Greet's Middle Ages

This monkey is focused on A&S...

...unlike me these days.  Then again, I've managed to avoid being the target of the atlatl field lately.

Right, so I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, I've just been turning my life upside down, moving in the midst of the holidays, and I'll get back to my normal post format soon.  I hope.  (My bookmarks overfloweth!)

Recap, because A&S reports are due, and I shamelessly use this blog to keep track of what I do:

Since I last posted (gah! two whole months ago!), I've:

Practiced music (recorder and voice) with Oldenfeld's Ensemble (Trimaris), weekly.  Learned various Christmas pieces for playing at Yule, and worked on "Say Love", an Elizabethan piece we learned from its original entablature, which is funky stuff, yet fun.  I'm hoping for geeky music stuff at Gulf Wars.

Appeared at an elementary school demo where we performed many of these pieces, and danced some, largely the Maltese Bransle, since asking kids to dance like an elephant, or as if the ground is a thousand degrees hot, is very entertaining.  Weekly dance practice happened too, and most of the time I was there.

Sewed garb for my mother, particularly so she would have late-period garb for dance demos, and enough garb for a weekend without borrowing from me.  I did most of the construction on some 16th Florentine clothing for her, modeled after Drea Leed's 1515 Florentine gown.  I taught mom how to cardweave trim directly onto the cuffs of her detachable sleeves.  I also put together a 16thc Persian pirahan (that's the base layer), and did rough construction of a vest-caftan and a coat.  She is responsible for the finishing of said items - so she practiced rolling a hem on her neckline, etc.  And I threw together a standard unbleached linen gored t-tunic for her to use alone, or with some yet-to-be-woven peplos garment.  Of course I do not have pictures.

Attended Oldenfeld's Yule, where I performed twice with the Ensemble, danced one dance in a class as a plant, and got to be HRH's herald in court...fortunately they had no business, I just did the flowery/funny intro.  People laughed when I wanted them to - that was good.  I put an extra syllable in Her Highness' name - eh, not so good.  I should have asked for clarification.

I knit Elizabeth Zimmerman's Maltese Fisherman's Hat for my new shire's gift swap, which proved popular enough that I'm knitting a couple more.  I have no idea how historical this pattern is...it's one of those "traditional" forms that might be ancient, or might be Victorian.  Most probably the latter, but it's cute and practical, with ear flaps.  When I finish another one, I'll post its picture.

I attended Rising Stone's Menhir, mostly to support a friend teaching for the first time, but it was good to attend an A&S event - I haven't in some time, and people had missed me.  I got to use an atalatl, which is a lever that propels a spear farther than one could throw it alone.  (I am so bad at this, that apparently "throwing a spear alone" for me would be most effective if the target just ran up onto it.)  But it was cool to watch other people.  Appropriately for someone who has always walked on her toes, even my spear throwing is "lofty".  I'd like to play with this more - I hope Ianka brings her stuff to Gulf Wars.

 

Ullrich and Finna.  See how Finna is actually holding the stick, not the dart?  I think she's holding it better (with more power) than I did...must try that way.  The hollow dart end rests in a notch on the atlatl (the stick)...I wonder how to calculate the extra force on the dart?  Would the force be increased by increasing the length of the atlatl?  Ianka had two shapes of atlatl, one was straight and the other a gentle arc.  I found the arched one to be much more comfortable and dependable to use, but I only threw four darts.

Dart launched from atlatl.

 

Illariia's classes were about Early Rus.  Back at Pennsic, I attended a Rus clothing class, in order to gather data for Maudey and Mordan, and I'd shared my notes with Illariia.  I now realize I didn't bring anything new back to her- she is incredibly knowledgeable.  I attended a general history class, and a two-parter on clothing. I now feel much more grounded in that culture, and that I could totally create that costume if I needed to.

A teenager in my life has led me to start poking around in places I haven't yet: she's talking about wanting an Irish persona, and I suspect she means later period.  And one of the prom dresses she admired recently is an Elizabethan court gown, made over in lace.  "See, I could wear something like this later, for SCA!"  Fortunately, I have the book for such things, Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion, but I'd foolishly said once upon a time, "oh sure, I could make that, but I don't want to wear it, so I'm not really interested..."  Murphy strikes again.  It would be nice to check the square though, as a personal challenge.

