Da Weekend, Not
Apr. 22nd, 2022 07:22 amSo the plan was
In particular, for the Catholic University demo we were preparing a set presenting the four seasons through 14th-15th-century English music -- none of that French, German, Flemish, or Italian stuff. This is tricky because an awful lot of written music (and other written material) in England got burned in successive waves of violence and looting: the 1381 Peasants' Revolt, the Protestant Reformation, the Counter-Reformation, the English Civil War, etc. And it used to be taught that England was the musical backwater of Europe until Dowland in the late 16th century. But we now know, by extrapolating from surviving tables of contents and textual references to English songs, that a lot of music was happening in medieval England. So the set list includes well-known English pieces that survive with music, such as "Miri It Is" and "Sumer Is Icumen In", as well as musical pieces that survive with only an English incipit such as "Wynter", instrumental pieces in sources with medieval English provenance, and English lyrics that survive without music but which![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
shalmestere has re-set to tunes known in medieval England.
But on Tuesday, while walking the dogs,shalmestere twisted her ankle on some broken and uneven sidewalk: her ankle is now swollen and discolored, she can barely walk, and she's spent much of the past three days elevating and icing it. So we've called off the trip to DC for the weekend.
It was good to have a deadline forcing us to prepare this ambitious musical set, and it's disappointing to not perform that set tomorrow, but I'm sure we'll find an opportunity to do it somewhere.
- leave the dogs at a boarding kennel today,
- drive to the Washington, DC area tonight,
- participate in a living-history show at Catholic University tomorrow (including a half-hour main-stage musical performance by shalmestere and me),
- attend a concert by the Folger Consort tomorrow (music from the early 14th-century Roman de Fauvel),
- attend our adult niece's confirmation Sunday, and
- drive home Sunday afternoon.
In particular, for the Catholic University demo we were preparing a set presenting the four seasons through 14th-15th-century English music -- none of that French, German, Flemish, or Italian stuff. This is tricky because an awful lot of written music (and other written material) in England got burned in successive waves of violence and looting: the 1381 Peasants' Revolt, the Protestant Reformation, the Counter-Reformation, the English Civil War, etc. And it used to be taught that England was the musical backwater of Europe until Dowland in the late 16th century. But we now know, by extrapolating from surviving tables of contents and textual references to English songs, that a lot of music was happening in medieval England. So the set list includes well-known English pieces that survive with music, such as "Miri It Is" and "Sumer Is Icumen In", as well as musical pieces that survive with only an English incipit such as "Wynter", instrumental pieces in sources with medieval English provenance, and English lyrics that survive without music but which
shalmestere has re-set to tunes known in medieval England.But on Tuesday, while walking the dogs,
shalmestere twisted her ankle on some broken and uneven sidewalk: her ankle is now swollen and discolored, she can barely walk, and she's spent much of the past three days elevating and icing it. So we've called off the trip to DC for the weekend.It was good to have a deadline forcing us to prepare this ambitious musical set, and it's disappointing to not perform that set tomorrow, but I'm sure we'll find an opportunity to do it somewhere.
