Message-Id: <199810012036.QAA07409@xkey.com>
Subject: Re: minstrel: Re: minstrel- Bardic, Perio
To: cab@spaustin.zilker.net (CAB)
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1998 16:36:37 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Greg Lindahl" <lindahl@pbm.com>
Cc: minstrel@pbm.com
In-Reply-To: <n1304868753.78478@spaustin.zilker.net> from "CAB" at Oct 1, 98 02:51:19 pm
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> You both "hint" that it is not hard to find/learn period pieces.  I
> don't know any bards who have period music to teach me.
> 
> Where do I look for cool, nifty period music???? 

You make an _excellent_ point --  the people who like researching should
get together with the folks who like using research.

My webpages have a lot of info about period songs. But I would be the first
to admit that I haven't gotten all the way to something that someone who
learns by ear can use.

One thing to do is to provide better discographies of commercial
CDs. That would be a good addition to my ballads stuff, and my
Ravenscroft stuff. There is a great discography of recordings of the
Cantigas de Santa Maria that I have a link to. The Early Music FAQ has
a great discography, although you'll have to figure out what is solo
music and what is not. Best would be a "discography of solo music".

Another thing would be to provide CDs of people singing: the modern
version of a learning tape. If anyone has a tape of period stuff, I
know a guy who's got the stuff to turn it into a CD, which we can sell
at cost ($3 per CD, 70-whatever minutes).

Another thing we could do would be to put together a songbook of
pre-1600 solo music, which would basically be a compilation of
singable stuff, preferably both sheet music and a recording, with
links to the documentation. One such project already under way is the
"Cantaria" website, which is linked off the Minstrel webpage. It has a
relatively small number of pre-1600 tunes, and has downloadable
recordings, but no sheet music and scant documentation. It's certainly
The Right Idea, and I'd love to see more from its authors and from
other people.

I'm happy to do the background research if folks provide titles and/or
tapes. For example, I wrote Tibicien asking her for a list of songs
she uses during her strolling entertainment at Pennsic. Eogan
mentioned the title of a Welsh song he uses. In my ballads stuff, a
few titles such as Watkins Ale stand out as being really good. A bit
of work, and the answer to "OK, I want to sing period music, where is it?"
will be a good one: "Here it is, more practical information than you
could possibly learn!"

-- gb


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