Plans for future play:  My local group's event, Convivium Collegialis, is happening at the end of February, and I'm looking forward to a bog coat class and the camp cooking workshop.  And then Gulf Wars is coming up fast - I'm planning on attending the later half of that, and showing the teenager around, since she's never been before.

Choosing Christmas repetoire of early music

Yup, it's time to think about Christmas...because if one wants to be ready to perform Christmas stuff in December, one has to start practicing way before Halloween.

At least it isn't ballet - Nutcracker auditions are in July/August.

Oldenfeld Ensemble had the first of a couple of organizational meetings last night, to choose which pieces to work up for the season.  There's a Google doc online with EIGHTY-SEVEN choices.  About half are in English, which is a lot more than usual for this group - most of the stuff we've done this summer has been in Spanish, with a bit of French, Latin, and English.  We are to vote for the ones we want, and somehow we'll get it down to something less than thirty.  Still - thirty!  Even...twenty!  I'm terribly excited, since I love having songs in my pocket so to speak, to keep and pull bits out when I feel like it.

Last night we started with The Boar's Head Carol (before 1521), mostly in English, with a few Latin phrases; La Marche Des Rois, 13thc Provencal, in both French and English; and Personent Hodie, of German origin, 1360 (tune), Latin words (1582); Riu Riu Chiu (Spanish, pre1556).  The only tune I was familiar with was La Marche...had no idea it's essentially an Epiphany song.  I need to check some vocabulary - the English translation is very switched around, and I'm rather sure that there's no explicit mention of frankincense and myrrh here, but it works for the English meter.

Ce matin, j'ai rencontre' le train, De trois grands Rois qui allaient en voyage; Tout charges d'or les suivant d'abord, de grands guerriers et les gardes du tresor...de grands guerriers avec leurs boucliers.

I now understand much better the phenomenon I've been on the edge of before...of a long list of possibilities, the musicians go for the obscure choices, which leaves behind some of the crowd favorites.  I did not choose:

• Angels We Have Heard On High
• Away In A Manger
• Deck the Hall
• The First Nowell
• Good Christian Men Rejoice
• Here We Come A Wassailing

However, I am a populist, so you'll see some sing-a-long-ables in the list I did vote for, a lot of which I just want to know all the words of:

• Blessed Be That Maid Marie (poss. 1594)
• Coventry Carol (1591 version)
• Cuando el Rey Nimrod (it'd be cool if we could do the Hebrew one, called Avram Avinu)
• Dadme Albricias, Hijos d'Eva (1556)
• Ding Dong Merrily On High (16thc melody)
• Es Ist Ein Roess Entsprungen (1599, gotta learn how to sing in German, right?)
• Gaudete (1420, I am now a Steeleye Span fan, but there's also a terrific harp vid)
• Nowell Sing We All Now And Some (Old English)
• O Come O Come Emmanuel (12thc Latin, possibly my most favorite December song ever, loved the childhood ritual of the Advent candles and potato pancakes)
• Pat a Pan (Burgundian)
• Please to See the King

Playing with musical modes further...

A friend and I were discussing the feeling of menace, of doomedness, in The Animals' House of the Rising Sun.  (I just typed "Rising Stone"...surely this has been filked, oh Murfreesboro pals?  You won't find me doing it, as I don't really care for filk, but just curious.)

Anyway, since I have been learning about musical modes, and trying to develop an ear for them, and therefore understand how they impart different moods (moods = modes, get it?), I wondered if the "menace" in Rising Sun might devolve to what mode it's in.

Yes, serious geeking ahead.  Pull on the waders.

