STEWART COPELAND

Re: Europe’s Middle Ages Soundtrack

My son is working on a project where he needs some help. He has to find a song from any musical genre that is meaningful and reflective to each theme:

- The Feudal System
- Medieval Trade and Towns
- The Plague

Any recommendation would be very much appreciated, otherwise thanks for reading.

i'd say check out the British Library: http://www.bl.uk/

or the vikki and albert museum: http://www.vam.ac.uk/

what about "Plague! - the musical" (i particularly like the fact they've used an exclamation mark, the sure sign of quality ...)

http://www.plaguethemusical.com/performers/male.htm

most people would say that "ring-a-ring of roses" is about the great plague of the mid 17th c, like here; http://www.twickenham-museum.org.uk/kid ... ntentID=45

but others, like here; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_Around_the_Rosie
say it's actually american and 300 years too late...

Henry "Barogue and Roll" "if it's not baroque, don't fix it" Purcell
english composer lived through the plague, I don't think he was strong on words tho...
http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/features/purcell.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00j8dpm

the english folk, dance and song society (no sniggering at the back) has got lots of stuff which i didn't look at but they've got some links and that which may be useful.....http://www.efdss.org/resind.htm

dunno if any of this constitutes meaningful or reflective.......

oh, and Status Quo probably sound the same now as they did 600 years ago......

Can't think of anything contemporary that fits the bill, except (tangentially) re. The Plague. 'Ghost Town' The death of a community?

We need a folk expert for this (as smax has pointed out), but I'm not sure how that would fly in your son's class.

ETA: Never mind....

I can't think of any example of the top of my head, but I would bet you would find an example of at least one of those in something by the Mediaeval Baebes

(a la homer) mmmmmmmm, mediaeval baebes....

http://www.mediaevalbaebes.com/home.html

I apologise for this - and will try and find useable ideas - but one of my friends has just come back with the useless (but passingly amusing) suggestion 'Serfing USA'.

The purpose of twitter seems to be to expidite the transmission of bad puns.

How could all of you forget the classic "The Background to History, Part 4", by Monty Python??? For SHAME

Enjoy!

http://rapidshare.com/files/226782738/MP-TBTH4.zip.html

www.pythonland.com/song06.php

Pfan: I enquired of an expert, and was advised to look for "The Harp Consort (Irish early music group) and anything with the words 'early music' in the genre description."

At work so haven't managed to get any specific links I'm afraid.

Thank you so much for your input!

I had no idea that "ring-a-ring of roses" was about the plague.
Hmm - The Harp Consort also mentions the lute. Maybe John Dowland's music would fit.
I'll pass all this information on to my son. I'm sure he'll like to check out the Mediaeval Baebes