We’re still going with the whole Annunciation theme around here, and there’s more where that came from, I\u00a0assure you…<\/p>\n
Today’s piece is a traditional medieval carol, performed by the King’s Singers, of whom I\u00a0am very fond, due to their habit of\u00a0singing<\/a>\u00a0the\u00a0most<\/a>\u00a0preposterous<\/a>\u00a0pieces<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0music<\/a>\u00a0absolutely sweetly and perfectly.\u00a0 This carol feels like a dance to me – it’s the hollowness of the drum and the 6\/8 time signature, I think.\u00a0 I’d dance to it, anyway.<\/p>\n Medieval people had not studied Grade 4 music theory, and therefore they didn’t know you aren’t supposed to put parallel fourths and fifths anywhere (they probably\u00a0also\u00a0<\/em>didn’t know that the tenor and alto lines are supposed to be boring.\u00a0 No, I still haven’t forgiven my theory textbook for stating this so blithely).\u00a0 So this piece has open fourths and fifths (these are the ones that sound like a chord with the middle missing out of it – you can’t tell if its major or minor) all over the place, which sounds funky and bare and, as it happens, very quintessentially medieval to the modern ear.<\/p>\n