Carthy Martin

The guitar: a brief history from the renaissance to the modern day

Ian Pittaway baroque, baroque guitar, Broonzy Bill, Carthy Martin, citole, cittern, early instruments, early music, folk music, gittern, guitar, kithara, Latin guitar, Moorish guitar, orpharion, Paul Les, renaissance, renaissance guitar 4 Comments

A French 4 course renaissance guitar from c. 1570. The origins of the guitar are much-discussed and much-disputed, and some pretty wild and unsubstantiated claims are made for its heritage, based on vaguely guitar-like instruments in medieval and even pre-medieval iconography, about which we often know little or nothing beyond an indistinguishable drawing, painting or carving; or based on instruments which have names that sound like ‘guitar’. This article is an attempt to slice through the fog with a brief history of the instrument, charting its development from the renaissance, through the baroque period to the modern day, based only on what can be claimed with evidence. The article is illustrated with pictures, videos and sound recordings, beginning with a short video of guitar history.

This is an expanded version of an article originally published in 2015, with a new video.

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Performing medieval music. Part 3/3: The medieval style

Ian Pittaway Alfonso X, Angelus ad virginem, Ar ne kuth ich sorghe non, Ars musicae, Cantigas de Santa María, carols, Carthy Martin, folk music, historically informed performance, Johannes de Grocheio, mediaeval, medieval, medieval notation, medieval singing styles, rhetoric, Summa musice, traditional music, troubadours 2 Comments

The most fundamental question of all in playing early music today is: how can the music be played to reflect historical practice? This is the third of three articles on this topic for medieval music, aiming to be practical guides with plenty of musical examples and illustrations, and a bibliography for those who wish to delve further.

The first article discussed historical instrument combinations and the second how to create polyphonic accompaniments for music written monophonically. This third and last article discusses a wide variety of questions of style: the performance of the non-mensural (non-rhythmic) notation of the troubadours; the role of the voice and instruments; ornamentation; questions of intelligibility, language and sung translations; musical preludes and postludes; and the effect of the various functions of music on the way it is performed.

This article features a video of Martin Carthy singing a traditional English song on the basis that his free style, with the voice leading and guitar following, each verse phrased differently, so free that it is mensurally unwritable, may have something important to tell us about the historical performance of troubadour songs.

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The trees they do grow high: a ballad of medieval arranged marriage?

Ian Pittaway broadside ballads, Burns Robert, Carthy Martin, early music, Fletcher John, folk music, harp, Herd David, Johnson James, Lady Mary Ann, Lloyd A. L., Maidment James, mediaeval, medieval, medieval harp, myths, North Countrie Garland, Scots Musical Museum, Shakespeare William, traditional music, Trees they do grow high, Two Noble Kinsmen, Young Laird of Craigstoun 6 Comments

The trees they do grow high is a traditional ballad about an arranged child marriage, also known as The trees they grow so high, My bonny lad is young but he’s growing, Long a-Growing, Daily Growing, Still Growing, The Bonny Boy, The Young Laird of Craigstoun, and Lady Mary Ann. The song was very popular in the oral tradition in Scotland, England, Ireland, and the USA from the 18th to the 20th century. Questions about its true age (medieval?), the basis of its story (describing an actual marriage?) and its original author (Robert Burns?) have attracted conjectural claims. This article investigates the shifting narrative of the story over its lifetime and sifts the repeated assertions from the substantiated evidence.

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Songs that grow like trees: an appreciation of Sydney Carter (1915–2004)

Ian Pittaway Ball John, Carter Sydney, Carthy Martin, Crow On The Cradle (Sydney Carter), Every Star Shall Sing A Carol (Sydney Carter), Fox George, Friday Morning (Sydney Carter), George Fox (Sydney Carter), John Ball (Sydney Carter), Judas and Mary (Sydney Carter), Like The Snow (Sydney Carter), Lord of the Dance (Sydney Carter), Man with a Microphone (Sydney Carter), Mixed Up Old Man (Sydney Carter), Peasant's Revolt, Silver in the Stubble (Sydney Carter), Simple Gifts, Tis The Gift To Be Simple, Villon François, When I Needed A Neighbour (Sydney Carter) 2 Comments

CarterSydney_treeThe second wave of the folk song revival in the 1950s–70s reignited a popular love of traditional music, building on the first wave of folk song collectors such as Cecil Sharp and Ralph Vaughan Williams in the late 19th and early 20th century. The second folk song revival brought into the spotlight such professional folk song performers as Martin Carthy, John Kirkpatrick, Nic Jones, Shirley Collins, Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, The Watersons, John Renbourn, and The Albion Band. There were also some who wrote new songs in the folk idiom, among them Sydney Carter, whose songs, still performed today, stand out for their quality.

Sydney Carter straddled two worlds: he not only wrote what are now folk classics such as John Ball and Crow on the Cradle, he composed songs which became staples of church life, such as When I Needed A Neighbour, Lord of the Dance, and Every Star Shall Sing A Carol.

Sydney Carter’s approach to life and faith was based on personal conviction not imposed authority, complex not simplistic, questioning not dogmatic. He has been, through his songs, an inspiration and support to many, most of whom he never met, many of whom were not even aware of his name, some of whom do not even share his faith. And that includes me, a folk song performer and atheist who appreciates the power, the beauty and the wry humour of his songs.

This article features 12 recordings of Sydney’s songs, including performances by John Kirkpatrick, Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick, Franciscus Henri, The Ian Campbell Folk Group, Robert Johnson, Rolling Harmony, Ian Pittaway, Judy Collins, and Sydney Carter himself.   Read more