This, traveller, is our humble auditorium. Oftentimes during the moons between first green and harvest, we board wandering troupes in exchange for news and a twice daily performance. However, during the harsher moons, few actors travel and we must rely on simple minstrels to entertain the weary souls that darken our doors. Depending on the moods of the house, different melodies prevail. See them here:

Additional Information

• Conrad Leviston posted a writeup on How to Read German Tabulature.
• Sheet music for a version of a Saltarello (by Vincente Galilei) can be found in tabulature form at the Acoustic Classical Guitar Tabulatures website.
• Examples of music related manuscripts from the Vatican's collection can be seen on the UNC's Music Hall, room 2 and room 3.
• Those interested in the subject of "Early" Music (Medieval, High Middle-Age to Early Renaissance) might start with the Early Music FAQ.
• For an extensive listing of composers, manuscripts, and repertoire in the 14th century, try the Music of the Fourteenth Century database project.
• The SCA Minstrel's page and the SCA Music pages have excellent collections of links on related topics.
• Martin Luther began bringing reforms to church music at the end of the 15th century.
• Timelines can be found by David Papandrew, Acadia University, John Ekberg, Philippe Goninet, and Steve Hendricks.
• A very extensive resource is the La Trobe University Library Medieval Music Database.

Biographical Information

de Bornelh, Guiraut (c.1138 - c.1215)

• HOASM offers this short bio on Guiraut de Bornelh.

DuFay, Guillaume (c.1400 - 1474)

• Todd McComb wrote a few paragraphs on the life and work of Guillaume Dufay for ClassicalNet.
• Tyson Prince writes "Guillaume Dufay – A Bridge to the Renaissance" while a student of Music and Economics at Vanderbilt University.

Finck, Heinrich (c.1445 - 1527)

• Classical Composers Database has little blurb on Finck.
• Giorgio Migliavacca offers some additional insights into Finck.

Paumann, Konrad (c.1410 - 1473)

• Giorgio Migliavacca offers insights into Konrad Paumann, as well as several of his prominent contemporaries

Terms

chant - The name is often taken as synonymous with plain chant (q.v.), comprising not only the Church music of the early Middle Ages, but also later compositions (elaborate melodies for the Ordinary of the Mass, sequences, etc.) written in a similar style down to the sixteenth century and even in modern times. In a stricter sense Gregorian chant means that Roman form of early plain chant. source: New Advent

isorhythmic - Term coined to refer to the periodic repetition or recurrence of rhythmic patterns in 14th- and early 15th-century motets. The tenors even of early 13th-century clausulais and motets were characterized by reiterated rhythmic figures, but the larger proportions of the 14th-century motet, typified by the works of Vitry and Machaut, demanded at least some degree of similar organization in the upper voices too, to emphasize the structure. Repetitions of the pitch content (color) of the tenors of such works do not necessarily coincide with those of the rhythmic unit (talea). Some English Gloria and Credo settings from the later 14th and early 15th centuries also use isorhythm. source: The Classical Music Pages

liederbuch - german for "songbook" (lied means "song" and buch means "book"). The Glogauer Liederbuch was a German MS song collection of c.1480, the first to be written out in partbooks. The Lieder, in 3 or 4 parts, are equally divided between sacred and secular texts, and there is also a quantity of pieces apparently for instrumental ensemble -- perhaps the earliest such collection to survive. source: Here of a Sunday Morning

lute - plucked, stringed musical instrument popular in 16th- and 17th-century Europe. The lute that was prominent in European popular art and music of the Renaissance and Baroque periods originated as the Arab 'ud. This instrument was brought to Europe in the 13th century by way of Spain and by returning crusaders and is still played in Arab countries. source: britannica.com

madrigal - name for two different forms of Italian music, one related to the poetic madrigal in the 14th cent., the other the most common form of secular vocal music in the 16th cent. The poetic madrigal is a lyric consisting of one to four strophes of three lines followed by a two-line strophe called a ritornello. source: infoplease.com

motet - One of the most important forms of polyphonic music from circa 1250 to 1750. It originated in the 13th century in the practice of adding words to the upper voice or voices of a Clausula, with a plainchant tenor ('motet' derives from the French mot, 'word'). Sometimes two upper voices had different words. At first Latin texts, mainly concerning the Virgin, were used, but French secular texts became common as the motet shed its connection with church and liturgy. source: The Classical Music Pages

round - short vocal composition in which all voice parts sing the same melody at the same pitch, but each part enters at a given number of beats after the previous voice so that the melody imitates itself. The round is thus a form of canon. Most rounds are circular canons; that is, they are written so that the piece can be repeated endlessly until the singers agree to stop. A catch is the 17th- and 18th-century English round, typically with a humorous or punning text. source: MSN Encarta

saltarello - a fast Italian dance in 6/8 time. source: Enjoy the Music

troubador - aristocratic poet-musicians of S France (Provence) who flourished from the end of the 11th cent. through the 13th cent. Many troubadours were noblemen and crusader knights. source: Encyclopedia.com

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