minstrel: Re: minstrel-digest V1 #504

[Corrie Bergeron]

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>
>From: Anna Troy <bibksat at Lisen.bibks.uu.se>
>Date: Wed, 15 Jul 1998 15:04:49 -0100 (GMT-0100)
>Subject: minstrel: Instrumental gender and social roles
>
>I was just wondering if some instruments during the late Middle Ages and 
>the Renaissance were considered inappropriate 
>for women or men to play. I'm also interested if anybody knows what kind 
>of social status different instruments had, was a Bagpipe more vulgar 
>than say a Lute fr.ex.
>
>Anna de Byxe

I've never come across anything to that effect.  Period art shows both
genders playing almost all types of instruments - winds, brass, strings,
keys, percussion.  Most illustrations of fidddles and pipes that I can call
to mind show men playing them.  

Some folks consider the bagpipes vulgar no matter who is playing them, but
the same can be said of dumbeks after 10 PM!  <G>  And it's said that the
harp and pipes were banned by the English as an instrument of war, but
that's late period.

There were some types of music, or certain venues (e.g. fiddling for a
farmers' dance), that would be considered declasse'; no high-born person
would want to be seen playing there.  But then most popular musicians were
not high-born (cf jongleurs, minstrels).

Brendan O Corraidhe


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Corrie Bergeron			 	corrie at tro.com				
Senior PLATO Courseware Designer, TRO Learning	www.tro.com 
President, Intra-Active Designs			www.itasca.net/~corrie/iad.htm
All-around neat guy		corrie at itasca.net	www.itasca.net/~corrie 

"Short term memory don't mean a thing when you've lost your mind" - Ellis
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