Mediaeval Music

[mrbouffant]

I have to play a corporate gig in a couple of weeks - because of the venue, they wanted a mixture of Christmas and 'Mediaeval' music.

I guess I know what they mean - they want Hollywood-style Mediaeval music, but thinking about it some more, I would be keen to give them some of the real thing.

Any recommendations?

 

Ta

[En Chamade]

I have to play a corporate gig in a couple of weeks - because of the venue, they wanted a mixture of Christmas and 'Mediaeval' music.

I guess I know what they mean - they want Hollywood-style Mediaeval music, but thinking about it some more, I would be keen to give them some of the real thing.

Any recommendations?

 

Ta

 

Well it might not be Mediaeval, but a selection from Old English Organ Music should suffice.

 

 

 

EC

[cornetdeschats]

Lots of nice pieces therein, although come to think of it, there is, surely, absolutely no way any of them could be played on an instrument such as the one used for the cover illustration ...

[Vox Humana]

If you mean genuinely pre-Renaissance music, I'm not sure there is much. Organ music (if that's what you're after) was mainly an improvised art. I think I heard that some doubt has been expressed even as to whether the Robertsbridge Codex pieces are for keyboard. The Faenza Codex has certainly been questioned in this respect. There's the odd piece from the Buxheimer Orgelbuch and similar collections that you might slip into a programme, but they will be far from what the punters are expecting.

 

If you want something attractive yet not too far removed from the medieval spirit, perhaps your best bet is to track down a copy of Schott's Anthology of Early Keyboard Music, vol.1: Ten Pieces by Hugh Aston and Others. This has some quite attractive, if short, dances in it (including My Lady Carey's Dump) as well Aston's Hornpipe. This publication is quite old, but serviceable (but watch out for the passage in a Galliard where the right hand needs to be a third lower; there are more up-to-date editions of all these pieces in Musica Britannica vol.66). If you can lay your hands on library editions, there are some attractive keyboard pieces/arrangements in The Mulliner Book and some (not necessarily keyboard, but in short score) in this.

[mrbouffant]

Thanks All. Vox: I found this (http://icking-music-archive.org/ByComposer/B.M.R.App.58.php) - which I guess is pretty much what is in the Schott volume?...

[Vox Humana]

Yes, that's them. In the first Galliard bars 17 to 27 ought to be a third lower (and the bass D in bars 21 and 25 needs to be a C).

[Guest Cynic]

I have to play a corporate gig in a couple of weeks - because of the venue, they wanted a mixture of Christmas and 'Mediaeval' music.

I guess I know what they mean - they want Hollywood-style Mediaeval music, but thinking about it some more, I would be keen to give them some of the real thing.

Any recommendations?

 

Ta

 

 

I don't know if you could get your hands on the Buxheimer Orgelbuch, re-published by Peters/Hinrichsen in about 1970 in two slim volumes. While not being truly as early as the period you describe, everything there sounds thoroughly out-of-date! Not particularly difficult either.

[innate]

I'd echo the earlier suggestions of the Robertsbridge Codex—there's a funky Estampie in the OUP Anthology of Mediaeval Music—and the Buxheimer Organbook; I'd also add the Mulliner Book (some good bits of Tallis) and the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book (not mediaeval in any useful sense of the word but I'm sure La Volta on fractional reed alternating with a bright plenum will fit the bill).

[Vox Humana]

I don't know if you could get your hands on the Buxheimer Orgelbuch, re-published by Peters/Hinrichsen in about 1970 in two slim volumes. While not being truly as early as the period you describe, everything there sounds thoroughly out-of-date! Not particularly difficult either.

An old edition of the whole Buxheim Organ Book is at IMSLP here, though the reproduction quality isn't great.