Andrew's Bardic Commentary

Introduction

Hello to all the Nagians out there. I want to introduce a new column I am writing for our website. It will consist of topics relating to the Bards and the music industry. I'll try to match it with the Crier so there should be a new one every two weeks or so. For the first column, I will write about our music and our instruments and where we fit in the music scene. This is a broad topic so I am going to do it in three parts. The site has some info about us already but I wanted to give a little detail for those interested in more than just listening to our songs.

Andrew McKee
Bard

Part 1 - How We Started Our Music

As far as music goes for us, we came from different worlds and are fans of different styles. Marc and I have eclectic taste in music. I think the differences are good ones since they tend to give us a little more depth, and I hope our songs don't sound exactly alike. More about our history is in our Tales section (http://thebards.net/tales/ ).

Our Instruments

Now as for the type of music we play, I'll start with describing our instruments historically. Marc plays an Autoharp, which is not exactly an old instrument. The Autoharp is best described as a chorded zither. The zither is an ancient instrument that evolved into a folk instrument in Austria and Bavaria. Similar instruments were developed in other countries throughout Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Japan. A German named Nikolaus Weigel first arranged the chromatic scale for the zither in 1838. It became known as a concert zither, 'or piano-harp', and the instrument is still around today. Then, around 1880, a German named Karl Gütter created a chorded zither or "Volkszither". The common American name for this is the Autoharp. It is a misconception that the American, Charles F. Zimmermann of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, invented what we call the Autoharp. He was, however, certainly responsible for making it popular in the United States.

I, of course, play the recorder and the mandolin. The mandolin is an Italian instrument that is descended from the lute. The lute can date back thousands of years and could be found throughout Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. The mandolin originated sometime in the 16th century as a higher pitched version of a mandola to round out the lute ensemble. Many of you might be familiar with a violin ensemble consisting of a Violin, Viola, Cello, and Bass. Lute ensembles were also very popular in 16th century Italy, and the mandolin played an important part. The mandolin made its way to America in the mid 1800's from Europe through immigration. It started to gain popularity at the same time as waves of Irish immigrants came to America so it was common in Irish-American music. It has since become an American folk instrument and made its way into bluegrass music as well as modern day popular music with the present interest in 'unplugged' music.

The recorder is also an instrument with a long history and a rich tradition. In the case of the recorder, however, the design has not changed much in the last 500 plus years. Unfortunately, there are no surviving recorders from before around 1500 AD, so the only source for information on earlier recorders are paintings and drawings from medieval times. Like the mandolin, the recorder fell victim to the 16th century's preoccupation with instrument standardization and ensembles of types of instruments. Even in modern times, especially in the University setting, the common performance of recorder music is found in recorder quartets of a soprano, alto, tenor, and bass recorder. This is similar to the mandolin, mandola, mandocello, and mandobass's grouping in a quartet. The recorder even went farther than that by including several more types of recorders going up above a soprano to well below a bass. This gives some evidence of the recorder's popularity in the 16th century. As for where the name recorder comes from, we could turn to the Latin recordari: to remember or recollect. This gives images of playing music to remember happier times. The name is not as old as the instrument but no one really knows where the name came from which is just one of the mysteries of music through history.

Part Two coming soon about how our instruments and music fits in the modern day music scene.

Comments? Please email: http://thebards.net /writeus.shtm