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This is a story about an
international couple raising and home educating three
young boys in Japan, while dealing with
climate, cultural, and personal challenges. These pages
are about pretty much anything and everything all guided
by our family motto, Taking Chances, Making Changes,
Being Happy. Thank you very much for joining us on our
ongoing adventure.
Comments or questions about this blog?....message me at
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Hey
Friends,
My inspiration for listening to this music has
everything to do with my old friend Bjorn. He used to
live high up in the mountains of San Diego County,
California with his wife and daughter. They often
invited us up to stay a few days, especially during the
cool season when they would occasionally get a pretty
significant amount of snow. The atmosphere was
wonderful. Snow covered pine trees, a warm and very
unusual mountain home, and all the Charles Shaw, "two
buck Chuck", Cabernet wine you could possibly drink.
Bjorn used to put on this online radio station called
Ancient FM (not sure if this station still exists) which
often played music by the Mediæval Bæbes. I became
enchanted with this group and the genre. I would sit
there with my wife, and on the last trip with our couple
of months old son Shai, and simply enjoy the moment. We
eventually moved to Japan, and although we are no longer
in contact with Bjorn, those days up on the mountains
will always be a wonderful memory for us. |
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Mediaeval Music
Medieval music is Western music written during the Middle
Ages. This era begins with the fall of the Roman Empire and
ends sometime in the early fifteenth century. Establishing
the end of the medieval era and the beginning of the
Renaissance is difficult; the usage in this article is the
one usually adopted by musicologists.
Instruments used to perform medieval music still exist, but
in different forms. The flute was once made of wood rather
than silver or other metal, and could be made as a
side-blown or end-blown instrument. The recorder has more or
less retained its past form. The gemshorn is similar to the
recorder in having finger holes on its front, though it is
actually a member of the ocarina family. One of the flute's
predecessors, the pan flute, was popular in medieval times,
and is possibly of Hellenic origin. This instrument's pipes
were made of wood, and were graduated in length to produce
different pitches.
Medieval music uses many plucked string instruments like the
lute, mandore, gittern and psaltery. The dulcimers, similar
in structure to the psaltery and zither, were originally
plucked, but became struck in the 14th century after the
arrival of the new technology that made metal strings
possible.
Source: Wikipedia - Medieval music |
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Mediæval
Bæbes
The Mediæval Bæbes are a British ensemble of female
musicians founded in the 1990s by Katharine Blake and
included some of her colleagues from the band Miranda Sex
Garden, as well as other friends who share her love of
mediaeval music. The lineup often rotates from album to
album, and ranges from six to 12 members.
Source: Wikipedia - Mediæval Bæbes (link is not working) |
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