Essays on the Origins of Western Music
Essays on the Origins of Western Music
by
David Whitwell
Essay Nr. 138: Music of the Renaissance Banquet
From a musical perspective, the most important music heard at Renaissance banquets was that heard when the banquet was concluded. The brief concerts, that is to say the moment when music was actually listened to by contemplative listeners, which were always specified as taking place “after the tables were cleared,” were really an important step toward today’s concerts of aesthetic music. As we have discussed these small after banquet concerts in other essays, the focus of the present essay will be to attempt to place in perspective the changing fashion of the music played while the company is actually dining. Needless to say, the only surviving descriptions of such occasions are of the banquets of the aristocracy.
Some 14th century accounts of banquet music tend to speak simply of minstrels, without identifying the actual instruments. A passage in Chaucer, for example, speaks of the music played before the king at dinner,
Whil that this kyng sit thus in his nobleye,
Herknynge his mynstralles hir thynges pleye
Biforn hym at the bord deliciously.
A similar reference to minstrels in general is found in the English classic, “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.” We are told here that the minstrels, while the guests and “all manner of meats, they made as much merriment as any men might.”
With mirthe and mynstralsye, with metes at her wille,
Thay maden as mery as any men myghten.
Another description of banquet music in the Sir Gawain tale mentions trumpets, bedecked with bright banners, and the new timpani [nakryn]. The “noble pipes,” we take to mean shawms.
Then the first cource come with crakkyng of trumpes,
With mony baner ful bryght that therbi henged.
Newe nakryn noyse with the noble pipes.
While the reader may wonder about digestion when eating in a relatively small palace room to the sound of
by
David Whitwell
Essay Nr. 138: Music of the Renaissance Banquet
From a musical perspective, the most important music heard at Renaissance banquets was that heard when the banquet was concluded. The brief concerts, that is to say the moment when music was actually listened to by contemplative listeners, which were always specified as taking place “after the tables were cleared,” were really an important step toward today’s concerts of aesthetic music. As we have discussed these small after banquet concerts in other essays, the focus of the present essay will be to attempt to place in perspective the changing fashion of the music played while the company is actually dining. Needless to say, the only surviving descriptions of such occasions are of the banquets of the aristocracy.
Some 14th century accounts of banquet music tend to speak simply of minstrels, without identifying the actual instruments. A passage in Chaucer, for example, speaks of the music played before the king at dinner,
Whil that this kyng sit thus in his nobleye,
Herknynge his mynstralles hir thynges pleye
Biforn hym at the bord deliciously.
A similar reference to minstrels in general is found in the English classic, “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.” We are told here that the minstrels, while the guests and “all manner of meats, they made as much merriment as any men might.”
With mirthe and mynstralsye, with metes at her wille,
Thay maden as mery as any men myghten.
Another description of banquet music in the Sir Gawain tale mentions trumpets, bedecked with bright banners, and the new timpani [nakryn]. The “noble pipes,” we take to mean shawms.
Then the first cource come with crakkyng of trumpes,
With mony baner ful bryght that therbi henged.
Newe nakryn noyse with the noble pipes.
While the reader may wonder about digestion when eating in a relatively small palace room to the sound of