57 minutes, 17 seconds

Estampie
Signum

Has the whole medieval-revival movement in Europe become a genuine phenomenon? Ensembles like Estampie, Corvus Corax, Hedningarna, and others have been around for a while, but lately they've been joined by Potentia Animi, Faun, and other newcomers, all making early music augmented (or not) with modern instrumentation and production. And then there was this article in last week's New York Times. OK, so not exactly evidence of a major movement, but the article made me wonder why I'm drawn to the music and why it might be that Europeans are interested in that period again. By way of approximate contrast, I don't think there's a similar collective nostalgia in this country for the colonial era.

But that clumsy analogy may reveal something: America is a multicultural nation--always has been. Immigrants, recent or not, can't trace their ancestry back to the colonies and the fight for independence from the British. Chances are, what tugs at their national soul is something related to their original ethnic culture or history, and not that of the country they live in now. Anyway, America is more of an idea--a group of concepts around freedom and capitalism--rather than a national expression of an ethnic group, even to those of us who were born here.

In Europe, the equation is a bit different. Sure, France, Germany, Italy, and the rest all have large immigrant populations, but these nations are very much expressions of a particular language, culture, history, and ethnic persona--one that can be traced back to medieval times, if not before. And I think they view immigration as a bit more of a threat to their culture than we do. (Although that's rapidly changing even here in the U.S.)

I guess the question I'm trying to pose here is this: Is the revival of interest in all things medieval (even among a small subculture) in Europe a more benign cousin of the neofolk movement? That is to say, is there a certain subsection of the European population that's attracted to historically influenced music, art, and other media because it harkens back to a time when Europe was European? Before the Turks came to Gemany and the Arabs came to France and the Africans came to Italy? Is it, to some, a comforting expression of "authentic" European-ness? And finally, if that's true, is the medieval revival movement a celebration of pre-modern European history and culture or a reaction to modern times?

Maybe it's a little bit of both. And by the way, I'm not trying to accuse Estampie or any other band of racism or xenophobia. Often what's so interesting about their music (and that of lots of other so-called medieval authenticists) is the interplay between east and west in the sound. The Crusades, for all their pointless carnage, certainly fostered a cultural exchange between two worlds, and you can sometimes hear it in the Middle Eastern-tinged melodies in Estampie's music.

Whew. Long post for a Tuesday morning. At least I didn't have to inscribe it on an illuminated manuscript.

Also today:

57:15 Ulf Söderberg, Tidvatten
57:14 Dernière Volonté, Commémoration (CD 1 of 2)
57:14 Vas, Feast of Silence
57:13 Lycia, A Day in the Stark Corner
57:12 TWZ, The Sixth Extinction
57:11 Nebulo, Kolia
57:11 Some More Crime, Code Opera
57:10 Attrition, The Hidden Agenda
57:10 Neon Cage Experiment, Oscillations
57:07 Elijah's Mantle, Sorrows of Sophia
57:07 Lycia, Estrella
57:06 Covenant, United States of Mind
57:06 Data-Bank-A, Decompilation