Video: Dark Ballad of a Warrior on Hurdy-Gurdy

I've found that some medieval instruments can be rather... shrill. So it's with real delight that I discovered the hurdy-gurdy, which when played well - as here - is a true joy to listen to.

This video is by Andrey Vinogradov. He's got a good number of videos on his channel if you like what you hear.

Video: Hieronymus Bosch Butt Music

 In a segment on hell in Hieronymus Bosch's painting of THE GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS, there's a man with music notation on his butt. This has been transcribed and played by various artists. The version by James Spalink, played on lute, harp, and hurdy-gurdy, is creepy & cool.

Video: Medieval Bardcore Holding Out for a Hero

 Two youtubers I greatly admire, Whitney Avalon and Hildegard von Blingin' teamed up to create a medieval bardcore version of Bonnie Tyler's Holding Out for a Hero. Their music video, inspired by the artwork from books of hours is fantastic.

What's a skáldharpa? (music instrument video)

Pierrick Valence from the music band SKÁLD has created a series of workshop videos on youtube, explaining some of the historical - and just plain unique - instruments used in their songs. The band is inspired by Nordic mythology.

Here are a few of the instruments he introduces: the skáldharpa, talharpa, citra, and jouhikko.

He introduces the instruments explaining where they’re from and then plays a quick melody so you hear it on its own. He also mentions where you can buy one (generally specialty craftsmen online).

Video: Lord of the Rings theme song with lights

I saw this video on youtube and had to share it. The Lord of the Rings theme is a wonderful piece of music, and the light effects (making it look like the game Rock Band) is fun. The pianist is Patrik Pietschmann, who has a lot of other theme songs on their channel.

 

Video: Hildegard von Blingin'

Saw this recently and just had to share it. Hildegard von Blingin's youtube channel is pretty new but their song rewritings, turning modern pop songs into medieval lays, is awesome.

Video: Weldon Gray's Ancient Instruments

This video by Caleb Drew is about Weldon Gray, a Canadian luthier, who makes medieval and renaissance instruments and specializes in lutes. He studies images and then recreates them. He's remarkably talented. In this video he demonstrates several instruments including the oud, hurdy-gurdy, organistrum, and lute. He makes custom instruments too.

Video: How music was made on a Super Nintendo

The Nerdwriter has made an excellent video about how video game composers wrote surprisingly complex music for a game system with very little memory or capacity for playing music.

Video: Hurdy-Gurdy

A few weeks ago a friend of mine sent me a link to a video explaining how to play a hurdy-gurdy, an old medieval instrument. I wondered why more fantasy books didn't include older instruments, and low and behold, the Sanctuary duology I'm currently reading by Carol Berg mentions one!

These two videos briefly go over the mechanics of a hurdy-gurdy and demonstrate how they're played.

Video: Floppotron

I've seen videos in the past of music played on CD Roms, dot matrix printers, etc., but Floppotron takes that to the next level. Here it is playing two of my favourite 80s theme songs, Knight Rider and Air Wolf.

The Oldest Known Hymn in the World

I stumbled across this Vintage News article about the h.6 stone tablet a while back, along with one of several interpretations of how the hymn might have sounded. The article has more info, so if you like the music, check it out.

The Hurrian songs are a group of stone tablets with music inscribed in the cuneiform writing system. These were unearthed from the ancient Amorite city of Ugarit and date to approximately 1400 BC.

One of these tablets (h.6), contains the Hurrian hymn to Nikkal, making it the earliest markedly entire piece of composed music in the world. On some of the broken pieces, the composers’ names are inscribed, but h.6 is an anonymous work.
 ...
The lyrics of the h.6 tablet are a hymn to Nikkal, a Semitic goddess of orchards. It also contains inscribed directions for a singer playing a nine-stringed sammûm, a type of harp or, more likely, a lyre. Instructions for how to tune the harp are also contained on some of the tablets.

The hymn is played by Michael Levy on the lyre.

Video: Bach's "Gott ist mein Konig" in St. Mary's Church, Muhlhausen

A friend posted this on my facebook wall and I thought it was awesome, so I'm sharing it here. This is performed by the Michaelstein Telemann Chamber Orchestra in Saint Mary's Church, Muhlhausen Germany. Doing a bit of research on the church, it's 14th - 15th century, made from local limestone.

This cantata, "Gott ist mein Konig" (God is my King) was written to mark the Council Election, and premiered at this church in 1708.

The singing and playing are beautiful, and there's some great camera work highlighing the church. If you want to see more, part 2 is here.

Video: Star Wars Sax Medley

This is a saxophone medley by Music By Pedro and it's awesome.