a little lecture
During this first half of the 1st millennium secular songs and dances are being suppressed in official reports, historiography and music theory. The power of the Catholic church and the popes had just begun to spread, the ideal of “Universitas Christiania” – a Christian world order – was to be realized. Means to reach this goal contained e. g. the unification of the liturgy in church services (Gregorian). Folk songs were banished, polished or modified in a way that no worldly origin whatsoever – a little dance maybe – could be discovered immediately. At least they tried. One reason why it didn’t work out certainly was the fact that even kings and other faithful Catholics didn’t want to abstain from dancing in their leisure time.
With the Islam at the european gates around 800, new cultural influences were intruding into Europe in the following centuries. The Muslims brought along novel instruments; the bagpipes and the shawm for example originate from the orient, the lute descends from the Arabian “al Ud”, and also the trombone developed from the Arabian buisine. While the popes were striving to destroy the heathen-antique ideas (Celtic culture), the Arabs had preserved many old scripts from ancient Greece, which were once again spread around the turn of the millennium.
Early medieval music was unisonous. With profane instruments like the bagpipes or the hurdy-gurdy the so-called Bordun (drone) music became popular. I. e. every melody is accompanied by a deep bass tone – the Bordun. Later there were two constant tones – two Borduns – like it is e. g. the case with our bagpipes. This is the earliest form of concerted music, and, starting in the 12th century, this technique was adopted from the minstrels’ music into the liturgical music as well, but was refined there for e. g. the organum. The fact that concerted music was widely spread in worldly melodies is also proven by a song by Walter von der Vogelweide. In this song he asks to be accompanied “the old way”, with thirds. In these times the third was still regarded a disharmonious interval, a dissonance, which was to be avoided… in folk music it was common practice.
Because medieval music theory was dominated by ecclesiastics, it is often difficult to determine from the existent manuscripts exactly how the secular (popular) music of the day sounded. But a number of things are known for certain. For example, the profane music of the day was often accompanied by a droning bass tone similar to that generated by the bourdon stop on an organ, which is provided in Corvus Corax's case by the drones on their bagpipes. An inkling as to the harmonies used is found in a song by Walter von der Vogelweide, in which he calls for the song to be played "the old way", meaning harmonising with thirds. At the time, the third was considered an awkward, ugly interval by the sacred musician — like the tritone, or diabolus in musica — but it was a common interval in folk music.
Matters are further complicated by the fact that each minstrel would add his personal interpretation to a piece, and that recorded (i.e. written) versions may differ depending on who did the transcribing, and where. Medieval popular music was played more from the heart than the brain.The medieval minstrels picked up melodies on their journeys and altered them, in doing so they might have forgotten certain passages or changed them deliberately – for example to fit the melody of a French song to German lyrics – or the scribes simply made mistakes, which also happened quite often when copying literature, etc. Music transcription isn't done or hasnt survived, the oldest known is the Saltarello (5mb) a lively, merry dance first mentioned in Naples during the 13th century. The music survives, but no early instructions for the actual dance are known. It was played in a fast triple meter and is named for its peculiar leaping step, after the Italian verb saltare ("to jump"), it enjoyed great popularity in the courts of medieval Europe.
On medievil instruments, a teaser
The origins of the bagpipe can be traced back to the most ancient civilizations. The bagpipe probably originated as a rustic instrument in many cultures because a herdsman had the necessary materials at hand: a goat or sheep skin and a reed pipe. The instrument is mentioned in the Bible, and historians believe that it originated in Sumaria. Through Celtic migration it was introduced to Persia and India, and subsequently to Greece and Rome. Find out more on sights and sounds of medievil instruments here.
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Qntal -III, Tristan Und Isolde (03 , 70 min ^ 150mb)
In 1991, Michael Popp and Ernst Horn developed the concept of combining medieval melodies and songs with electronic music. As singer they chose Syrah, alias Sigrid Hausen, who is one of the leading interpreters of medieval music. She had the courage as well as the power for musical border crossing . Thus the trio was founded but without a name yet. Shortly after Syrah joined the band, she dreamt of letters written on the wall reading QNTAL, a word that does not exist in any language, and therefore being perfect for a kind of music that did not exist so far either.
