|
|
And now for something really different (or is it?)
This section grew out of a series of discussions and tutorials on Medieval Polyphony (chords or sonorities) posted by Margo Schulter at the Early Music Usenet newsgroup rec.music.early, January through March of 2004. Margo has been kind enough to allow me to repost her essays here (which I had augmented with a set of accompanying fretboard entabulations, for four course gittern or lute tuned in straight 4ths, during the course of the original thread).
When I tabled the idea of making these pages and hosting them on my web site, I assured Margo I’d make it clear that this collaboration is not necessarily an endorsement of either me or The Cipher, it’s simply a way of making more and other kinds of music education available to a wider audience (and of this later motive Margo is enthusiastically dedicated generally). Margo says she prefers to apply GNU Copyleft to these works, i.e. “copying and distribution are freely permitted, as long as people give the source, and also note any modifications made”. Again, my thanks to Margo Schulter, first for contributing to my own education, and then for allowing me to share these pages with you.
The initial title of Margo’s Usenet thread (hence the tutorials discussed here) was Medieval Sonorities and Instruments. Within that thread, Margo then published a multi-part essay titled:
Medieval Polyphonic Patterns Part I January 08, 2004
Medieval Polyphonic Patterns Part IIA January 19, 2004
Medieval Polyphonic Patterns Part IIB January 19, 2004
For those of you who just want to jump to the fretboard illustrations to see (and hear) where this is heading and perhaps motivate you to read through some of this you can root through the original directory of images (the fretboard illustrations of the medieval chords and progressions covered in these articles).
Note; I had intended to insert within these articles, links to drawings, comments, and bits of conversation, questions, and further experimentations, that occured within the original Usenet thread. But as yet, that hasn’t happened -- I never had the time. You’ll have to see the original articles, and in their original context, via Google Groups archives or some similar Usenet archive of the Newsgroup rec.music.early. In any event, for now, you will have to root around the directory of loose images linked to just above. So please forgive me, Margo and readers, the unfinished state of this current presentation or reproduction.
Margo has other pertinent articles housed at Todd McComb’s web site, medieval.org. Here's a few of them:
http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/harmony/13c.html
http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/harmony/triad.html
http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/harmony/chords.html
Some of the fingering stretches are challenging. I used a 3/4 scale Baby Taylor guitar (lower 4 strings only) to test and play these chords and progressions. The imagined original medieval-period instrument would have been a short-scale 4 string or course fretted string instrument of the early guitar or lute family, e.g. guitarra latina, citole, lute, gittern. The tuning used for the fretboard illustrations is all 4ths and (for convenience) tuned to EADG, just like the four lowest strings of a modern guitar. Understand, there is still debate whether or not chords were actually played on such an instrument during this period (circa 1260 AD) to accompany song making or improvise accompaniment, etc. That whole contentious topic (were chords used in medieval music generally, and specifically were chords played on guitar-like instruments in medieval Europe) was actually what prompted this article and essays. If nothing else these articles establish unequivocally that chords were indeed used in medieval music. The fact that lute and guitar-like instruments existed during this period is taken for granted because they can be seen in the illuminations of The Cantigas de Santa Maria, the Holly Grail of medieval music, commissioned in the mid 1200s by Alphanso X, king of Spain.
Index of articles:
Main page (where you are now)
Medieval Sonorities and Instruments, some of the content preceding the main essays (not done)
|
|
