Wow. I didn't expect such a firestorm. To answer some people's questions. The Hurdy-gurdy is not really cranked as hard as it looks - most of the flailing is for comic affect - I'm sorry you couldn't hear the HG, the video was filmed from the side and the acoustics of the stage tend to project directly out. Finally, I do apologize for offending some people with the inauthentic sounds of my amateur band. We play renaissance and medieval music largely for people who are not educated in music. Amazingly, they don't care about the history or sanctity of a particular piece - they just want to laugh and/ or clap along. I'm sure audiences 500 years ago were very different in their sensibilties - clapping, having been invented in the rock and roll age. Unless we provide lively and raucous entertainment, the faire audience tends to wander away pretty quickly and pay us nothing. Again, I'm sure this is purely a modern problem. Lastly, the squawking, imbalance of instruments is an embarrassing issue. Playing six shows a day outside in rapid succession can lead to some slippage in tuning and the lack of amplfication at that stage did unbalance the harmony between the HG and rauschpfeife. Since authentic medieval and renaissance music was always played inside in temperature controlled environment on instruments that were perfectly balanced and maintained, these "brown" notes as we like to call them never actually happened in period. Anyone who doubts that should listen to a CD of someone playing real medieval or renaissance music - there's all the proof you need.
If anyone is curious to actually hear the HG - here's another video of us at a faire from a previous year. Again, I have to warn you - it's a silly corruption of a medieval song - completely inauthentic because adding or changing lyrics was never done until the invention of copyright law. Watch it if you can stand it. If you can't find it, google youtube, diabolis in musica raven's ballade. Thanks all! - Jocelyn http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O34l7BJPdBs -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "hurdygurdy" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/hurdygurdy The rules of posting, courtesy, and other list information may be found at http://hurdygurdy.com/mailinglist/index.htm. To reduce spam, posts from new subscribers are held pending approval by the webmaster.
