Medieval Music and the Troubadours, with Alix Evans

The Sword Guy Podcast

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/medieval-music-and-the-troubadours-with-alix-evans/

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Alix Evans is a professional performer and teacher of historical music, founder of Falsa Musica, and has even fenced rapier in the SCA.

We talk about what led Alix into becoming a musician, with a mention of her husband David Biggs. (Check out his episode here.) Alix explains what it is about historical music that is so interesting and how it differs from how music is commonly thought to work today.

To listen to some troubadour music performed by Alix, at the end of the episode you can hear:

• Amours u trop tard me sui pris - attributed to Blance de Castille (who was queen of France around the beginning of the 13th century), voice and harp
• Deus enim rorem in ilas misit - by Hildegard of Bingen - this is is in phrygian!, just voice
• Ecce tempus gaudii - an instrumental setting of a 12th century song, just harp
• Gloria sanctorum - a 14th century chant from Ireland, voice and harp
• Frondens virga - another Hildegard piece just because it’s pretty, voice and symphonia (early hurdy-gurdy)
• Reis glorios - 12th century troubadour piece by Giraut de Bornelh, just voice

Troubadours came from Occitan in around the 11th and 12th centuries. They were a diverse set of people, writing poetry and setting it to music. Some were the wandering minstrels we think of today, but many stayed in one place.

We talk about how to make a living from your passion by having a ‘portfolio career’, and Alix tells us about her new project uncovering unknown and unfamiliar ways of making music and bringing them to audiences.

For more information about Alix and her work, see her website: https://www.alix-evans.com/