Ez sint guotiu niuwe maere - Octave Mandolin

[scifi]

Well, I already introduced this one here about a year ago.
But now we made a real arrangement for our band.



The vocal line is more or less following historical composition rules. (There isn't anything left but the lyrics). But the rest of the arrangement and of course the instruments are not historical. Some people call that maybe Neo-Medieval Music.

Hope you like it.

[Andy Boden]

Interesting arrangement, beautifully executed. I felt we moved to India for the second half.

What a lovely voice !

[vkioulaphides]

Beautiful!

When it comes to such very old music, I always remember Stravinsky's dictum in The Poetics of Music, namely that in such matters "a living imagination matters far more than a dead antiquity".

Questions of authenticity just don't seem to bother me much; we wouldn't have had opera at all if the Camerata had understood classical antiquity and its theatrical practices better than they did.

Cheers,

Victor

[Bill Clements]

Well done.
You have a nice expressive voice and sing with excellent intonation.
Can you tell us what the song is about?

[Bertram Henze]

A goosebumpy time journey for sure, excellent performance. The OM proudly stands its ground among the more original instruments. The singer is a timeless enigma.

Can you tell us what the song is about?

I have found part of the lyrics and a translation here. It seems to be the old story of the careless maiden who is no maiden any more, very popular at the time.

[JeffD]

Where would traditional music be without careless maidens. Oh, and violent boys named Willy.

[scifi]

Uhh, thanks a lot. You make especially the singer (my wife) very happy. I cannot remember the last time I saw her being that proud ;-)

There is fortunately an English translation of the lyrics by Marc Lewon (a very known expert on medieval music here in Europe).
It seems that love songs haven`t changed very much in the last 800 years :-)

1
It is good news
that the birds are singing freely
wherever flowers can be seen.
At this time of year
it would be becoming to be happy
which unfortunately I am not:
My foolish heart has misguided me
so that I have to suffer harshly and heavily
whatever is coming to me.

2
The most beautiful and best of ladies
between the rivers Rhône and Sava
gave happiness to me here before.
All this has turned to sadness for me
because of foolishness, not perfidy,
such that I have lost her favour
whom I had chosen as the best amongst all
and who was the best I could behold in all the world.
On top of that I fear her wrath.

3
A love which was striving way too high
drove me out of my mind.
When I beheld her eyes and mouth
so well formed, and also her chin,
there my heart within was
wounded from such sweet foolishness
that I became ignorant of wisdom .
This I had to realise
with bad side effects often enough ever since.

4
The mean words be cursed
which I was not able to suppress.
When my foolish hope deceived me,
who was so desiring her beyond all measure
that I begged her by God's love
to embrace me completely.
I had not done so much
that she would go astray ever so little
from the right path because of me.

[Graham McDonald]

Just delightful! There really aren't enough bouzouki/hurdy-gurdy duets

We await your next offering expectantly.

cheers

[Bertram Henze]

Alright, I have guessed wrong - the lyrics are a man's, apparently. It's "Brigid O'Malley", preloaded (by approx. 700 years).

[JeffJones]

Very nice, the instrument work and the vocals both!

I just wanted to pop in and say that at least the intro part on the Octave Mandolin had a very "Rains of Castamere" (from the Game of Thrones TV show) vibe going on.