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However, this is to see both paper and papacy from a modern perspective: paper was precious, expensive, and not to be wasted and the papacy was in dispute in England, with several clashes between King John and the pope in recent memory, as well as papal suppression of English Catholic reform movements. It may seem extraordinary that a secular song should have been written on the back of a religious document from no less a person than the pope more extraordinary still that it should have been written on a document already of some antiquity. 1290–1320 in the Priory of Saint James, near Exeter. The bull was about 100 years old by the time the song was written out, c. The music and words are written roughly, in brownish ink, and upside down compared to the bull on the front. This particular bull is dated 1199, from Pope Innocent III. The song bryd one brere was written on a papal bull, an edict of the pope. (As with all pictures, click for larger view.) The manuscript is now in King’s College, Cambridge, MS. 1660–1672, lutenists “will do well to play in a wainscot room where there is no furniture if you can let not the company exceed the number three or four for the noise of a mouse is a hindrance to that music.” For example, a concert would mean playing privately to a small audience, if any audience at all and, according to the Elizabeth Burwell lute tutor manuscript of c. If we adhere to historical conventions on performance regardless of practicability then we create real difficulties. Historically informed performance, on the other hand, bestows a duty to refer to primary sources, to adhere where practicable to historical conventions, to play copies of historical instruments, and then, informed with those tools, to be creative, and to fill in the gaps as best we can. With instrumental medieval music, this would usually mean never playing a note, as we rarely know which instruments were intended. The idea of authenticity constrains musical creativity to the academically justifiable, never breaking past the sometimes paper-thin walls of the definitively provable performance. This is an important and practical distinction. So the by-word for musicians playing early music has been, from the second half of the 20 th century, historically informed performance, or HIP for short. There are still things we don’t know, in particular with medieval music: the further back in time we go, the more we have to rely on conjecture and guess-work due to the holes in the evidence, particularly when it comes to performance. Due to a great deal of research, looking at original manuscripts, music prints, contemporaneous accounts of performances and pedagogical material, close examination of musicians in iconography, and x-rays of historical instruments to find their inner construction, we have come a long way. Since the early music revival of the late 19 th and early 20 th century, the search has been for historical authenticity in musical performances and replicas of early instruments. Words in modern English, from the notation of the original manuscript. The article starts with a video performance on voice and medieval harp.Ĭlick picture to play video – opens in new window.īryd one brere ( bird on a briar), an arrangement for medieval harp, I’ll also delve a little into the background of the song, arguing that it is clearly influenced by the troubadour and trouvère tradition of fin’amor – refined or perfect love. What follows is not the only possible musical solution but on this journey I’ll take you through the process step by step, so you can decide for yourself if you’re convinced. This is the oldest surviving secular love song in the English language with a complete lyric and so it is early music gold-dust, but it does have some severe holes: it is for two voices, but one voice is missing and some of the roughly-written notation is difficult to decipher. The aim of this article is to arrive at a performable and historically justifiable arrangement of the problematic song, bryd one brere, c.