morris dance

Jheronimus Bosch and the music of hell. Part 3/3: Music and musicians in the complete works of Bosch

Ian Pittaway Adoration of the Magi (Bosch painting), Allegory of Gluttony and Lust (Bosch painting), bagpipes, bestiaries, Bosch Hieronymous, Bosch Jheronimus, bray harp, Flood (Bosch workshop painting), fools, Garden of Earthly Delights (Bosch painting), harp, Haywain (Bosch painting), Hermit Saints triptych (Bosch painting), hurdy gurdy, iconography, jongleurs, Last Judgement (Bosch painting), Last Judgement (pseudo-Bosch painting), lute, minstrels, morris dance, morris dancing, pipe and tabor, Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things (pseudo-Bosch painting), shawm, Ship of Fools (Bosch painting), simfonie, simfony, sinfonie, Singers in the Egg (Bosch drawing), Strichnotation, symfony, symphonia, symphonie, Temptation of Saint Anthony (Bosch painting), trumpet, vielle à roue, Visions of the Hereafter (Bosch painting) 0 Comment

In Part 1, we explored the modern myth that the ‘music’ on the backside of a sinner in Jheronimus Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights is real and playable. We saw that it is not Gregorian notation, as is repeatedly claimed, but a faux and unreadable imitation of Strichnotation. As the present article will show, Bosch painted equally faux and unreadable Strichnotation in two more paintings and one drawing.   

In Part 2, we surveyed all the musical imagery and the overall schema of The Garden of Earthly Delights, exploring historical sources for the meaning of each musician punished in hell, their instruments used as torture devices against them.    

That leads us to the central question of this third and final article on Bosch’s relationship with music. Here we survey the rest of Bosch’s entire works, his paintings and drawings, for music and musicians. Every musical image is presented with a brief description and explanation, referencing literature Bosch would have known. The sum total of Bosch’s musical depictions raises the question: What was the nature of his beliefs that he imagined all musicians as wicked sinners and monstrous creatures who are eternally punished in hell? We search for answers in his locality, his biography, and the clues he left with his brush.   

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Tarleton’s Resurrection. Part 1/4: Tarleton’s place in the history of fools, clowns and jesters

Ian Pittaway Brant Sebastian - Ship of Fools, clowns, Dowland John, Feast of Fools, fools, Henry VIII, jesters, jongleurs, minstrels, morris dance, morris dancing, orpharion, pipe and tabor, Shakespeare William, Ship of Fools, Somer William, Tarleton Richard, Tarleton's Resurrection (John Dowland), Tarlton Richard, theatre 0 Comment

Richard Tarleton – fool, actor, playwright, poet, musician and legend – was the foremost stage clown of his age, celebrated in his own lifetime and well beyond. As an actor, he was a star of the stage when permanent theatre buildings were new, a fool or comedian of great physical and verbal wit, a serious player of affecting pathos, and a member of Queen Elizabeth I’s own acting company, The Queen’s Players. As a successful playwright, he wrote in the tradition of morality plays. As a poet and essayist, he wrote on the theme of natural disasters and divine displeasure. As a musician, he was a player of pipe and tabor and a creator of extempore comedy songs. As a legend, much-loved and much-missed after his sudden death, he was a byword for exemplary wit, his name used to sell literature for decades, his image still used and recognised two centuries later.   

This is the first of four articles trawling 16th and 17th century sources to build up a picture of the man. This introductory article begins with a short history of fools in their three types – natural, ungodly, and artificial – to put Tarleton in his historical context; clarifies what contemporaneous writers meant when they described him as a jester; then describes his ‘country fool’ clown’s costume and notable physical appearance. Two neglected topics comprise the second and third articles. Part 2: Tarleton the player and playwright considers his range as a comic and serious actor and his style as a playwight, with an evidenced reconstruction of his lost play, The Secound parte of the Seven Deadlie Sinns. Part 3: Richard Tarleton the musician and broadside writer examines his style as a taborer; describes Tarleton as a comedic creator of extempore songs from themes called out by the audience; and surveys the evidence for Tarleton as a composer of ballads. Part 4: Tributes to Tarleton – with a musical discovery from the 16th century summarises the broadside ballads, books and plays which praised Tarleton and used his persona after his premature death. In particular, a musical biography of Richard Tarleton, A pretie new ballad, intituled willie and peggie, has its words and music reunited after 400 years of separation in a featured video performance.

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Greensleeves: Mythology, History and Music. Part 3 of 3: Music

Ian Pittaway baroque, broadside ballads, early music, Greensleeves, lute, lute manuscripts and books, morris dance, passamezzo antico, Playford John, renaissance, romanesca 8 Comments

The remarkable longevity of a 16th century song and tune

Left to right: Adrien le Roy, French lutenist, one composer of passamezzo antico; William Kimber, English morris dancer and concertina player, one player of Bacca Pipes; Ralph Vaughan Williams, composer of Fantasia on Greensleeves; John Coltrane, jazz saxophonist, and Nomansland, trance dance band, both performers of Greensleeves.
Left to right: Adrien le Roy, French lutenist, one composer of a passamezzo antico;
William Kimber, English morris dancer and concertina player, one player of Bacca Pipes;
Ralph Vaughan Williams, composer of Fantasia on Greensleeves;
John Coltrane, jazz saxophonist, and Nomansland, trance dance band, performers of Greensleeves.

Greensleeves has captured the imagination of musicians for well over four centuries, testified by innumerous versions. This, the third of three articles about the mythology, history and music of Greensleeves, gives an audio flavour of the remarkable versatility and vitality of the melody and song, an à la carte menu to choose from. We begin with versions of the passamezzo antico and romanesca which are the foundation of Greensleeves; then advance to the song on period instruments; the Playford dance; two Greensleeves morris dances; the Christmas song; Ralph Vaughan Williams’ classical version; then a range of more modern interpretations: folk, blues, bluegrass, country, pop, rock, punk, black metal, jazz, flamenco, disco, trance, dubstep, Vietnamese ballet … and the ice cream van tune.

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Greensleeves: Mythology, History and Music. Part 2 of 3: History

Ian Pittaway baroque, broadside ballads, early music, Greensleeves, lute, lute manuscripts and books, Merry Wives of Windsor, morris dance, passamezzo antico, Playford John, renaissance, romanesca, Shakespeare William, Sumer is icumen in 7 Comments

The remarkable longevity of a 16th century song and tune 

Greensleeves is well over four centuries old and is, even now, still going strong. This is a song first published in 1580, its tune used for a wide variety of other 16th and 17th century broadside ballads; used as the basis for virtuoso lute playing; that William Shakespeare used for a sophisticated joke; a tune that John Playford published for dancing to; that morris dancers still jig and kick bottoms to; that has become a Christmas favourite; and that pop singers continue to sing. This is the second of three articles, looking at the song’s mythology, its true history, and video examples of its musical transformations. 

One of the first sources for the tune, in lute tablature as greene sleues in MS. 408/2, an anonymous amateur anthology dated c. 1592–1603.
One of the first sources for the tune, in lute tablature as greene sleues in MS. 408/2, an anonymous amateur anthology dated c. 1592–1603. (As with all images, click for higher resolution.)

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