Ad narragoniam

But then I came into contact with the Ars subtilior during my recorder studies in Bremen and heard about the one-handed flute and drum for the first time. I was given a tenor dulcian, and after about a year I was finally able to play a halfway decent melody on it. Fascinated by unfamiliar sounds and unusual instruments, I finally realised that if you really want to immerse yourself in the Middle Ages, you can’t avoid the medieval section of the Schola.

TC: Bone flutes from the Stone Age are considered to be the oldest musical instruments known to mankind, while the recorder seems to be the most popular wind instrument of the Middle Ages. Can your instrument be described as the first attempt in the history of music to accompany the voice with sound? Or was it rather the first instrument to replace the voice?

SGS: As a recorder player, I think that would be great, of course, but whether the recorder was really the most popular wind instrument in the Middle Ages is very questionable; perhaps it was more the shawm or the trumpet, or the one-handed flute and drum? The relationship between voice and instrument has certainly changed again and again over the millennia of music history, as have the instruments and their construction. In many medieval illustrations of wind instruments, it is not exactly clear whether it is a flute instrument (with a flexible number of finger holes), a shawm instrument, or rather an instrument similar to a trumpet or horn.

I think we see this with “too modern eyes”, with our desire to categorise and understand instead of engaging with different sound possibilities.

TC: As most of your wind instruments did not make the step into the more recent modern era and have only been known to us for a few decades through replicas, I am interested in how you deal with the sources. Did the discovery of early wind instruments in the paintings of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance contribute much to the history of research, rather than the construction plans from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance?

SGS: As the sources from the Middle Ages are very limited in terms of precise construction plans, we like to consult illustrations; in what context and with what other instruments was music played, what different construction methods seem to have existed? Here, however, we have to interpret precisely and carefully; these are not always realistic depictions of musical moments that actually took place, but allegorical representations or enumerations.

If you take a closer look, however, most of my instruments have made it to the present day. In various regions of Spain, Catalonia and France, the “one-handed flute and drum” is still present; it is impossible to imagine Valencian culture without the shawm, and in Mallorca the duo of “bagpipes with one-handed flute and drum” has been a firm musical fixture since the Middle Ages – to name just a few examples. The music may have changed to some extent over the centuries and the instruments may have evolved, but the function has mostly remained the same since the Middle Ages.

TC: Your CD project “‘The Medieval Piper” was created in 2017; perhaps you could tell us something about the repertoire of those pipers. How was the exchange with the folk music of the time organised? Or what bridges can be built to traditional music today?

SGS: We know from numerous illustrations and mentions from the Middle Ages that there was a wide variety of wind instruments, we know the different possible uses and roughly the repertoire. But the question of what exactly is technically playable on these instruments, or what can be played as a modern medieval piper, was my concern in the context of this recording. The result was this colourful programme of music from the 12th-14th centuries, interwoven with the idea that a medieval piper travelled the country with countless melodies and a bunch of instruments in his luggage, met other minstrels from all over the world and presented his songs. In turn, he picked up new melodies, which he incorporated into his repertoire and arranged for his own purposes. And here, too, I think we want to understand the musical world of the time with “too modern eyes”: Folk music at the time (if it can even be so clearly delineated) was certainly much more interwoven into musical life than it is today, where it is unfortunately still strictly delineated in the classical music world; the instruments and musicians:inside even overlapped in some cases.

TC: The Forum for Early Music in Basel focusses on the rich musical life before 1600 and is of course aware of the brilliant market development of baroque music in recent decades. How do you assess the market opportunities for early music, i.e. medieval and Renaissance music, which is a niche market for many listeners today?

SGS: In Basel, we are currently witnessing a growing curiosity. I think niches are fantastic! You can really immerse yourself in the music there, far away from the hustle and bustle of the market giants, search, discover, experiment … I think it’s much more exciting to stay in this niche and instead give the audience access, to take them along on a small, winding path that leads to a vantage point undiscovered by the masses, which leaves you amazed.

And I fell in love with the book already on the first page, not so much for the wit of the writing but because each mini-chapter has a woodcut at the start and everything else has gorgeous decorative margins, all quite an achievement in 1494. The poetry is a kind of doggerel (strangely reminiscent, for English readers, of the Rupert Bear tales in the Daily Express), in which he complains about all the ills of the world. But we will have a chance to hear the verses, recited by the actor Julian Schneider; so we can judge for ourselves. In between the musicians will provide a wide variety of music from the same date from Swiss sources. Promises to be a colourful concert.