nakers – Early Music Muse

The medieval minstrels of Beverley Minster. Part 4/8: The minstrels of the tombs, reredos, Saint Katherine’s chapel, and south transept.

Ian Pittaway Ars musicae, bagpipes, Beverley Minster, drum, fiddle, fiddle tunings, foliate heads, Green Man, harp, horn, hunting horn, iconography, Johannes de Grocheio, medieval fiddle, medieval fiddle tunings, minstrels, nakers, olifant, oliphant, olyphant, organ, organetto, organino, portative organ, vielle 26th July 202315th September 2023 0 Comment

This is the fourth in a series of eight articles about the 71 stone and wood carvings of musicians created between 1330 and 1390 in Beverley Minster, a church in the East Riding of Yorkshire. Since Beverley Minster has more iconography of medieval musicians than any other surviving historical site, these articles are a survey of the musical life of 14^th century England.

Having given the Minster’s history in the first article, described the medieval musicians of the arcades and triforium in the second article and those on the walls either side of the nave in the third article, here all the outstanding medieval stone and wood carvings are explored in the remaining parts of the church. We will see 14^th century carvings of musicians playing bagpipes, hunting horn, vielles (medieval fiddles), harps, portative organs, psaltery, oliphants, and nakers. These carvings raise questions about: the history of the influential de Percy family from the Norman conquest to the English Civil War; the royal and military practice of blowing elephant horns; and the pre-eminence for medieval musicians of the fiddle, bagpipe, harp and portative organ.

The medieval minstrels of Beverley Minster. Part 2/8: The minstrels of the arcades, triforium and capital.

Ian Pittaway bagpipes, Beverley Minster, bombard, citole, drum, fiddle, fiddle tunings, gittern, harp, lute, medieval fiddle, medieval fiddle tunings, medieval harp, nakers, organ, organistrum, pipe and tabor, portative organ, psaltery, shawm, simfonie, simfony, sinfonie, symfony, symphonia, symphonie, tambourine, timbrel, vielle 12th July 202328th July 2023 2 Comments

This is the second in a series of eight articles about the 14^th century carvings of medieval minstrels in Beverley Minster, a church in the East Riding of Yorkshire. There are 71 images of musicians in stone and wood, more than in any other medieval site. This article explores the carved musicians of the arcades, triforium and a capital, depicted playing harps, fiddles, bagpipes, timbrels, shawms, gittern, citole, portative organ, psaltery, pipe and tabor, nakers, and a drum. Each instrument is described, accompanied by a photograph of the Minster minstrel carving, with a link to a video of the instrument being played. This article thereby acts as a survey of the musical life of 14^th century England.

This is followed in the third and fourth articles with photographs and commentary on the minstrels in the rest of the church, and in the fifth article by a gathering of evidence to answer the fundamental question: why are there so many medieval minstrels in the Minster? The sixth article describes the 14^th century allegorical carvings; and the seventh article focuses on musical aspects of the 16^th century misericords and 19^th–20^th century neo-Gothic organ screen. The final article puzzles over the paucity of print publications about the magnificent medieval minstrels, and the Minster’s lack of interest in accurate information about their uniquely important iconography.