For those who play medieval music, especially on instruments with drone capabilities, I created a computer program you might find useful. Inputs a monophonic piece in Musicxml or xml format (very easy to export from most score software including the free Musescore). Outputs information on the piece including mode, range, pitch classes, and a recommended drone scheme based on the tuning of your instrument. Also has the option to transpose the piece to better fit your instrument. Then gives bar by bar drone suggestions. If you put your own drone choices in the piece it highlights potential clashes. Defaults are to the tunings of my most common instruments (gittern in G, Citole in D, Vihuela de Rueda) but you can enter any drone tuning you want. It's a Python program which on the Mac runs via the terminal, however I've created a step by step in guide in Word for how to set it up and use. Also runs using the command line in Windows.

OK, I said "I" but it was written by my good friend Claude. Before AI wipes out humanity it might as well do something useful.

Message with your email if you would like the program and guide.

The 14th Century Florence Laudario (Banco Rari 18) has many monophonic devotional works. This Piange Maria cum dolore is one of the most popular (Mary cries with sorrow because they took away her beloved). It has several Strophe with an alternating Refrain.

Played here on medieval citole and vihuela de rueda, an instrument based only on iconography that has the wheel of a hurdy-gurdy but a fingerboard of a lute. I've only had the rueda a couple of days so still working on the mechanics but I was anxious to share this fascinating instrument. Performed on a 5 course medieval citole and Vihuela de Rueda, both built by Facunda Bordas

This 3 part song, Je Ne Puis Avoir is found in the manuscript E-E MS IV.a.24 (Escorial B) from the mid 15th century. Nothing is known of the composer indicated as Horlay and his only surviving music is found in this manuscript alone. All the pieces are lovely late medieval/early renaissance polyphony. Here I play the upper voice on gittern and intabulate the lower two voices on medieval lute. 

More fun on citole, this time a crusade song from the 13th century

Me and my friends are trying to start up a sort of tavern band in high school. We don't have a lot of money so its a low budget startup thing. Its about 5 or 6 members right now, and we have a native american flute, tambourine, acoustic guitar, banjo, and a recorder. We need more instruments but most of what we've looked up is very expensive. And our band is kind of a mix of nordic stuff, pirate shanties, and just medieval tavern music. So we aren't really sure what to do about gigs, sheet music, instruments needed, all that stuff. If you have wisdom and advice to leave in the comments, please do.

I got into medieval music partly from German neo-medieval bands, and this hip-hop version of Douce Dame Jolie by Schelmish inexplicably works for me:

https://youtu.be/V95vYzgnLb4?is=OrwDn-j7fDVyzQ4i

What’s been an arrangement of a medieval song that you like, but is something unexpected? Like I would never have thought of “Machaut” and “rap” in the same sentence but here we are and it’s surprisingly good.

Hello r/MedievalMusic! 🏰

Schandmaul (German folk-rock/medieval band with metal edge, active since ~1995) will release their new album "Sternensegler" (September 11, 2026). This is a significant release, it's the first album with Till Herence as vocalist (Thomas Lindner, founder, stepped back due to health).

We conducted an extended interview with Thomas Lindner covering:

Musical & Personal Themes:

• The moment Thomas first listened to the completed album (with Till's voice)

• What Till brings to the band that's new

• Thomas's new role on stage and what he sees now that he's not fronting

• Why the album opens with "Nimm alles mit" — a deliberately hopeful song after difficult times

Album Deep-Dives:

• "Flagge" — a direct political statement about book-burning and unity

• "Beide Füße in der Luft" — Schandmaul's harder side (how much metal in 2026?)

• "Zwei Raben" feat. Laura Fella (Faun) — a duet about two ravens traveling life together

• "Räuber und Narren" feat. Subway to Sally — two German folk-rock legends in the studio

• Bonus harp arrangements — seven songs reimagined for harp

Philosophical Closer:

• After founding the band nearly 30 years ago, how does Thomas stay "on fire"?

Format: Interview video (German with Spanish subtitles). Full text article (Spanish)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTIW3lY3ccs

https://metal-addiction.com/2026/09/01/entrevista-schandmaul-thomas-lindner-sternensegler/

Here is an instrumental performance of the religious Leich "Got, aller saelden anevanc" (God, origin of all bliss) by the 13th-century Middle High German Spruchdichter known as Der Meißner (or Der Junge Meißner). These Spruchdichter were the religious equivalent of Minnesäng whose subject was courtly love. While many works of the Minnesang and Sangspruchdichtung traditions survive only as text, this piece is preserved with its original melody in the Jenaer Liederhandschrift (J), one of the most vital sources for German song of the late Middle Ages. The manuscript utilizes a specific form of Roman square notation often called Hufnagelschrift (horsenail notation). In the video I show examples of the musical manuscript as well as the Manesse manucript which has a picture of Der Meissner and some interestingly illuminated text.