Here's the melody of Rising Sun, the refrain, on the piano keys.  (I just picked it out by ear, per the linked video above.)  You'll notice there's two notes missing...I just went back and started the melody from the beginning of the verse, and added a B natural and an G flat.  So the scale is this:

Bb, B, Db, Eb, F, Gb, Ab, Bb

Or maybe it should be expressed in sharps:

A#, B, C#, D#, F, F#, G#, A#

So, let's look at the pattern of half steps and whole steps to figure out what mode it is:

HWWWHWW

Hmm.  Seems like Phrygian.  What's Phrygian's rep?

Wikipedia says:

the Phrygian mode is an important part of theflamenco sound. The Dorian mode is also found in other folk music, particularly Latin and Laotian music, while Phrygian is found in some Central European or stylized Arab music, whether as natural Phrygian or harmonic Phrygian (Phrygian Dominant), which has a raised third (the so-called "gypsy scale").

So part of the "New Orleans" vibe is Spanish, and romantic, so that mode is a descriptive design choice in composing this song.  Cool!

Also cool - Phrygian is a scale starting in E, with no accidentals.  So, I think that means that if I wanted to transpose Rising Sun to a key that I could play on my harp with no retuning, I could use a no-accidentals, ending in E.  So the A# would change to E, I think.  Let me go try that...IT WORKS!!!!

Modes ROCK.

I wonder if mom would let me take the piano when I move?  Though it might be cheaper/certainly easier to just get a cheap keyboard...

Lyres versus harps, a draft pile of data

I have a new-to-me harp - it isn't anything fantastic, but I'm learning a lot with it, and I love the way harp sounds.  Pennsic offered several wonderful opportunities for playing harp, and I got to jam with wonderful musicians, and see other harpists play much better than I.

While at Pennsic, I saw a listing for an Anglo-Saxon lyrebuilding class - which was a presentation of how the Sutton Hoo and Trossingen lyres might be made with power tools.  But now of course I want one.  (I also now want a bodhran, after having been shown the basic strokes by Marion of Heatherdale, above, but that's a drum, and we're on strings today.)

So here's a collection of resources for lyres, and for early harps - and it turns out that both were around in Migration Period Britain.  Like many musical instruments (recorders/flutes, anyone?) variants seem to have developed in parallel.  That's one of the things I love about music - there's room for everyone, if they're managed right.

There's a Yahoo! group for Anglo-Saxon lyres, wherein I learned that there's a fair bit of controversy about what is meant in old tales, a lyre or a harp:

The lyre and the triangular harp are two distinct instruments with two distinct developments and histories. Both of them are, of course, very ancient. Both were probably used in biblical times. The Greeks had both. As I said before, the triangular harp appears on Pictish stone crosses in what is now eastern Scotland long before it appears in Ireland. On the other hand, to my current knowledge anyway, no lyre-type instruments have been found on Pictish stone carvings. The leading harp historians agree that the harp probably was introduced to Ireland through Scotland. It is extremely unlikely that the triangular harp developed from the lyre in Ireland. (Nancy Thym)

(Regarding Beowulf) 8th century is when the story was written down and it is certainly much earlier. I personally am completely convinced that the instrument in these stories is a lyre and that the people we now term "Celts" played the lyre and not the triangular frame harp. But my friend Ann Heymann's arguments for the instrument in the story of Dagda's cruit being a triangular frame harp are pretty convincing too! But no matter whether it was a harp or a lyre, it was indeed, as you say, a stringed instrument. Like so many other "Celtic legends" the story of Dagda shows how revered the music of stringed instruments was in Ireland at that time. The "three strains of music" also appear again and again in the Irish stories. Irish harpers were expected to be able to play these three different strains. We now tend to think they are terms for different modes. Interestingly though, the Norse sagas mention many more types of music or modes. (Nancy Thym)

and more...

