The whole "Medieval" thing

[CHasR]

whenever you get into a French / Italian bagpipe groove, I guess. & after winter.
BTW, for the benefit of our European friends, the driving distance between Sean & I is about the same as travelling from Paris to Rome.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberti_bass

[Ciarameddaru]

Charlie if you make it to the plantation "Big House" let me know and we will have a trifecta convergence. It's like stepping back in time there. If you ask nicely Sean and his wife will dress in period clothing and speak in accents the whole weekend. It would be the first official Zampogna players of America gathering. We can play Medie- er Italian folk music together. Bring that ciaramella that was playing in tune with my DO Diesis 4 palmi!

[sean an piobaire]

OFF TOPIC REPLY TO IL ZAMPOGNARI................
Yes David and Charles, Illinois is centrally located when considering Kansas City and Philly
distances. David has been here TWICE already and I only went through K.C. ONCE on my way out to Illinois in 2007. My visit really got David going on his Ciarmedda which was an extremely important step to his later career as the foremost Zampogna Champion of the Stati Uniti della America !!!
Geez....maybe I can get Lionel Botari down here from Chicago.
That would be something that I've tried to do for 7 years now.
Any more comments for Chas "R"s "Medieval Things" ????
I have run out of steam on this topic myself.
More......... Later ?
Sean Folsom

[CHasR]

Any more comments for Chas "R"s "Medieval Things" ????
I have run out of steam on this topic myself.

Its a dead horse if most can agree that: (with exceptions) largely, the genre 'medieval' has descended entirely into a faux, kitschy, vaudevilleian impression of the real glories of actual western art music, prior to the plague, as it survives today in transcriptions & manuscript.

Sean, David: 4 NorthAmerican zampognari is HARDLY a quorum.

[sean an piobaire]

Ah Quorum Smorum Who needs to count anyway ?

[ Insert politics shmolitics here. - Mod ]

Happy Everything this Season Everybody !
Sean Folsom

[Yuri]

Charlie, kitch is in the eye of the beholder. Transcriptions have been around for as long as instruments have. Surely you are familiar with the countless intabulations of the countless motettes and masses, going back all the way to the very first known keyboard manuscript fragment, the Robertsbridge MS, which out of the 4 complete and 2 incomplete pieces that it has, sports exactly 2.5-2.5 transcriptions/dance pieces. I'm sure in its very own time there were those that listened to the organ rendition and shook their heads, decrying the result as kitchy. (more likely, as the snares of the devil, of course.)
Having said all this, I have to admit that I find it (the heavy metal medieval) rather thin, and yeah, kitchy. I much prefer the Robertsbridge transcriptions.

[ChristianRo]

I'd say the "medieval scene" isn't mainly music-driven. For me it's more of a soundtrack for the escapist or/and "dark" sisters and brothers, some of them into LARP or WoW. There's a close relation to some of the "Gothic" subscenes.That's where the Rectifier amps come into play, I guess.

Whether their musical brew draws from Medieval, Renaissance, Early Baroque, "Celtic" or even Oriental sources - most of the audience couldn't care less, as long as it hits the "mystic, dark, ancient, powerful etc..." buttons. In fact you find all these influences in the common "mittelalternativ" repertoire: The term "mittelalternativ" translates roughly as "medieval alternative" and was coined by Alexander Werner, collector of the "Codex Verus" - which is literally the "Real Book" of the Medieval scene in Germany (downloadable here: volynki.ru/files/codex_verus.pdf). In his introduction to the tunes he discusses the whole "Medieval" thing quite well, I think. A good read for those who speak German (dunno if an English version exists). Thus, the label "mittelalternativ" is used to consciously differentiate between this kind of music and an "informed" or academic approach.

For those listeners who are only into the fun or escapist part, the musical mish-mash at least is no pearls before swine. For those who want to dwell deeper, there are loads of treasures to be found. Horses for courses. I myself started my love for uilleann pipes with Mike Oldfield. I could have sticked to Prog/rock/pop music, but I decided to move along. On the musicians' side, I personally know both kinds: Metalheads who just like the added flavour of bagpipes and burnt flesh and musicians who are genuinely interested in the roots of the tunes while still enjoying a stagedive every now and then.

[Celtpastor]

I'd subscribe to that Point of View. Actually, since this "medievalternative"-Scene is working all through Europe - with some awfully racist Flavours in Eastern Europe, Nothern Italy and Northern France - in German Bagpipe-Forums, we call this Style "Acoustic Fetish Punk", since this explains much more, what it's about...
But there's Hope! Many of these "AFP"-people get interested in serious Bagpipes after some time, turning to French, Scottish, even Irish Pipes as soon as they understand more...