Rebirth of My Hummelchen

After I learned to play bagpipes a few years ago, I decided I needed to get myself a quality instrument to play, as opposed to the cheap Pakistani ones that I learned on. Truth be told, the cheap pipes were great, and they served me very well, as they taught me everything I needed to know to play and care for bagpipes, but because of their cheap quality, they were a little high on maintenence, and the lack of precision is identical to what musicians who play recorder know -- it's better to get a high quality recorder with a sweet voice, that will keep it's sweet voice and literally play perfectly in tune every time, whenever it's picked up. With cheaper instruments, you have to constantly tune them, or find that they don't quite get along with other instruments from time to time. The same is true with Bagpipes, as with any other instrument. Cheap pipes make you spend a lot of time not playing them. So found Sam Coulter, a craftsman in the USA who made Medieval bagpipes. He had a selection of pipes based on medieval designs, and I thought that since he was in the USA, that it would eliminate a lot of the expected issues with foreign currency exchange, and so on. So I contacted him, and ordered a Hummelchen. What I didn't expect was that he'd as me questions like:

• What key do you want them in?
  
• What kind of fingering?
  
• Do you want A=440?

Keys
The key of the instrument can be summed up as what is the first note on the instrument, and what is the range it plays in. The Renaissance saw the creation of a standard in music -- instruments were divided up into Sopranino (Key of F), Soprano (Key of C), Alto (F), Tenor (C), and Bass (F). From the renaissance on, you would only see these instruments in C and F, with the occaisional descant D.

With bagpipes, since most of them were not chromatic, they were available in a variety of different keys. What I didn't know was that a Hummelchen is a chromatic bagpipe by design, and it was usually available in the Key of C and D (You would get the instrument in C, and could tune the drones to D. Luckily, since my problem was that I couldn't play with recorders, I asked for them in C, which was pure serendipity.

A=440 Explained
See, since I knew nothing about music prior to learning the pipes, and was pretty much self-taught, these questions didnt' mean anything to me. A=440 is "modern tuning", where the A above middle C equals exactly 440 Hertz, which is a measure of audible wave frequency. See, in medieval times, before we had electronics and sensitive tools with which to gauge the construction of instruments, all tuning was done by ear, and the tunings were more like A=315 or A=385, which, to an untrained ear, can sound almost identical, except when you play them together, ahd hear the slight wavering sound of dissonance. Since the main reason I had for getting a real instrument was to play with other people, and I knew that most people had A=440, I decided on A=440.

Fingering
There are several types of fingering in simple wind instruments -- Highland, Recorder, German, French, and others. Many different instruments have unique fingerings, meaning covering different holes with your fingers produces different notes. There is closed fingering, such as in Highland pipes, where you keep the holes of unused notes covered. OPen fingering, like on a recorder, has most notes below the one you're playing left open. Cross fingering is a technique that you use on some instruments to produce half-tones (sharps and flats). Highland fingering only allows for whole notes, while cross fingering on a recorder offers a complete chromatic range. With Highland fingering, you just have "a-b-c-d-e-f-g-a-b" (this is an oversimplified example), but on an instrument with recorder fingering, you have A-A#-B-B#-C-C#-D-D#, and so on. The advantages of recoder and cross-fingering is that you can play a much larger range of music. WIth Highland fingering, you're limited to Highland music, or having to adapt music to the instrument's range. Since I had only used Highland fingering, I decided on Highland fingering. This was a crucial mistake on my part.

Asking for Highland fingering sort of made my instrument a hybrid, and totally inappropriate. Unfortunately, you cannto blame the craftsman, because he builds pipes for all sorts of people with all sorts of specifications, and he cannot tell which ones are making bad choices, and which aren't. He has no idea if a customer is a genius or a total novice, if they want a set of pipes like I asked for for convenience, or for a special project, or whatever. PLus, the customer is always right -- if you ask for a set of pipes with characteristic A, B, and C, he is obliged to deliver those things in his instrument. So I got this set of pipes that sounded really great, but they still played in a highland scale, and were sort of still not compatible with other instruments. I played them occaisionally, but for the most part, didn't touch them a lot. I started thinking of new pipes -- actually buying a real German-made Hummelchen, but then thought "Why not just get a new chanter for the one that I have?" So I contacted Sam again, and asked if he could make a new chanter for me. I told him that I needed the following things on the new chanter:

• Key of C
  
• Chromatic
  
• Recorder fingering
  
• It needs to get B flat, and E flat (common required notes in a lot of medieval music)

He said he could do it, so I sent him my hummelchen, and in a few months, the newly reborn instrument arrived at my door. It works perfectly.
Above is a picture of the original highland-fingered chanter on my Hummelchen. Note the large holes.
This is the new chanter. Note the Double-holes. These allow it to play chromatically, almost exactly like a recorder.