Yes, you mean the story of Dagda, who is considered to be a sort of god (sun god) or a first ancestor type, sort of the equivalent of Apollo, who also played the lyre. The instrument in the original story is called a "cruit", We don't know what a "cruit" was at that time. The word later came to be used for a triangular harp. Dagda's cruit has been taken prisoner by the Formorians, so Dagda with three other "gods", goes to rescue it. It is hanging on the wall of the Formorian eating hall. Dagda calls for it and in the process describes it in detail as "oak of three woods" (don't have all my articles on this in front of me, so don't quote me exactly on this!) and "4-angled". When he calls it, it jumps off the wall, killing nine Formorians on its way to him. Then he plays the three strains of music, goltraigh, gentraigh, and suantraigh, which cause the listeners to weep, laugh, and sleep in turn. When they are all asleep, Dagda takes his cruit and he and his companions escape. This story is from "The Battle of Mag Tured (or Moytura) from around the 8th century.

There have been various interpretations of the description of the instrument in this story. "4-angled" could mean the frame of a lyre, but it could also mean the 4-sided square box of a harp. "Oak of three woods" could be the three sides of a frame harp, or it could be soundbox, arms and yoke of a lyre. I have been wrestling with this description for many, many years.

There are depictions of triangular harps in Scotland from about the 8th century on. In Ireland they appear later, around the beginning of the 12th century. The instruments depicted on Irish stone crosses are in my opinion definitely types of lyres. In some you can even clearly see the bridge.

Nancy Thym

Ann Heyman

What does a lyre sound like?  Well, YouTube solves that question...

Germanic Lyre strummed, charming.

NW European Lyre, strummed aggressively.  I don't think this soothed anybody's nerves.  Also, I don't think this guy can generalize from his hand size to mine.

In the comments on this video from the incredibly talented Michael King (a maker of lyres and other stringed instruments):

Nylon strings are usually pretty stable tuning wise, even with wooden friction pegs, I tend to use zither pins for my student lyres as this combination is completely stable giving the player more time to focus on playing. (Nylgut and flourocarbon strings sound much much better than plain nylon BTW)
In the USA the pentatonic tuning is more popular, In The UK Diatonic, there is a Tenth century reference that gives a CDEFGA scale(diatonic) which works really well on the cologne lyre.

Here's another nice video from Michael King, showing the differences in materials and talking about tuning on three different lyres.

UPDATE (8/27/09)

More on 3-sided harps in early Britain:

It is not known where or how the fore-pillar or upright column that created a triangular-framed harp body came into use. The earliest drawings of triangular-frame harps appear in the Utrecht Psalter in the early 9th century. It was the appearance of the harp column possibly during the early Christian era that marked the advent of the modern harp. It solved two problems. It allowed the harp maker to increase string tension without distorting the instrument which also made the harp easier to tune as changing the tension of one string no longer affected the tension of all the other strings. Harps could then be built with more strings with higher tensions, better volume and tone. (Alison Vardy)

So my tent and harp match!

>My new harp book says the Romans brought an angle harp to Britain around 50 BC, and the Irish developed a frame harp by 400 AD. (Mel Bay Presents Exploring the Folk Harp, Janna McCall Geller and Mallory Geller)

"Leaving the Greek poet and coming nearer home, we find that so long ago as 160 B.c. Blegwryd ab Seisyllt, King of Britain, was credited with being a good musician and a performer on the harp to boot, so much so that tie was designated "the God of Music." Two historical instances are on record showing the strategic uses to which harpers in disguise were put. In the fifth century, when Colgrin was besieged in the city of York by King Arthur, Badulph assumed the character of a harper and thereby gained admission to the beleaguered city in order to consult his brother. King Alfred (a.d. 878) pursued similar tactics when he penetrated into the Danish camp to discover the counsels of his foes. And in the tenth century Anlaff, the Danish King of Northumberland, adopted the same subterfuge with King Athelstan. Dressed as a minstrel " he sang so sweetly before the royal tent, and at the same time touched his harp with such exquisite skill, that he was invited to enter, after which he was dismissed with a valuable present "! Very neatly done, King Anlaff. Thus it will be seen that the harp was looked upon as something more than a highly respectable instrument—indeed, 'twas an instrument fit for kings to set vibrating with their royal touch."

"The Venerable Bede gives some very interesting information in regard to it in these Islands during the seventh century. The harp was so generally played in Britain that at entertainments it was customary to hand it from one to another; and "the Venerable" mentions one such guest who, ashamed that he could not play, thereupon stole away lest he should unhappily display his incompetence."