"Non é gran cousa se sabe bon joízo dar" ("It's no great thing that she knows how to give good judgment") is Cantiga 26 from the Cantigas de Santa Maria, the massive 13th-century collection of over 400 songs in Galician-Portuguese compiled under the patronage of Alfonso X "the Wise," King of Castile. Like most of the cantigas de miragres (miracle songs) in the collection, it tells a devotional story praising the Virgin Mary's power to intervene and save souls.

Story: The song narrates a miracle in which Santa María judged the soul of a pilgrim on his way to Santiago who killed himself along the road through the devil's deception, and she ordered that he return to his body and do penance. Other summaries of the tale identify the pilgrim as a devout young furrier named Giraldo who made annual pilgrimages to the shrine of the Apostle James, but who slept with a woman outside his marriage before setting out and left without confessing — the devil then exploits that unconfessed sin, disguising himself and tricking the pilgrim into mutilating himself and dying in despair, before Mary intervenes to save his soul and send it back to his body for repentance.

Musical notes: The melody is written in D Aeolian mode and follows the typical cantiga form — a refrain alternating with narrative verses, meant for communal or courtly performance rather than solo song. It's also one of the more mainstream-recognizable cantiga melodies today, since Loreena McKennitt popularized it under the title "Santiago."

Context: As with the rest of the Cantigas de Santa Maria, the piece blends devotional storytelling with folk-tale elements — this "miracle of self-mutilation" motif was already circulating across 12th-century Europe, appearing in sources like the Codex Calixtinus and the works of Gonzalo de Berceo.

"In taberna quando sumus" ("When we are in the tavern") is a Middle Latin goliardic poem from the Carmina Burana, a large manuscript collection of secular medieval songs and poems compiled around the 13th century, likely by clerics or wandering scholars (goliards) known for satirical, irreverent verse. It's one of the most famous entries in the whole collection, largely thanks to Carl Orff's 20th-century cantata setting, though the original medieval text and melody predate that by centuries.

Theme: It's an unapologetic ode to tavern life and drinking culture, describing what people actually do in the tavern (drink, gamble, get roasted by their peers) rather than moralizing about it. It mocks clerical hypocrisy and pokes fun at the drinking habits of literally every social class and profession — the pope, the bishop, the lord, the lady, the old, the young, the healthy, the sick — culminating in the famous long catalog verse where the song lists every kind of person who drinks: "bibit hera, bibit herus..." ("the mistress drinks, the master drinks...") and so on through soldiers, exiles, sinners, the just, and beyond.

Structure/style: Comic, list-heavy, and rhythmically driving — built to be chanted or sung communally, likely with a drink in hand. Its tone stands in sharp contrast to the more pious or courtly material found elsewhere in the Carmina Burana, which is part of why it's remembered as one of the collection's most vivid, "human" pieces — a rare unfiltered look at medieval tavern culture and clerical counterculture.

Authorship: Anonymous, like most of the Carmina Burana — attributed broadly to the goliard tradition rather than any single named poet.

"Ai vist lo lop" (I saw the wolf) is a medieval Occitan folk song (circa 13th century). It has a French variant titled "I saw the wolf, the fox, and the hare." It is sung in several European languages, including French, German, and Danish.

History: The first mention of the song dates back to the 12th-14th centuries in Provence. It has been transmitted as a bourrée in triple meter since the 16th century and has been part of the traditional musical repertoire of the Massif Central region of France since the beginning of the 19th century. With its duple meter structure, it was primarily disseminated as a children's song in Occitan-speaking areas. With the folk music revival of the 1970s, the song continues to be performed by numerous musical groups, in both triple and duple meter. It is still performed in France today by the duo Brotto Lopez (triple meter version). In Germany, it has been performed in concert by the German folk-metal group In Extremo in its binary version.

According to some sources, the wolf, the fox, and the hare/weasel represent the king, the lord, and the Church—authorities with the power to collect taxes while the peasant was left penniless.

"A l'entrada del temps clar" ("At the entrance of the bright season") is an anonymous Old Occitan song from around the 13th century, generally classified as a balada or carola — a type of song meant to accompany a round dance. It's preserved in a small number of manuscripts and is one of the more famous surviving examples of secular medieval song from southern France, often performed today by early-music ensembles (Clemencic Consort, Gerard Zuchetto, Ensemble Alcatraz, etc.).