I have included sound samples of it in it's different modes (C and D-minor). For more versatility, I crafted a leather drone-plug, which allows me to turn off the baritone drone for easier tuning, or to just shut it off when less drones are required. I will eventually make a second plug for the bass drone, because I discovered that the new instrument sounds great with the Hurdy-Gurdy, but we have to shut the drones off, because the gurdy already drones loud enough, and more drones means that nobody would hear either instrument's melody. So for some duets, I need no drones to work at all.

Here is a sample of my Hummelchen playing in C, with the drones tuned to C anf G. The song is a German folk tune I heard from favorite band called Spectaculatius. The good thing is that My hummelchen sounds exactly like theirs, which means that I have an authentic instrument now.
Here's the same pipes playing in D-minor, with the bass drone set to D, and the Baritone set to A. This tune is one I heard Wolgemut play. This also demonstrates the chromatic nature of this bagpipe, as there is a ubiquitous B-flat in this tune.

Full Bladder?

I just got myself a bladder-pipe from a historic instrument craftsman in the Czech Republic. More pictures are on the way.

The Bladder pipe is one of the rarest medieval instruments to see these days. The earliest references to it are from the 13th century, but it may actually be a lot older. It's not so much an ancestor of the bagpipe, as much as it is a cousin, though, if we find earlier references to it in the future, there might be reason to believe it is at least an ancestor of some smallpipes. However, it's most likely that it was a simplified version of a bagpipe, easier to set up and use, cheaper to make, and smaller than conventional bagpipes. In the later years of it's popularity, it was associated with peasants.

The pipe looks similar to the legendary Indian "snake charmer" instrument, but it is not. The Indian "Been", as it's called, is a completely different instrument, and has no bag or bladder.

Back in the day, the bag of the bladder pipe was an actual sheep's bladder -- when fresh, it was very elastic, and able to be filled so as to expand and allow the player to breathe. Unfortnately, sheep's bladders do not last very long before they need to be replaced, so the modern bladder pipes use a thin leather kid-skin bag. It's less elastic, but it works, and last a lot longer. Until I learn how to play it correctly, I'm sort of usig the bag as a bagpipe bag, smooshing my face into it while closing the hole with my tongue, and inhaling. Maybe that's how you're supposed to do it, but it takes a bit more coordination than bagpipes. By the time I'm done, I might have the skills required to play digeridoo!

Here is a sound sample of my new toy!

Another source for Medieval sheet music and instruments

Well, I met a new friend, and found a great resource. In the SCA circles I am part of, I meet lots of other people with similar musical ambitions and abilities. Recently, I put a call out for people to join a blogroll for medieval music, since we are such a small community, and one of the responders was "HL Aleyn Wyckington Gentleman Pyper and Maker of Devices Most Musical.

Like me, Aleyn plays medieval bagpipes, and shares my pain. :)

Though his blog is rather personal, and really only useful to people who actually know him, he has a non-bloggy website that he uses to sell his music instruments and offers free information on their care and maintenence, or as he likes to call it "Care and feeding".

His site is called Aleyn's Instruments, and I should draw your attention to the "Docs & Downloads" section. Here is a wealth of information about how to use and care for your Saxon lyre, Epinette, Cornamuse, Various specialized bagpipes, and the Scottish hornpipe (not just a chanter with a windcap). He also has one of those things from my last blog -- a PDF of sheet music for bagpipes! Dig in.

