The thread on recorders mentioned them being good for ‘early music’ and whistles for ‘irish trad.’.
By early music, do you mean from the medieval period?
If so/not, does anyone know where I can find medieval whistle music on the net? Real stuff, not SCA.
(already got greensleeves although some would argue for hours that it is not medieval but early renaissance…)
I have always been into medieval history, and have great plans of becomming a medieval clothing historian. I would love to apply this new obsession to my medieval obsession!
Recorders were certainly popular in the Baroque period. The Baltimore Consort did an album (The Mad Buckgoat) with music from 17th-18th century Ireland on which Chris Norman played some fantastic whistle (Thin Weasel, btw). They had several sources, but the most tunes were from a 1724 collection by John and William Neal. It was last published by the Folk Music Society of Ireland in 1987. I have searched far and wide but not found a copy. If anyone in the group has one, PLEASE let me know and maybe we can work out some copying or something.
In music history classes, Early Music usually refers to anything earlier than the classical period (I’m no good at dates, but that’s Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, et al). Much of the music that is now being recorded as early music is from the Baroque period, since there was a great deal of music written down at that time. Lots of lovely music is still being discovered in music libraries in Europe. One of the aspects of this music that makes it fun and challenging is the mystery of it - we have to make an educated guess at how it should really sound, since it wasn’t played for a long time and, of course, there were no recordings. Many of the instruments have changed and developed over time, or fallen out of use. It has been a source of fascination to musicologists and amateur enthousiasts, speculating on the sound produced by instruments that we have only drawings of.
When most people talk about “early music,” they are talking Rennaissance and early Baroque, although Medieval certainly fits here too. It’s just that we don’t have a lot of anything except sacred music from the Middle Ages–recording secular and folk music by writing it down was at the time forbidden. You don’t want to know what they did to you back then if you did forbidden things, so there’s just not much left.
Whistle would work for some of the simpler early music, but you’d need a whistle with keys to play anything else. Recorder fits well here simply because it is a fully chromatic instrument. If you could get a 6-key whistle, it would work just as well.
Henry VIII didn’t write Greensleeves, but he may have been the first to write it down, in his massive “Musica Speculativa” which was a large collection of…you guessed it…secular music. If you have read about his break with Catholicism, you no doubt understand why this would appeal to old Henry.
Of course Henry VIII is best remember now his famous method of “divorcing” his many brides (insurance capitates, but old Henry decapitated). But for those of you with a strong dislike of recorders, you may be pleased to note that Henry VIII was a recorder player of some note, and left behind after his death a large collection of instruments, including 5 bagpipes, 78 flutes, 78 recorders, and a virginal.
(No bad jokes about the virginal please!)
Best wishes to all, and my fondest wish that all of you
A book called Medieval Instrumental Dances is published by Indiana University Press. It was written by Timothy J. McGee and published in 1989. I don’t really have any idea how much music in it would be suitable for whistle. Probably a lot would fit the whistle or could be made to fit. Another medienal book has been self-published by Al Cofrin. It’s called Medieval Songs and Dances. Some of the Cantigas have nice melodies and could be played on whistle. Cofrin also has a Renaissance book but I don’t know much about it. The email given in the book is Avatar1@flash.net. He has a CD with a band called Instanpitta (I think). You could probably find him by a search since he has a web site.
I once bought a reedpipe. It’s one octave. I didn’t know where I’d get and appropriate music for it so I started to write my own. Of course, it’s not the real stuff, but that didn’t bother me a lot. Alas, the reedpipe is murder to play. I’ll give another go as soon as it gets cool enough to close all the windows in the house. Anyway, I would just listen to a recording of early music to get into the mood and then noodle around on a whistle or something until I got something I thought sound medievalish and write it down. As Daniel Thonon of Ad Vielle Que Pourra used to say in his wry style and French accent. “We play traditional French music but we write it all ourselves because we don’t trust anybody.”
Steve
[ This Message was edited by: SteveK on 2002-09-21 11:41 ]
[ This Message was edited by: SteveK on 2002-09-21 11:42 ]
although some would argue for hours that it is not medieval but early renaissance…)