What is the name of a medieval band?

Answer 1

Providing that in Medieval times there was no such thing as electricity or any common form or way of recording any kind of music, it's hard to say that there was any specific middle age band noted in history. In the days of kings and knights music was viewed in a completely different way. Music was provided at great gatherings by members of Royal bloodlines. Music was made by peasant wanderers and folks getting together for a good time anywhere. I can, I feel, rightly say that music in the middle ages was less a popularity contest or some sort of capitalistic right endowed to the people, but more a feeling expressed. Obviously it is still a feeling expressed. There are things that time cannot take away from music, which is obviously what makes it such an important aspect of human life, but to say that there were popular artists in the times we are speaking of would be invariably silly. In today's modern times music is predominantly a way to make money, that coming before any intention of expressing feeling or emotion. I don't mean to let my opinion take more of a chunk of this than my basic knowledge of the question, and I apologize for doing so. Essentially, it would be very hard to trace recorded history to find a specific name for a specific gathering of musical talent. If anyone does know a specific name and can provide historical verification of their existence in those times, I would more than encourage them to delete my answer and provide their own. Bologna History: The Lighter Side of History;(Which means some factual history and a whole lot of Bologna) It is actually a little known fact that there were many popular medieval band's during the medieval period including King Arthur and The Roundtable Squares, Conan and the Destroyers, The Carolingian Troubadour's of which Charlemagne was a member but later quit that band to form Charlemagne and the Knights of Rock and Roll. While it hard to find any recordings of these bands as the first answerer pointed out their were no recording devices in medieval times, which is why it is called medieval times, the touring of these bands was very popular amongst royalty and the peasantry alike and many of these bands played arena type concerts including the Roman Coliseum, the Taj Majal and the Winter Palace in Russia.

Editors note: The Society of Uptight and Really Really Serious Historians, (S.U.R.R.S.H.), rejects the claims made above as absolute nonsense and nothing but bologna and while historical figures such as Charlemagne and the Carolingian dynasty did exist, it is not a historical fact that they were in rock groups or any other form of musical band. As far as King Arthur and Conan go, these are mythical figures and there is no substantial historical data to support they ever existed.

May I continue? Very well, please proceed. Thank you.

Since S.U.R.R.S.H. is always so persnickety about things such as facts, this paragraph will confine itself to just the facts and nothing but the facts. Although it should be noted that facts tend to get in the way of a really good answer so please bear with this answer as it will be attempted to assuage S.U.R.R.S.H. of its concerns so they are not up all night drinking popping antacids. In order to discuss the historical music of midieval times, or as it is also known, the middle ages, this paragraph can only discuss that music which was written down and managed to survive the ravages of time. Because parchment was very expensive and due to the tedious and lengthy nature of recording this music on parchment, much of the music of the middle ages that has survived was recorded by wealthy institutions such as The Holy Roman Catholic Church and various monasteries, as well as the courts of royalty across Europe.

The written music of the medieval times that has manged to survive does not seem to reflect the popular music of that time. In the early middle ages much of the written music seems to be monophonic or homorhythmic which would be songs sung in unison. While these texts show some neumatic notations, which clearly gave suggestions for pharasing, rhythm as a whole seems to be sorely lacking in these texts. In the latter part of the middle ages texts began to demonstrate signs of rhythmic modes but rhythm as a part of music did not seem to be a priority among early Europeans. This may be the origin of the saying: "White people can't dance." Editors note: While S.U.R.R.S.H. confirms the accuracy of much of the two paragraphs above they strongly object to the claim that origin of the phrase: "White people can't dance" and wish to make clear that this is just a statement of bias and has no place in historical accounts. Besides, many members of S.U.R.R.S.H. insist that many white people can dance and that within the Society of these historians there are many good dancers. Yeah right. I've been to some of there parties and trust me those guys can't dance. Doing the robot badly is not dancing. At any rate, the simple chant was the most commonly known music of the medieval times because of its unison of voice and its natural declamation. At some point polyphony began to surface and it is generally assumed that polyphony found its roots during the middle middle ages. Harmonies filled with consonant intervals of perfect fifths, unisons, octaves and as time went on perfect fourths were being notated during this time. By the end of this era, rhythm finally began to find use in this music allowing for complex interactions between multiple vocal line done so repeatedly and the use and notation of instrumental accompaniment also found development at the latter part of this time.

In the early middle ages it was chanting that is the closest that would come to medieval bands as the Jewish Synagogue was a heavy influence on the chanting of such groups as the Ambrosian chanters and the Beneventan chanters. The Mozarabic chanters, however, were heavily influenced by the music of North Africa and there were also the Gallican chanters of France and the Celtic chanters of Ireland and Britain. The pop stars of those chanting days included Pope Gregory I, (he of the Gregorian chant), St. Godric, Hildegard of Bengin, Huckbald, Notker Balbulus, Odo of Arezzo, Odo of Cluny and Tutilo. With the exception of Pope Gregory and perhaps Huckbald the rest should have listened to their managers and changed their names and perhaps they would be more famous now.

The Liturgical drama so popular in the middle ages might also be considered a part of the popular bands of medieval times and were performed by traveling actors who sung parts of the drama and spoke others. Sort of like popular bands today such as Ice T's Body Count and the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Hollywood Undead that include rapping in their melodies they sing. There were also the Goliards that were clear influence on the Troubadour traditions that appeared in later times. And both the Goliards and Troubadours might be considered to be akin to local bands and coffee house folk singers of today. These were the best examples of medieval bands in the middle ages and many of them rocked! Some were rocked or rather stoned because of their lack of talent as even then, in the middle ages many people aspired to be American Idols.

Editors note: We are not certain of the veracity of these last few paragraphs as S.U.R.R.S.H. is refusing to take our calls since the answerer made the crack about bad robot dancing. We urge the readers to take this historical account with a grain of salt and to verify any passage that presents itself as fact.The stuff presented as fact is not any of my fiction and I worked hard on the research...besides, those guys can't dance.

Answer 2

The French were Troubadours, others Minstrels.