While you're at it, check out his incredible hand-made instruments. He makes authentic medieval Bagpipes, cornamuses, recorders, harps, and other instruments. Since I know that not a lot of people know of my blog yet, I'm sure that he won't get inundated with orders. There's a sort of double-edged sword to being a historic instrument maker. On the one hand, you can guarantee yourself business since few people make the instruments that you do. On the other hand, you can get inundated with work, because it takes weeks and sometimes months to complete a single instrument, and customers can wait upwards of a year or more for their instrument if you become well known. sadly, not all instrument makers earn enough off of their craft to quit their day job. I've never met one who has, but that's the nature of the beast. Only by achieving real national or international fame can instrument makers, like recording artists, earn their living from their hobby. Let's wish him luck, anyway. So, Aleyn, I'd like to order a cornamuse from you, before you get flooded with work! :)

Song Notation for Medieval Musicians

I was recently on a quest for a friend of mine. He wanted to learn how to play "Spielmannstanz", which is an old German Medieval standard. Pretty much every medieval band knows it, as they did back in the day. However, there doesn't appear to be many sources of sheet music to learn the song. So I started looking for music notation online. I found some interesting things on the way, and I'm listing them here in case anyone needs some good reference material for new songs.


First, I found the Codex Verus site. This has a PDF file of sheet music for damn near every medieval song I know. Well, with the exception of Spielmannstanz! Oh, well... It was the first trully wonderful find on my search, and though it didn't have what I was looking for, it had enough songs in it to be valuable to my musician friends and myself (even though I don't read notation that well!)


Then I bumped into Claudia Walla's Musik im Mittelalter page (meaning "Music in the medieval period"), which has a series of links to sheet music for many other songs. Sadly, Spielmannstanz is not among this page, either. But again, this page has so much other music on it, in notation form, that I had to bookmark it, and share it with friends.


Possibly the best find I made was http://www.spielleut.de", which like the other pages, contains sheet music for a lot of medieval standards in PDF form. Spielleut goes one step further with MP3 files of many of the songs on the page.

I never managed to find notation for Spielmannstanz. But then, it's no loss for me, since I still don't really read music, and already know the tune from listening. However, for those interested, Spielmannstanz is a 13th century song that is anonymous in origin. The name means "Minstrel's Dance". In the day, it was known to most musicians in Germany, and played everywhere. Musicians were expected to know it. It never really traveled far from Germany. In fact, the only bands that play it regularly or who have done new versions of it are all German. The tune has had an interesting evolution in the Medieval/folk/rock fusion genre. It was brought back to life from early manuscripts, by the group Corvus Corax. Another band, In Extremo, married the tune to the lyrics of Ludwig Uhland, a 19th century German Romantic poet (They named this version "Spielmannfluch").

Postscript -- After reading through the Codex Verus, I realized that the song on page 38, "Propinan de Melyor", was Spielmannstanz, just with a Spanish title. The fine print under the title mentioned that it was also known as "Spielmannsfluch (InEx) or Spielmannstanz (CC)." So I did manage to find the song, but it wasn't apparent until I read through the stuff I found on the first day. I quickly mailed the information to my friends, and hope they appreciate the effort!

Videos of Diabolis In Musica

Okay, after weeks of wrangling, we got all the tapes that people took of our shows at King Richard's Faire, and digitized them onto a computer. We then cut the best stuff down to our favorite songs, and put it up on You Tube. So far, we only have seven complete videos, but there are more being worked on. We have about 4 GB worth of video to go through, and what you see so far is merely one weekend's worth of tape.

You can check the videos out at the new official YouTube channel for Diabolis In Musica:

http://www.youtube.com/user/MinstrelKrampf

Alternatively, we have also embedded the videos on our Official Website:

http://www.diabolisinmusica.com/mp3.html

Some notes:

• Raven's Ballade

  
  On "Raven's Ballade", the song is medieval, but the original English Lyrics were full of words that nobody uses. "Twa Corbies" means "Tree Ravens" in Old English, and "dithers" refers to "innards", and there are other words that would require explaining to the audience. I've heard plenty of people just play the song with the original lyrics, but the story is a bit lost, since the audience doesn't know the meaning of the words, and would not sit still for a lecture on the word meanings. So I made new lyrics, based on the old ones, with modern words that people understand.
  
