The Blog Devoted to All Things Medieval; Weapons, Armor, Knights, Castles, Books and More ———–Never Give a Sword to a Man who can’t Dance - Old Celtic Saying
Medieval Music is a bit misunderstood. Often times people think of classical music as Medieval music - which isn’t true. Classical Music has its roots in the Renaissance and for the most part our tradition of classical music is no more than 300 years old.
Medieval music very much comes from the real medieval period which started around when Rome fell (shortly before 500 AD), and ended around 1400 when the Renaissance began. This beginning of the Renaissance period marks the ending of the Medieval Period and so it does with the music too.
And regrettably we don’t have a real lot of musical materials from the Medieval period because writing, copying, and creating manuscripts was extraordinarily expensive and time consuming. The church is the only solid source of the materials that we have and of course the music is all religous in its intent.
What we do know of the music of the period was that there were two major types of music: the music of the commoner (secular) or what we might consider minstrel music and the music of the church. The secular music was often in the form of poems sung to the accompaniment of an instrument such as the flute, pan flute or lute. And the music of the church was often in the form of a prayer, chant, or meditation and often just solo or multiple voices. The most popular of these musical forms is probably the Gregorian Chant which is still observed and used in monasteries to this day. It has even found a measure of popular acclaim and Chant cd’s sell quite well.
If you want to know a bit more about Medieval Music or want to try listening to some cd’s I have put together some information about it on my medieval website. You can listen to a Gregorian Chant I have selected for you and it includes music to play at a medieval feast, and a cd by the brilliant Hildegard von Bingen who was a genius that was hundreds of years ahead of her time.
Medieval Music is a bit misunderstood. Often times people think of classical music as Medieval music - which isn’t true. Classical Music has its roots in the Renaissance and for the most part our tradition of classical music is no more than 300 years old.
Medieval music very much comes from the real medieval period which started around when rome fell (shortly before 500 AD) and around 1400 when the Renaissance began. This beginning of the Renaissance period marks the ending of the Medieval Period and so it does with the music too.
And regrettably we don’t have a real lot of musical materials from the Medieval period because writing, copying, and creating manuscripts was extraordinarily expensive and time consuming. The church is the only solid source of the materials that we have and of course the music is all religous in its intent.
What we do know of the music of the period was that there were two major types of music: the music of the commoner (secular) or what we might consider minstrel music and the music of the church.
The secular music was often in the form of poems sung to the accompaniment of an instrument such as the flute, pan flute or lute. And the music of the church was often in the form of a prayer, chant, or meditation and often just solo or multiple voices. The most popular of these musical forms is probably the Gregorian Chant which is still observed and used in monasteries to this day. It has even found a measure of popular acclaim and Chant cd’s sell quite well.
If you want to know a bit more about Medieval Music or want to try listening to some cd’s I have put together some information about it on my medieval website. It includes music to play at a medieval feast and a cd by the brilliant Hildegard von Bingen who was a genius that was hundreds of years ahead of her time.
Medieval Music is hundreds of years old but there is something about it that still strikes a chord.
Here is a hilarious medieval video. It shows us that even in the middle ages people are still people and they still needed tech support back then.
How difficult was it to make the transition from scrolls to books?
