Hot on the heels of me giving someone the quick version of "how to medieval music"**, this awesome video from Early Music Sources takes a dive into the troubadour repertoire, recounting a lot of the same process I walked someone through this morning!
**I make transcriptions of and coach people on the music of Hildegard von Bingen! Hit me up for all your neume-learning, medieval-interpretation things.
Is imitation really "stealing" or is it "homage"? This video explores the theme of composers borrowing, stealing, copying, or rewriting pieces and then publishing them anew.
What makes French Baroque music sound so distinct from anything else? Without writing an entire dissertation, one feature is this particular chord!
Have you ever heard a song and thought "I know this one, but with different words"? Welcome to the world of contrafacta! Early Music Sources explains the tradition of having multiple texts to the same tune (sometimes in translation, but not always)! Plus, do you know where Morley found "Now is the month of Maying"?
Melody, melody, more melody, turnips, and cabbages! ... or, what came after the high Baroque (and Bach). Things had become too complex (apparently) so the pendulum swung back toward something simpler to listen to and understand. Early Music Sources explains how that worked!
My favorite part of doing engraving work is seeing the tiny details of how composers crafted their pieces! Early Music Sources takes you through this process in their new video!
What was the best way to be a female musician in 16th-17th-century Italy? What would give you stability, an education, and ensure your compositions and performances could be heard by the world? Become a nun! Early Music Sources explores what life was really like for musician-nuns in this great video!
Ok... but HOW? Early Music Sources does a fantastic job of explaining how William Byrd not only wrote beautiful polyphony, but also did so above a ground bass!
Is imitation the highest form of flattery? What about forgery? Early Music Sources takes on period composition with some GREAT stories of scandal and deliberate misattribution, as well as previews of some current composers worth exploring!
Why sing from an edition when you could sing from a source? What makes a good edition? Thanks to Early Music Sources for explaining why editions matter in this fantastic video!
P.S. One exception: if there were neumes, sing from neumes. Otherwise I'm all for using a good edition!