alanjackson219 I should qualify- the only non anonymous composer, at least known when I was in music school, which was admittedly more than 15 years ago, whose music is extant. Is any of their music extant? (I'm not being sarcastic, I'm genuinely asking. I really don't know.) I am not a scholar in the subject, and I am going on what only one or two music history teachers told me more than a decade ago. You are right that they are earlier, but I thought we only had poetry that they wrote and none of their music was notated.
@@alanjackson219 Also, not to split hairs, but I did say "so far as I know." I only remember this so distinctly b/c a music history teacher of mine made a huge point of repeatedly pointing out how until the late 20th Century, most historians would leave Hildegard Von Bingen out of textbooks out of embarrassment that the first non-anonymous known composer with extensive extant music was a woman. He could have been wrong, for all I know.
@@composerdoh I hope my answer was not discourteous - I didn't mean it to be. Notker - actually that was not completely fair: the evidence is strong but not absolutely conclusive that he composed as well as setting words to existing music, so you might have me there. But Wipo of Burgundy wrote at least the sequence "Victimae Paschali Laudes" which I understand - I am not a Roman Catholic - is still sung as part of the Mass on Easter Day. But your teacher was quite right in principle: mediaeval music was seen for a long time through the lens of nineteenth century male chauvinism and anticatholicism - and still is to a very large extent, as many of the comments here demonstrate. And it's not just women and catholics that have grounds for complaint: the LGBTQ community has plwnty of grounds as well.
@@alanjackson219 Not discourteous at all! Thanks for the info! Like I said, it was a long time ago, and this beloved prof of mine (may he rest in peace- passed like... 7-8 years ago) I'm reluctant to think he didn't know what he was talking about- it's more likely I misunderstood or misremembered him, or perhaps he was exaggerating to make a point, which I can totally imagine... anyway, I did look up Wipo and saw that there was in fact a piece of his extant- I honestly didn't have time to listen to it or dig any deeper, but I can speculate perhaps my teacher meant that HVB was the first composer with extant music in any significant volume... well, regardless, I appreciate your teaching me some new info! Is Notker the one who.... hmm... I'm trying to remember the story... I remember this anecdotal, possibly fictitious or dramatized, story of this famous musician who had never sung before- possibly from a stutter, but he was at a party and they were asking everyone to sing and miraculously, when his turn came, he found he could improvise fantastically?
Maybe it is a bit of a century-crossover, but if you like it, please check "Chominciamento di Gioia". Cheerful collection of songs available on youtube. I bought the CD and never regretted.
