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[Lauchsuppe]

So the music of this trailer really caught my interest:


Apparently, it's this track:



I'm not sure if this is legit medieval music or if its intentionally mixed up with pop elements.

Anyway, I was playing a little around with the tune and tried to figure things out. But I didn't get very far. It seems to be in aeolian mode with D as its root. But then again, the whole bass melody revolves around B, Bb and A. How can this be? I couldn't make out any chords either (except for what I thought was a Gmaj) - if I recall correctly, this style of music doesn't work with chords. But it has to have a harmonic essence of some kind. How would I approach this kind of music? What are the rules (esp. in regards to texture)? Any help would be greatly appreciated

[Jasmine]

Man, this is a beautiful piece. Sounds almost like a round.

That's one thing I think of whenever I hear medieval music -- a round. Blasted

.

From what I hear in this piece, it's mainly harmonies that are fluctuating between a I and V chord (shoot, you could simply say it's, forgive my rusty and probably unreliable psuedo-music theory lingo, shifting tonal centers underneath a "drone" of a I chord).

Medieval music works WELL with chords. When you start getting into polyphony, you start to see many medieval pieces being accompanied by chordal instruments (lutes come to mind). Prior to that, at least for written forms, it was mainly monophonic, switching over to interchangable lines. I'm thinking back to Gregorian chant, though.

My idea would be to try sticking to simple I V | I IV V basslines, and having melodic lines fluctuate around those. Then slowly start to branch out, chordally. I'd stick with your normal major/minor chords. No Mm7's, no flat 2nds -- keep everything as 'pure' as possible. Little dissonance.

Heck, just keep emulating. When I try to figure out music like this, I recreate first, and ask questions second, haha.





Listening through that playlist might give you some ideas, too!

[ohaiguy]

As far as other examples goes, I remembered Rhapsody of Fire had another similar piece.





Granted, I'd say they had a different take on the style. But, it's another approach

As far as writing the piece, you could also look into good ol' cantus firmus and modal writing as another aid. Looking at my theory book now, it looks like modes have particular resolution styles to their finals. Might be useful for trying to get the proper sound.

[Lauchsuppe]

Thanks for your response! There were some really awesome pieces among the playlist!
 I really got into this over the last days, heh. However, the harmonic structure is still something I struggle with. I feel like a key element of medieval music is that there are a lot of dissonances among the rivaling melodies. Hence I'm still looking for a source that would elaborate more precisely how this works. I've figured out a lot already, I think. Still, some things are just beyond my comprehension I guess (like, within a melody sequence there's usually only small interval jumps but there seem to be a lot of irregular exceptions to that rule).

@ohaiguy: might I ask what theory book you are looking at?

[Jordanoakley]

Dissonance is a funny thing. To our ear flat 9ths and 5ths are really quite dissonant, but there was a time in the Middle Ages when 3rds and 6ths sounded dissonant and apparently weren’t allowed to be used in church music. The amount of thirds you use compared to perfect intervals should probably depend on what era of Medieval music you want to create. If you want to create a more complex, polyphonic piece then go nuts with 3rds and 6ths but try and keep the chords themselves still pretty simple like I, IV, V, VI etc. I found this which discusses 13th Century polyphony..looks pretty handy!

In terms of writing a melody, it’s always cool to look at old folk songs for inspiration. There are thousands of them online. I couldn’t find a definitive place for folk scores but I found a collection of early music which might be a good start. You could even try borrowing the chord progression from a song you find and create a new melody over the top.

Good luck! It's hard to create a new convincingly Medieval piece.

[triton3ss]

Man, this is a beautiful piece. Sounds almost like a round.

That's one thing I think of whenever I hear medieval music -- a round. Blasted

.

From what I hear in this piece, it's mainly harmonies that are fluctuating between a I and V chord (shoot, you could simply say it's, forgive my rusty and probably unreliable psuedo-music theory lingo, shifting tonal centers underneath a "drone" of a I chord).

Medieval music works WELL with chords. When you start getting into polyphony, you start to see many medieval pieces being accompanied by chordal instruments (lutes come to mind). Prior to that, at least for written forms, it was mainly monophonic, switching over to interchangable lines. I'm thinking back to Gregorian chant, though.

My idea would be to try sticking to simple I V | I IV V basslines, and having melodic lines fluctuate around those. Then slowly start to branch out, chordally. I'd stick with your normal major/minor chords. No Mm7's, no flat 2nds -- keep everything as 'pure' as possible. Little dissonance.

Heck, just keep emulating. When I try to figure out music like this, I recreate first, and ask questions second, haha.





Listening through that playlist might give you some ideas, too!

Aha, all fantastic points!
Depending on the locale of your medieval (Euro vs. Middle-Eastern, etc), also playing around with 2nds & 7ths and modes like Phyrigian could add some beautiful spice.