In the Ruins of Saint Lars / Vox Vulgaris
Live in Visby
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Vox Vulgaris Vulgo 01
2002, released 2021
[39:42]
1. Cunja Mija / Partos Trocados [5:14]
2. Cantiga 166 [4:05]
CSM 166
3. Den Hoboecken Dans [2:17]
4. Saltarello 3 [4:33]
5. Ghaetta [2:57]
6. Cantiga 213 [3:41]
CSM 213
7. La Rotta della Manfredina / La Rotta [3:09]
8. Stella Splendens [6:29]
LV 2
9. Oboe Round [1:51]
10. La Suite Meurtrière [5:21]
Strictly speaking music didn't exist in the Middle Ages. People did
"musical" activities like singing, playing and dancing but had very
specific words for them depending on who was doing it and how and why
it was done. The "Musica" of the scholars was an art comparable to
Geometry.
There was no "music" in itself, it was always bound up in rituals and
social settings; martial, ecclesial, courtly, festive etc. An
instrument or a melody could belong to a specific place, festival, or
social group. Relations were played out ritually by sound. The music of
a specific profession might be played in church on a festive day. The
trumpets of the nobles would ritually silence other sounds and the work
songs or festive music of different groups could intertwine for common
tasks.
The voices of polyphonic medieval music were not striving to the common
task of resolving in a chord. There was no foreground and background of
"melody" and "accompaniment", instead they would all coexist
harmoniously but to their own means. Often different types of songs
would be combined and sung all at once; one voice could be from
liturgy, one a secular love song and the third a political satire.
Music as an abstraction is a very modern phenomena and lexicons usually
give a circular definition of "music". People of the Middle Ages did
not engage in music for abstract aesthetic pleasure but for specific
tasks (which could of course also be therapeutic). There were no
general "musicians" in the modern sense and there was no clear cut line
between instrumental musicians and jesters. City pipers could have
other, often administrative tasks and troubadours were bound up in
intricate courtly rituals. Neither did any musical "compositions" exist
as immaterial objects. If music was sometimes written down, the score
would not be seen as a finished product but as a practical tool used
for a specific performance. Compositions did not become commodities and
music was not copyrighted until 750 years after the Western system of
notation was invented.
Obviously "songs" in the Middle Ages were not organized as 3–7
minute long units arranged with intros and breaks to captivate the
attention span of an individual listener. Neither were there any clear
distinctions between audience and performer, or even any "stage" or
equivalent place in the room from which the music would emanate,
possible to capture in two channel stereo. Quite the opposite: church
music, for example, would often come from all around, with singers and
instrumentalists placed around the room as well as in the upper
galleries.
released April 30, 2021
All music is medieval except Oboe Round (Louis Hardin) and La Suite Meurtrière (traditional Swedish and Breton).
All arrangements by Vox Vulgaris.
Recorded in 2002 by Vox Vulgaris in the ruins of Saint Lars Church, Visby.
Mastered by David Svedmyr.