# really, really early music from the British Isles



## science (Oct 14, 2010)

I'd like to hear some music from the British Isles from the early Middle Ages (c. 400 to c. 1000). Any recommendations? (Anything from the Crusades or later is too late for me!) 

I'm teaching some students about that period and we listened to some music that might have been from that era or similar to it - Ambrosian chant, the Sequentia disks "Edda" and "Lost Songs of a Rhineland Harper," and Byzantine Chant. 

I know that a lot of that music, when performed now, has to be imaginatively reconstructed, and I'm fine with that. For instance, I am not at all confident that Byzantine Chant as we know it is anything like an unchanged tradition going back a thousand years. (Edit: As long as it's not ridiculous: new-age Celtic stuff claiming to be authentic Celtic stuff is, for my purposes at least, unacceptable.)


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

science said:


> (Edit: As long as it's not ridiculous: new-age Celtic stuff claiming to be authentic Celtic stuff is, for my purposes at least, unacceptable.)


Dang, I was just about to recommend Enya... 

I wonder when the art of music notation reached the British Isles. Perhaps nothing authentic from that time and place remains?


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

I'm not sure there's any notated music from Britain for that period. Maybe the Winchester Tropers, which might have been late 10th century.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

This comes from the eleventh century, slightly outside your remit, but we used to visit Finchale Abbey, where the composer, St Godric, was a hermit - after being a riotous liver & pirate in his youth. I think this piece below is hauntingly beautiful.


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