Soon afterwards, the first song was published: "Por mau tens" a song from troubadour Thibaut of Navarra in a new arrangement, it didn't rock the boat , bBut in 1992 time was ripe: until then Syrah had searched for more texts and tunes, one song or the other was borrowed from the repertoire of Estampie, composed and arranged by Michael Popp and Ernst Horn and, finally, in autumn the album QNTAL was released without big advertisement or promotion. It was more of a secondary project to the musicians and thus it came as a great surprise that the album was a hit in the wave-scene. The band's lyrics are primarily drawn from historical sources. Throughout their first three albums, lyrics were primarily in Latin, medieval German, and a few other European tongues. On Qntal IV, the band added a few songs in English to their body of work
In 1995, when the second CD was finished and Deine Lakaien were about to go on tour (Ernst Horn and Michael Popp were members of this band), the idea of a double concert was born. QNTAL as first act with smooth transition to Deine Lakaien. There were two tours held in this constellation in 1996 with overwhelming success. The Palestine Song became QNTAL II s hit. Still, there was no direct follow-up to this success and as Ernst Horn wanted to primarily care for the progress of Deine Lakaien, he left the Qntal.
Replacement was found in the Berlin musician and producer Phillip Groth. On Pentecost 2002, QNTAL made its first appearance since 1996 during a Wave-Gothic Meeting. Although the concert took place on the outskirts of the festival area and Syrahs vocal chords suffered from a cold, the great number of the audience and its reaction showed how close this band was the their hearts. In 2003 Qntal release Tristan und Isolde with their new keyboardplayer Philipp Groth and create an exiting mix of Ambient, Pop and World Music. Less experimental as their first two albums, yet a varied and a convincing album. 2005 saw the release of QNTAL IV - Ozymandias, followed by QNTAL V - Silver Swan (2006) and their first US tour in 2007, meanwhile QNTAL VI - Translucida (2008) has hit the shelves.
The story of Tristan and Isolde is a quintessential romance of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Several versions of the story exist, the earliest dating to the middle of the 12th century. Gottfried's version, part of the "courtly" branch of the legend, had a huge influence on later German literature. Richard Wagner's wrote a famous opera (1859) on the story , which turned out to become profoundly influential amongst Western classical composers.
1 - Owi, Tristan (5:55)
2 - Name Der Rose (5:28)
3 - Maiden In The Mor (6:33)
4 - Lamento De Tristano (1:38)
5 - Am Morgen Fruo (4:52)
6 - Lasse (8:03)
7 - Ecce Gratum (5:11)
8 - Spiegelglas (7:39)
9 - Maravillosos (4:02)
10 - Entre Moi Et Mon Amin (7:20)
11 - Gottinne Minne (2:24)
12 - Vedes Amigo (6:40)
13 - Verirret (5:03)
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Sonic Seducer (31) Middleages Special (03 ^ 99mb)
This came as a second freebie cd of a goth EBM . industrial magazine, meanwhile they broadened horizon somewhat but still alternative, i bought it for several years, until my eyes refused all that small print, ok i have reading glasses now. Nevermind an excellent magazine with monthly bon usdisc and sometimes two, like this Mittelalter (medievil) special. And a stunning one it is, i think its the best i have, some singing in german, mostly strong instrumental work. In fact its a perfect showcase from the bands you find here and more then likely have never heard of, most excellent..dude . A few moths later after the overwhelming positive respons they released a Medievil Special II ..that's for next week.
For those that read German, i point you to their excellent website, the subscription cost is remarkably low for what you get each month, check it out. Sonic Seducer
01 - D'Arcadia - Théatre Du Satan (Evocut Version) (4:40)
02 - Faun - Punagra (6:16)
03 - Wolfenmond - O Virgo Splendens (4:41)
04 - Wildwuchs - Schlemmerorden (4:39)
05 - Cocolorus Diaboli - Danca Taverna (3:21)
06 - Furunkulus - Drachenreiter (4:38)
07 - Vivus Temporis - Wolfstanz (4:40)
08 - Stille Volk - La Meneuse D'Ours (5:51)
09 - Van Langen & Des Teufels Lockvögel - Ouwe (4:58)
10 - Letzte Instanz - Spurlos (4:35)
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All downloads are in * ogg-7 (224k) or ^ ogg-9(320k), artwork is included , if in need get the nifty ogg encoder/decoder here !
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You'll find the last bestsharing re- ups in comments..not, it dont work today so then i'll post them here
Super Furry Animals - Love Kraft
Shamen - Axis Mundi
Ure, Midge - If I Was
Blue Nile - A Walk Across the Rooftops
Butti 49 - Habit
Kurenniemi, Erkki - Äänityksiä
Rasmus- Hide from the Sun
DK7 - Disarmed
Bliss - Quiet letters
Diefenbach - Set & Drift
Tanzwut - Labyrinth der Sinne
The different Model
Kettel - Cenny Crush
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