People playing rocks

Long, long ago (late 1980s), in a mythical land (northern California) I was a part of a group called the SCA. Those letters stand for the Society for Creative Anachronism. The SCA is an international order that began in Berkeley CA in 1966 with a bunch of friends having a party. It has grown massively since then. Members recreate the Middle Ages, as those years should have been. Meaning that people can still wear their glasses, and are clean, among a lot of other points. Being in the organization was a lot of fun, and I look back on my years with them with fondness. 

If it was so much fun, why am I speaking of the organization in the past tense? We continued to be in the SCA while living in Germany. Events there were held in actual castles and other buildings that had been around in the actual Middle Ages. After that, coming back to the States, and attending events on a college campus seemed to lack luster. And it can take up a lot of your time, and my days were quite full with performing and teaching.

So, why am I talking about it now? Well, I had a choir in CA that I founded, that was a part of the local SCA group. We were called (depending on who you asked, and what kind of mood they were in) the Champclaire Singers, The Mongrel Horde, or DeathTongue. We won awards within the regional SCA for our songs. And our minstrelsy fire pit became the stuff of legends. One of our members fabricated a safe fire pit out of an abandoned washing machine tub. I made gallons of wassail to serve to our gathering. I played the guitar, a friend played the autoharp, and another played recorder, and we all sang. People would come to our campsite and sit and play and sing until late into the night. It was a blast. 

But, as I said, that was long ago. I put up what medieval music I had, and focused on operatic repertoire. 

As a voice teacher, I find myself learning many different styles of music. I've been introduced to Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, One Direction and Pink. I've learned more about Country music than I ever thought I'd need. I've delved into the rich musical cultures of India and the Orient. And, now, I am returning to the music of the Middle Ages. (The things we do for our students!) I am deep into the different modes - Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian,  Lydian, Mixolydian, Aolian, and Locrian. What on earth am I talking about? Modes are different scales. We tend to think in just major and minor modes; think about the song Doe a Deer, from "The Sound of Music". Maria and the kids are singing a major scale. But, there are a lot of other types of scales, we just don't use them as often. In the Middle Ages they were more popular. 

A lot of the music from that era we still remember. We just finished listening to Christmas music, but that does give us some medieval music that remains popular. The hymn O Come, O Come Emmanuel probably dates from somewhere between the 8th and 12th Centuries. That's quite a time span, but records from then are really scratchy and hard to listen to. I was going to just give you this link, but this is so beautiful that you get the video. There's not much to look at, but the choir is amazing. It's worth a listen.

Another Christmas carol that comes from this era is Deck the Halls.It probably dates to the 16th Century, but some parts may be older. Why can't we be sure about these dates? Well, music back then wasn't written the way we write it now. This is an example of early notation.  It's quite lovely, but somewhat difficult to read. (I actually sort of know how to read this, but it would take a little work.) 

Of course, the music notation was only part of the problem. Not many people could read at all. So, if you don't know how to read the music or the words, what is a poor minstrel to do? They would sing the songs from memory. Have you ever played that game sometimes called Telephone? In this game you whisper a message to one player, who then whispers it to someone else, who then whispers it . . . you get the idea. By the end of the line, the message has usually morphed into something very different from the original. So way back when, you have professional musicians traveling about, performing songs that they've heard along their ways. Do you think they performed them exactly the same way that they'd heard? Of course not! They forgot bits, added bits from other songs, or just sang nonsense lyrics along the lines of Fa la la la la, or Hey, nonny nonny. There were almost as many different ways to sing these songs as there were people singing them. And eventually some poor person was stuck with the job of notating these songs so that the Victorians could sing them. 

The singing style then was a bit different than now, too. Vibrato was frowned upon. We like a bit of vibrato, it adds warmth to the tone. Too much is bad, it can make it hard to tell what note someone is singing. But, some is nice, and in operatic singing, it is a requirement. So, going back to no vibrato is difficult for me, but works for the student I'm doing this research for. (And I'm looking into costume fabrication, too!)

In looking for a good video to leave you with, I remembered the group called SAVAE (San Antonio Vocal Arts Ensemble). I got to see them perform a few years ago and loved them. This particular song is from the right period, and contains a great many of the structures of the music from the Middle Ages. The singing is right, and the sound is amazing. But it's from Central America and combines Spanish and Native American concepts and instruments. I kind of doubt that any troubadours played rocks. (Yes, he really is playing rocks!) 

According to one of the Wikipedia articles I was reading, one of the newer songs that best reflects the medieval styles is House of the Rising Sun. Which, if you think about it, is just another type of rock music.