medievel

The Medieval Banquet conjures its scene with genuine specificity – a feast in a medieval court, illuminated by firelight, with four musicians in tattered, colourful rags playing from a balcony whilst haunches of meat and goblets of mead are distributed below. The instrumentation is chosen with authenticity in mind: a Celtic harp provides the harmonic foundation with its characteristic warm resonance, a psaltery lute adds plucked string colour, a frame drum keeps the rhythm with period-appropriate simplicity, and a recorder carries the melody with the bright, slightly nasal tone that is immediately evocative of the medieval period. The tune itself is simple and repetitive in exactly the right way – diegetic music for a specific historical moment.