"The Welsh people can lay claim to it as their national instrument from time immemorial. In such honour was the harp held in Wales that a slave might not practise it. To be able to play upon it was an indispensable qualification of a gentleman, and a harp could not be seized for debt. Moreover, a professor of this favourite instrument enjoyed many privileges: his lands were free and his person sacred! The musically-descended scion of these harpists of the Principality, one who has been placed at the head of Welsh music in these days, forms the subject of this biographical sketch. (John Thomas, "The Harp in Olden Times", The Musical Times, volume 40, 1899)

Music update - Modes

 I'm wading through the stacks of papers, and notes, and pictures, and pamphlets, and business cards...all acquired at Pennsic.

Kind of depressing having no money and not being able to drop $500 on the books I want now.  ILL is not quite useful enough.  Oh well, it's not like I've exhausted the books I have or finished all the projects I've got materials for.

Had lovely music geekage last night at ensemble.

I got there a bit early, and dumped a pile of questions on Master Octavio, which he seemed to enjoy.  Our practice then revolved around one of the topics of my questions, "modes".  Which are not "keys".  A mode, as I understand it, is a different pattern of scale, as measured in the order of whole steps and half steps from note to note.  

For example, a modern C scale goes:

C D E F G A B C, all natural (no sharps or flats).  So, looking at a piano, a whole step is one with a black key in the way, and a half has none.  So C major goes: whole (C to D)-whole (D to E)-half (E to F)-whole (F to G)-whole (G to A)-whole (A to B) - half (B to C).  WWHWWWH.

Dorian is a mode that can be described by a scale that begins and ends at D, and is composed of all naturals.  D E F G A B C D.  So that's WHWWWHW.  You'd think just by looking at the notes, that this should sound the same...it doesn't.  "O Come O Come Emmanuel", one of my favorite Advent hymns, and 12thc, is composed in the Dorian mode, ending in D.  (That's how they're described, apparently, not as "Key of D" - because that would have sharps, and be modern scale, and go WWHWWWH.)

Apparently there's a bunch of these modes, and they have interesting names.  E natural scale describes Frigian, G: Mixalydian.  B describes Lochrian, "the devil's mode."  Ooooh.  I want to learn what goes with where and who.

We all had some fun identifying modes out of a hymnal, and Octavio says he'll have a handout and more about modes for us next week.  In the meantime, I need to spend more time practicing recorder for Alle Psallite Cum Luya (a very pretty round), La Tricotea sa Martin, Pase el Agua, and Cantiga de Santa Maria no. 166.  I'm very close to being able to really hold down my soprano part for all of these, and thank goodness the damn cough has abated enough to sing a bit.

And my recorder fingerings have finally progressed to the point I only picked up the modern flute for the movie version of Non Nobis Domine, yay - I like how the bright metal sound enables my descant to cut through all the low strong voices.  But the recorder would be easier to pack and not as cold to play at night in March.  :D

So apparently I have more of a voice than I thought...

I had a BLAST at armoring night on Tuesday.  One of those "SCAdians are the Best People" experiences.

First, Jac took my empty plate away and put a sword in my hand.  Then when I declared that arm numb, she moved it to the other hand.  I like whacking a pell.

Then I went inside and danced with baby Brooke (8 mos.) to the salsa music for a while - Brooke likes to dance in front of the mirror.  The cook noticed that "hey, you've got rhythm"...and then I had salsa dancing lessons in the kitchen.

Finally Bastion got out his guitar, and I was warbling descants to Brooke in the background.  "Hey, you've got a nice voice, sing something."  "Uh..."  I have always been an instrumentalist (piano for a limited time, then a lot of flute) so thinking of songs, and then doing more than carrying a tune in a bucket are new skills for me.  I couldn't even come up with any "girly" songs.

They all ganged up on me; I got breathing lessons, lessons about "push through"; even Gunnar pegged a song from King Arthur for me, and he's right on pitch - great choice.   I wish it was more than a fragment in the movie, but perhaps we can flesh it out.

