# Early Western Drone Music (Organistrum, Organum, Symphonia, Hurdy-Gurdy, etc.)



## jeanbaptiste (Nov 27, 2016)

hello forum,

i was watching Howard Goodall's Story of Music and came across something very appealing...

does anyone know of any good recordings of early musics (anything from the Greeks to the Renaissance is good) which feature a prominent drone (sustained continuous note)?
it can be both secular or sacred, and i already know some vocal "drone organum" (Perotin comes to mind), but now i'm especially interested in early droning _instruments _such as the Organistrum, Symphonia, Hurdy-Gurdy, etc... so far all i can find is recordings of bagpipes (enough!)

here is the perfect example of what I'm looking for (Skip to 13:50):





thanks


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

jeanbaptiste said:


> hello forum,
> 
> i was watching Howard Goodall's Story of Music and came across something very appealing...
> 
> ...


There's a recording of Eberhard Kummer singing Walkenstein lieder while playing a hurdy gurdy which I really enjoyed.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Oh and an obvious thing to check is Marcel Pérès's work, in the Machaut mass drone is evident, and in other things, maybe the Messe de la nativité de la Viege, la messe du jour de Noel, and in Missa Gotica, I don't have the time to check, but basically you should hear everything EO have done.

Oh and another one - the work of Marie Keyrouze. There's a CD of "Hymnes à la Viege" with drones everywhere.


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## jeanbaptiste (Nov 27, 2016)

Mandryka said:


> Oh and an obvious thing to check is Marcel Pérès's work, in the Machaut mass drone is evident, and in other things, maybe the Messe de la nativité de la Viege, la messe du jour de Noel, and in Missa Gotica, I don't have the time to check, but basically you should hear everything EO have done.
> 
> Oh and another one - the work of Marie Keyrouze. There's a CD of "Hymnes à la Viege" with drones everywhere.


Thanks so much mandryka, these are all very nice.
even the lieder are not too bad


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

Hildegard von Bingen, perhaps?






I'm not sure whether the drone played on an instrument rather than voices was typical at the time, but either way, this is magical stuff.


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