  
  Since the song is rather morbid and dreary (it ends with a maiden burying her husband, and then dyng herself,presumably of grief), and our band is comedic, we introduced it as a kid's song, "because it's got animals... and kids love stories about animals!", and then, as the grossest part of the song, Lady Jocelyn screams in protest. I invent new lyrics on the spot to make it less gruesome, all for laughs, of course.
  
  
  
  

• Douce Dame Joliet

  
  In the middle of this song, Lady Jocelyn plays a solo... very badly! This was intentional. Watch how the dancer reacts to the dissonant notes!
  
  
  
  

• Falkenlied

  
  This song is a real medieval song from the 14th century. It's a happy tune, but the original lyrics were downbeat, and about infidelity and how a man's wife leaves him because he doesn't treat her well. Since this isn't really a happy topic, I decided to take a theme from the original song (Training a Falcon, then losing it), and I made up new lyrics to tell a funny story that audiences would like. The music is true to the original, though.
  
  
  
  

• Eisbärentanz

  
  This song is one of our signature medleys, and was played at the end revels of the faire, in which all the musicial acts show up, and play one last time before closing. The boar's head theater is the location, which we loved to play at, because it's curved shell-design allowed us to work without amplification, even with soft numbers. It's also one of the biggest crowds we saw, and we played it a little faster than usual.
  
  
  
  

• Cantiga 100

  
  Cantiga 100 is a real medieval song, written by King Alfonso Xavier X of Spain in the 13th century. It's notable for having an A-part that's in a major chord, and B part that's in a minor part, which is unusual to today's ears. We decided to stage it as a battle between the parts, with the A part being dainty, and the B part being rowdy and obnoxious. Listen to how Lady Jocelyn describes the sound of a Rauschpfeife.
  
  
  
  

• Nonesuch

  
  Nonesuch was the band's first song, and is our most popular number. I used to randomly play different tunes that fit with the 4/4 beat, but we eventually settled on a consistant medley where the same songs are played every time. Nonesuch is an English Country dance from the 1600s. Saltarello I, the second song in the medley, is a long-popular medieval dance song. "Dödetium" is the third song in the medley, and was simply selected because it kind of fit, and allowed for a drum break. We conclude every show with Nonesuch, and usually, dancers come and join us.
  
  
  

King Richard's Faire is finally over!

And boy, are we beat! This was the biggest weekend we've seen. Attendance was huge, and we got seen by hundreds of people every day. The place was mobbed to the extent that you could hardly walk around because people were in lines waiting to get to various attractions.

On saturday, we played to some of the most packed shows of the season. We're new, so lots of people don't know us yet, but we got a lot of tips and cheers. We saw a lot of people taping and taking pictures, too. it was very encouraging. We noticed that several people came back for a second show, too.

At the end revels, we played our weird version of Platerspiel, which got some "WTF" looks from a lot of people. They didn't know what to make of it. Our version of the song is done with Rauschpfeife and Hurdy-Gurdy, as opposed to the traditional bagpipe duet that most bands to. It sounds very strange, and we bang our heads like heavy metal musicians during the fast part, which makes it even stranger, but funny, because people don't expect medieval music to rock.

At the gate closing, we had our first time ever where the whole band was able to show up. We played a few of our numbers, and used the opportunity to practice some new material, like Bransle Burgunde. All in all, Saturday was great. We got home tired and aching as usual, but thrilled that it turned out well.

Sunday was equally fantastic. It was packed just as much as Saturday, and we made about the same in tips. We invited dancers and children on the stage with us to be our "Diabolettes", quite out of the blue. It just sort of happened, and so we continued inviting people up on stage to dance while we played. We played Eisbaertanz for the end revels, and the crowd loved it.

Monday, our last day of the Faire, was the best of all. We ran the Musicians of the Realm, just as we did the first weekend. The magical Madrigals played a few English carols on kazoos, and it was hilarious, because they did it all so well, and it sounded like a consort of crummhorms. As we left, all the actors stopped us to let us know ho much they appreciated us and what we did. It felt really good. The Entertainment coordinator told us that they'd like us back next year (and no audition required, either). We know we'll do it, but we don't know about doing it every weekend yet. It certainly was a lot of work, and we're all tired. Perhaps money may convince us.

