morris dancing – Early Music Muse

The medieval minstrels of Beverley Minster. Part 7/8: Tudor misericords and neo-Gothic musicians.

Ian Pittaway bagpipes, bestiaries, Beverley Minster, cobza, cornett, cornetto, fiddle, fools, gittern, harp, horn, hunting horn, iconography, koboz, kobza, lute, lyre, minstrels, misericords, morris dancing, organ, organistrum, pipe and tabor, portative organ, simfonie, simfony, sinfonie, symfony, symphonia, symphonie, tambourine, timbrel, zink 15th August 202315th August 2023 0 Comment

This is the seventh in a series of eight articles about the musical carvings in Beverley Minster, a church in the East Riding of Yorkshire. There are 71 14^th century carvings of musicians, more than in any other medieval site, as well as more Tudor misericords than in any other church, some of them musical, and a neo-Gothic organ screen with medieval instruments.

Having given the story of the Minster’s foundation, flourishing, iconoclasm and repair in the first article; examined the medieval minstrels of the arcades in the second article; of the walls in the third; and of the tombs, altar screen, chapel and south transept in the fourth; the fifth article asks why there is such an abundance of medieval minstrelsy in the Minster, finding the answer in the “Order of the Ancient Company or Fraternity of Minstralls”, which had its headquarters in Beverley. The sixth article completes the description of 14^th century iconography with the allegorical carvings.

This seventh article moves from the medieval period to the renaissance and describes musical aspects of the 16^th century misericords – animal and human musicians, fools and morris dancers, playing bagpipes, harp, fiddle, hunting horns, and pipe and tabor – and the neo-Gothic imitations of medieval instruments on the 19^th–20^th century organ screen, with lyre, timbrel, harps, portative organs, simfony, cornetts, gittern or koboz, and lute.

The final article puzzles over the paucity of publications about the magnificent medieval minstrels, and the Minster’s declared lack of interest in accurate information about their uniquely important iconography.

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) 9th June 202121st February 2024 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.

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 17th February 202126th January 2024 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 16^th and 17^th 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 16^th 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.