Music
I'm a singer and I have two CDs out, which you can find on iTunes and Spotify, etc, as well as some music licensing sites. If you'd like to listen, click on the image.
Lenten is come: 13th C English songs, sweet and clear. There are very few songs in English that have survived with their melodies from the 13th C. This CD contains most of them as well as a few lyrics that I have set. Both the vocal ornamentation and the harp and recorder accompaniment are the work of our own elaboration.
La domna ditz (The Lady says): Tumbling and fluid, at times virtuosic, at times earthy: I love the troubadour repertoire. However, the lyrics give little emotional range to women. In the traditional (male-authored) courtly love songs a lady is virtuous, demanding, and unattainable: a figure in a stained glass window or a paper cut-out. But there were women troubadours --- trobairitz --- who contributed to this literature, and in their own songs they take on more life. They are powerful, they are powerless. They are lusty, neurotic, and comically vain. They grieve, they (possibly?) court other women.
All but one of the melodies for these songs have been lost. Where I can I have borrowed melodies from other troubadour songs. More often, I have written my own settings in the style of that time and place. The vielle accompaniment is improvised, a balance of that evening's inspiration and many hours of making music together.
All but one of the melodies for these songs have been lost. Where I can I have borrowed melodies from other troubadour songs. More often, I have written my own settings in the style of that time and place. The vielle accompaniment is improvised, a balance of that evening's inspiration and many hours of making music together.
Visual art
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I make visual art too, mostly quilting, though I've begun to incorporate paper and ink. I've put thumbnails of recent work below --- click to see an enlarged view. More images at www.instagram.com/sharpshinnedart/.
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