Medieval Instrumentation: Without a Voice

I've always considered myself a musician, but the instruments I use (guitar and piano) are largely a mystery to me. I know some basics about how they work and how to maintain and care for them, but don't even think of asking me about the differences between individual designs or models. For me, the most interesting part of music has always been its composition and, as such, most of my musical experiments have been devoted to songwriting. Some of this prejudice may have crept into my blog entries as well since, to date, I haven't written any blog entries that discuss medieval instrumentation or instrumental notation. However, this is in large part due to the fact that there is very little evidence of how instruments were used in that era, with instrumental notation only being invented at the end of the period. We do know that instrumental accompaniment to vocal pieces was commonplace, particularly in secular music, but it was believed to be largely improvisational in nature.

Many of the basic types of instruments were already in use in the middle ages, including plucked (lute, harp, mandora, gittern, psaltery), bowed (fiddle, rebec, lyra), wind (shawm, cornett, recorder, pan flute), and percussion (tabor). Furthermore, organs were in extensive use in churches and were often extremely complex in design. Despite this panoply of available instrumentation, the lack of instrumental notation or a description of their use in performances leaves much to guesswork when reproducing medieval music. Many of the recordings I've reviewed have included instrumental accompaniment, but because we don't really know how these instruments were used, I've focused on the structure and feel of the vocal parts.

I'll continue in this vein in the short term -- devoted instrumental compositions don't appear until the middle of the Renaissance period. As a compromise, however, I've included the instrumentation in the headers of my past blog posts (at least, in those referring to specific recordings). If nothing else, it's worth revisiting these recordings to hear what the individual instruments sounded like and what means of expression were available to medieval composers. My prejudice need not be yours.