We are planning on spending the next few months recording a CD to sell at future shows. We can make hundreds more per show that way. All the hard work seems to be paying off. I think we're a success.

Our performances at King Richard's Faire

Well, our run of King Richard's Fair is almost over, and it's been plagued by bad weather. We had one whole weekend cancelled due to rain (The remains of Hurricane Ike), and had one day where the fair decided to open in the rain, because the rain was dying down, but attendance was extremely low.

Not a lot of people have seen us as a result, and we've only seen one review on a rennie board, which gave us a "wow" review.

So here is how everything went so far.

On the weekend of Aug 30, 31, and Sept 1:

Our debut weekend was prepared for by having band members go to the fair a week before the show, and scope out the stage. We were told that we needed to be amplified, because the stage is in an open area, and sound doesn't travel far. The stage is electrified, so we looked where the power outlets were, and made sure that we had enough cables to reach everything. We also had to map out where we were going to stand, as we had to ensure enough room for the dancer.

Our first weekend had slight misty showers, but thankfully they stopped in time for our shows. We performed 4 shows, and got a sort of feel for which songs people liked, and which ones they didn't. After the first day, we realized that the March of Cambreadth was not a hit. Part of the reason is due to the fact that it's got a few strong words in it, and it's all about blood and war. With lyrics like "Send these bastards back to hell!" and "fight till everyone is dead!", parents with children could be seen picking up their kids and moving away. So we abandoned that number.

Since I had injured my Achilles tendon a week earlier, I wasn't able to dance around much at all, and was sort of stiff while playing. Fortunately, I wasn't in too much pain, but I played it safe to prevent re-injury.

On the second day, we were asked to take over the "Musicians Of The Realm" part of the show, which is a slot where all the music acts show up at the end of the day, and do impromptu jams. We had no idea what we were supposed to be doing, but we fell into the role quite well, and the other musicians really loved us. We played along with several musicians, and made new friends. By the third day, we were being stopped around the fair by various performers and they complimented us, which felt really good. Sometimes, a few good words really makes up for lack of pay.

On the weekend of Sept. 13 & 14:

We returned to soggy weather. We heard that the weekend before, one which we were not scheduled to play, that the fair actually closed due to rain. They were expecting to close on Saturday, because it was pouring. We all huddled in the barn, and waited for the official word on what would happen. As the time approached 11:00am, the rain started to taper off, and they said the Faire would open.

As we set up our stuff on the stage, the rain started up again, and we put our instruments back in their cases, and moved everything under a nearby roof. Fortunately, the roof we sheltered under was an un-used food court stall, and it was not scheduled to be open all day. We got permission to play there, since the rain was not stopping. The attendence that Saturday was terrible. It looked like only about 50 patrons showed up. Fortunately, our shelter allowed us to play without amplification. At the time slot of our first performance, the rain got rather heavy, and patrons sheltered under the roof with us. We took this opportunity to perform a nice close and personal show for the people, of both our usual numbers and some impromptu jams. People really liked it, and near the end of the performance, the rain stopped, and we were able to do some bagpipe numbers.

This weekend, my Achilles tendon was much better, and I danced around with my pipes, which seemed to really improve the act. From that point on, I made sure to dance around during all the bagpipe numbers.

Sunday was clearer, and there was no rain. We seemed to repeat our success of the previous weekend, albeit, the damp weather didn't help.

On The Weekend of Sept. 27 & 28:

Rain, rain, and more rain! The remnants of Hurricane Ike were over New England, and the fair was called off. We stayed home watching the weather reports, but there wasn't any encouragement. We were slightly disappointed.

On The weekend of Oct. 11 - 13:

As we approach the last weekend of the fair, the weather forecast is clear and dry, and only slightly cloudy. We're preparing to make this last weekend work well, by having a large banner draped on the front of the stage, as well as planning on some new numbers to do for the Musicians of the Realm and the closing ceremonies. The Faire decided to stay open for another weekend to make up for all the closings, but we already had other plans made, since we had to put aside all of our weekend time for the fair. We're hoping to get some videotaping done, so we have video to send around to other faires, and for publicity. We want this final weekend to go out with a bang, and be remembered so we can get better paying gigs in the future.