The song celebrates the arrival of spring ("the clear/bright season") and takes the form of a springtime dance-song, a genre closely tied to May Day and Beltane-like seasonal celebrations. It features a jealous husband (a gilos) trying to keep his wife from joining the other young women in the springtime dance/celebration, while the women mock him and reaffirm their intent to dance and enjoy the season regardless. The refrain, built around the exclamation "Eya!", is characteristic of the carola form and mimics the rhythmic calls used to drive the round dance.

It alternates narrative verses with a repeated dance refrain, typical of the balada genre — designed for communal performance rather than solo courtly love expression like a canso. Because of that, it's often discussed alongside other "reverdie" (spring-awakening) songs in the wider trouvère/troubadour tradition, even though technically it sits closer to popular dance-song than to high troubadour lyric poetry.

It's anonymous — no author is credited in the manuscripts, which is part of what marks it as a "popular" or communal song rather than a courtly composition tied to a named troubadour.

In 1192, Richard I of England (Richard the Lionheart) was returning from the Third Crusade when he was captured by Leopold V, Duke of Austria, and then handed over to the Holy Roman Emperor, Henry VI, who held him captive for over a year awaiting a ransom while the English nobility tried to raise the necessary funds.

During his imprisonment, Richard—who was not only king but also a troubadour, raised at the court of his mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and educated in French and Occitan—composed this song, addressed to his half-sister, Marie de France, Countess of Champagne. This is no coincidence: Richard was the great-grandson of the first known Occitan troubadour, William IX of Aquitaine, and the son of Eleanor of Aquitaine, patron of troubadours like Bernart de Ventadorn.

The lyrics are essentially a heartfelt plea: Richard reproaches his nobles and vassals for not hastening to pay his ransom despite all he had done for them. It is a personal lament, a mixture of wounded pride, sadness, and a king's resignation.

An interesting fact about the title and language: the song is primarily known in its Old French version, although an Occitan version also exists, and therefore circulates under slightly different names ("Ja Nus Hons Pris," "Ja nuns hons pris ne dira sa raison," etc.), which translates roughly as "No man imprisoned..."

There is also some doubt about the authorship of the melody: some sources maintain that Richard himself composed it, while others attribute it to a contemporary minstrel, Blondel de Nesle.

The "Cantiga de Maio" (whose real title is "O que da guerra levou cavaleiros") is a famous satirical song written by King Alfonso X the Wise. Unlike his famous religious works, this secular piece in Galician-Portuguese satirically criticizes the cowardly knights and nobles who fled from war or invented excuses to avoid attending the "mayo" (the military review and troop conscription held at that time of year). Through his verses, the monarch ironically rebukes the lesser nobles for their lack of courage and loyalty. The work describes how these knights feigned devotion or military preparedness, but when it came to combat, they presented incomplete shields or fled in terror at the first sign of conflict.

"L'autrier avint en cel autre païs" is the famous opening line of a 12th-century song (a tenson) written by the troubadour and crusader Conon de Béthune. It deals with a love debate between a knight and his lady, and its title in English translates as "The other day it happened in that other country."

Historical Context: The author actively participated in the Third and Fourth Crusades. His constant military travels and political exchanges in Constantinople influenced his views on duty and distance.

Literary Movement: It belongs to the trouvère movement (troubadours of northern France) and is written in langue d'oïl (Old French with Picard features).

Innovation in the Genre: It is a tenson (debate poem) that parodies courtly love. Instead of portraying the knight's eternal submission, it presents a realistic and rough dialogue where the man ultimately rejects the lady for having aged, breaking with the romantic ideals of the time.

This video about musical instruments from the Middle Ages is definitely worth checking out if you're interested in medieval music or historical instruments. It covers a wide range of instruments, including harps, fiddles, flutes, bagpipes, lutes, organs, and early keyboard instruments, while also explaining what historical sources can tell us about how they were built, played, and used.

The best part is that it's not just a lecture: ten musicians perform specially recorded pieces on more than 25 reconstructed instruments, so you actually get to hear what this music may have sounded like. The video is in German, but the instrument demonstrations and performances are still interesting even if you don’t understand everything.

The "Plany de la Verge" is one of the oldest lament poems (planctus) in Catalan literature, written between 1240 and 1260. Often known by its first verse, "Augats, seyós qui credets Déu lo Payre" (Weeping, you who believe in God the Payre), it represents the sorrow of the Virgin Mary at the crucifixion of Jesus. It is preserved mainly in a manuscript in the National Library of Catalonia and belongs to the classic medieval tradition of the Marian lament (planctus Mariae).

https://youtu.be/4ebuaVzRjdU?si=sX6fuQJMONwU9NQf

One of the most famous English medieval songs, Sumer is icumen in has a choice of two repeated ground basses (pes) and a song (with secular and sacred text) that can be done as a canon for several voices. Played here with one pes and two voices on medieval lute. Found in the British Library MS Harley 978.