IrishOboe

Tuesdays are a bit of a challenge for me, but I get to top it all off with Bible study.

8:30-10 Yoga (skip out early)

9:30-11:30 Notation

2-3 History of Instruments (I think I’m going to drop this simply to have the time to practice on Tuesdays)

3-4 Fiddle class (where we read pieces in original notation)

4-5 Ensemble coaching

5-6 Fiddle lesson

7-?? Bible study

Below I will write about the classes in more detail.  This serves a number of functions so don’t feel bad if you choose not to bother to read it all.  First, it’s good for me to reinforce information that I’ve learned and keep the big picture in mind.  Second, it is good practice to learn how to put information into a succinct (more or less) form that is hopefully accessible to the lay reader, especially as I would like to teach this stuff someday.  Third, there are a number of people who would enjoy learning a thing or two about medieval music.  Fourth, I’ll have an easy answer for “What do you study all day?”  Fifth, it will be a nice online resource for myself and maybe others in the future.

In notation we started with a Gradual (part of the church liturgy that changes each week) for Epiphany from the end of the 12^th century.  Now that I have a scanner I could upload what it looks like but I need a USB cable . . .

I find it challenging but not utterly impossible.  We work in pairs or small groups during the week to decipher and sing possible interpretations.  Much of church polyphony is built on a previous chants.  A chant line is elongated and perhaps altered and a more florid line is added above.  This upper part is called the duplum and the lower part (taken from the chant) is called the tenor.

Graduals are sung alternatively between a soloist and the choir.  The Gradual we’re looking at has turned the solo chant line into a tenor and added a florid duplum above and it only has the solo parts.  The choir sings between but there is no indication of this in the music (thus the reader must beware that the music wasn’t sung ‘exactly as written.’)  There are no bar lines or time signatures so guessing where the tenor note goes is challenging.

The other classes are pretty self-explanatory.  Now I must stop blogging and actually do some work.