What is the Sound of Medieval Song?

The concept of ‘historically informed performance’ thrives on the conviction that today’s musicians can find knowledge and instruction in the documentation which has survived from past musical practices.

'Beowulf' and the Performance of Medieval Epic

What kinds of witnesses have survived from the early Middle Ages which we might use to reconstruct a performance art that has been silent for a thousand years and more?  Are there sources of information to which we might turn in making such an attempt?

Imagining the Early Medieval Harp

One of the strangest aspects of performing a music we have decided to label "medieval" is that the quantity of iconographical information about instruments and the debates on performance practice are rarely matched by the quality of actual music-making.

Reflections on the modern performance of a medieval narrative

Hartmann von Aue's renown as a courtly storyteller spread throughout German-speaking lands in the late 12th century. Gregorius, his lengthy masterpiece of more than 4,000 verses, was much appreciated at aristocratic gatherings, possibly already in the late 1180's.

What is a ‘Gothic’ acoustic?

Sacred spaces do not resonate alone — they respond to the voices within them, and in the Middle Ages these would have been both site-specific and varied. Each of these vocal configurations and registers resonates within a given space in a different way.

Reconstructing Medieval Instruments

Medieval depictions of harps are usually much better than depictions of elephants, since the artists saw many more harps than elephants and didn't need to rely on hearsay. But there are some astonishingly detailed depictions of harps, especially in the 13th and 14th centuries.

Between Music and Story-telling

I think we humans are hard-wired for storytelling. Such storytelling energy – using music as its motor – transcends mere information. That seemingly remote world of the human connection through stories is an important part of us all, and I have a great trust in its power and beauty.

Reflections on the Image of Musical Roots

We musicians have always been fascinated with the notion that we can trace our musical lineage back through time and find some actual roots or origins, something we might even consider to be close to the music of 'our ancestors'.