 It goes:

Land of bear and land of eagle
Land that gave us birth and blessing
Land that called us ever homewards
We will go home across the mountains
We will go home
We will go home
We will go home across the mountains
We will go home, singing our song
We will go home...
Hear our singing
Hear our longing
We will go home across the mountain
We will go home
We will go home...

I have Homework to find "more songs that I like to sing"...which is a Project, because I haven't listened to nearly enough.  I'm interested in both historical and modern songs, and my voice seems to be a mezzo, though part of my homework is to concentrate on the lower end of the range.  This is to avoid one of my 'cheats' - to bounce up into falsetto.

I know I want "La Llorona" (Lila Downs is good), Helen Reddy and Carole King are good places to look, though when I actually go through the lists, they're not quite what I hope.  "Candle On The Water" is my fav Reddy right now.  That "Always A Hero Comes Home" harp song in the CGI Beowulf is poignant, too.  I know most of "Mary Hamilton", though that might need a lower key to get me into lower range.  They wanted "Greensleeves", so I'll have to learn the words to that.

I'm really pleased about this...it's been a secret wish of mine to sing better, and I've also wanted to understand more about how to speak more loudly without exhausting my voicebox.

Casting Stuff

No, I'm not picking up another hobby.  (My categories are disappointing me though, perhaps I need a GGG one now?)

One of my talents seems to be picking up interesting people at events.  One such is a musician named Constanta Innocenti, whom I found at Saltare, and generously gifted me with one of her cast pilgrim's badges, a dancing porkchop inspired by the cantatas of Alfonso the Wise (X, I think). 

Well, in pointing out that Musicians Need Garb, Too, she's sent me a picture of her other goodies.  Here they are:

Which puts me in mind, Constanta - as much as I like your casting, you might help me more with a musical quest.  I'm wanting to learn guitar, but I also have a Bb wooden flute.  Can you put me in touch with appropriate parts for period music with which to make a fool of myself in future?  I'm afraid I seriously need guitar chords marked.  Thank you so much.

Alabama Folk School

Alabama Folk School

It's just starting up this fall, but boy howdy I hope it goes well.  And that I get to attend someday.

Go to that link and fill out their survey with what classes you'd like to see taught or teach yourself.

Non-minor songs?

Okay, I'm getting a little bored with All-Minor-All-The-Time, Ye Olde Medieval Sad Ballades, so I've been messing about with happier tunes.

"A Lusty Young Smith" is not minor, musically speaking.  It's certainly upbeat, and there's only three chords to it, so I can play it up to tempo.  Trouble is, it's not minor in a social sense either, and though it doesn't say anything inappropriate explicitly, relying on puns and innuendo, I have NO IDEA when I might play it in a place where other people might actually hear me.  At least without giggling.  We'll all have to accept that I probably blush like mad when practicing alone for the cats.  But it's fun!

"Molly Malone" is much more presentable, especially since I know a really good counterpoint harmony for it, and can't remember where I got the tune.  Probably Peter, Paul and Mary records, etched on my brain at a very young age.

I would really like to learn guitar chords for "Sumer Is A Cumin In", but I only have the piano part, and my ability to work out chords from a melody has apparently met its current limit.

Likewise some of the rounds, because it's the most fun to get a whole bunch of people making music together, and rounds are quick to learn for non-usual-singers.

Greensleeves

I've pretty well got this one down now, if the music is in front of me.  So far I can do:

Auld Lang Syne
Greensleeves
Mary Hamilton
Geordie
Scarborough Faire
The Trees They Grow High

I have quite a bit of music, thanks to Alicia and Elspeth, and my uncle lavished cd's on me that I haven't yet had a chance to listen to!  They are:

Shakespeare in Song: Charles Bruffy and Phoenix Bach Choir
Nutmeg and Ginger: Spicy Ballads from Shakespeare's London
Elizabeth's Music
The Lady and the Unicorn: John Renbourn

Sorry, I couldn't find an Amazon link for the Elizabeth's Music.  It's by Dorian Recordings.