Music Monday: Music of the Middle Ages

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Hello and good Monday to you!

This post comes to you a little late because I took an after supper nap. I’ve been feeling a little sickly the last two days, but I think by tomorrow I’ll be much better

Today we look at some music from the past, Music of the Middle-Ages!

This term one of the courses I’ve taken is the introduction course to Medieval Studies, and I love it so much! It’s one thing to read about gothic cathedrals and Arthurian legends on your own, but studying it in a class takes it to a whole new level, and gives learning the sort of structure that I haven’t quite been able to apply to my own personal studies ^^’

The section we’re dealing with now is what the prof is calling The Latin Legacy. We’re covering cathedrals and the writings of saints and monks. Love it! We’ve also taken a quick look at some of the music. The music is simply beautiful, and got me to start searching... And that’s how I found SwingingRingaDing’s YouTube channel. It was just what I was looking for.

There were a good many songs which were ladled “Music for a Knight”, take a listen to some of my favourite below!

Saltarello

Entre Av'e Eva

A l'entrant d'este

Isn’t that just lovely? It reminds me a little of some of the folk bands I listen to. Fair to say some of them have taken inspiration from the medieval period.

Some other songs were labelled “Music of the Church”. This is my new music to relax to. School life is stressful at times, and it’s great to have a way of dealing with stress. For me I deal with negative emotions with music.

Da pacem

Iacta cogitatum tuum

Adorabo

What do you think my guests? Which did you like better, the music of the Knights or the Church? Or is it just not your cup of tea? Is there music of a particular time period that you adore?

Thanks for reading!

Stay Spooky,

Fairytale Tuesday: The Candy Shop – A Fairytale About…

The Candy Shop is a short film (that will be released next month) & it is not a pleasant tale. This is something real. So what’s this film all about?

“The film is a Fairytale/Parable about the child sex trafficking epidemic that has overrun our city of Atlanta. We are using the film to not only raise awareness but provoke meaningful action towards this issue taking place in our own backyard.

Up to 500 under aged girls a month are trafficked for sex here in our city of Atlanta. It’s the number one city in the country for child sex trafficking... The 10th in the world.” ♥

Here’s the trailer for the film:

The Candy Shop Trailer from Brandon McCormick on Vimeo.

The man who owns the candy shop is like Willy Wonka meets the Child Catchers of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (anyone else remember how creepy he was?!). And I love the outfit the first little girl in the trailer is wearing, yes, my inner Lolita wants the skirt, or something similar ^^

I wish this film all the best; I hope it gets the word out there about these crimes. I also hope that this won’t lead to just people talking about the issue but doing something, & luckily that’s exactly what these film makers have in mind.

You can visit their official website here, Stop The Candy Shop

What do you think of the trailer?
Is this a good way to bring awareness to an issue?

Stay Spooky,

Music Monday: The Company of Wolves Soundtrack

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Hello and good Music Monday to you!

Today we’ll be listening to the soundtrack for the 1984 horror fantasy film, The Company of Wolves.

For those not familiar with the movie, here’s the trailer below. I warn you though; there are a few nasty looking moments in the trailer.

The movie was based around three stories by Angela Carter which appear in her book The Bloody Chamber. The stories were “The Werewolf”, “Wolf Alice”, and “The Company of Wolves”. I highly recommend all three stories and The Bloody Chamber, if you are a fan of dark fairytales.

In the film appears the story of “Little Red Riding Hood” with many dark twists and turns. There is also the presence of werewolves, which do show up in some early versions of the Red Riding Hood story. The story is filled with symbolism which conveys the themes of loss of innocence, hitting puberty and awakening of sexuality. The look of the film has a haunting feeling about it, with gorgeous sets, simple cottages in a primeval forest. It’s just the way you imagine a fairytale to be.

In the film, a very young Sarah Patterson (she was only 12 when the movie was filmed!) plays the little red riding hood character, Rosaleen. Her grandmother is played by Angela Lansbury, who you may recall was the voice of Misses Potts in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. The very handsome huntsman is played by Micha Bergese.

The movie is my all time favourite werewolf movie, and I cannot say enough good about the film. Being filmed in the 80s, there’s no fancy CGI here but good old fashioned puppetry, used in the bloody werewolf transformations. Also in the film is an amazing soundtrack

There is a haunting violin theme that occurs through the film, you can listen below

I’ve tried to pick out some other favourites from the soundtrack, but I don’t think I want to flood this blog post with videos. I can however suggest you check out YouTuber Borgarborgen channel where the entire soundtrack has been uploaded.

My favourite quote from the movie is spoken by Rosaleen. In the soundtrack it appears on the first track, while in the movie it is spoken at the ending. It is the original moral of the story that appears in an early version of The Little Red Riding Hood tale.

Little girls, this seems to say, never stop upon the way.
Never trust a stranger friend; no-one knows where it may end.
As you're pretty, so be wise. Wolves may lurk in every guise.
Now as then, 'tis simple truth, sweetest tongue has sharpest tooth.

Stay Spooky,

Links

The Company of Wolves on IMDB
The Company of Wolves on Wikipedia
The Company of Wolves soundtrack on last.fm
If you fancy watching some (or all) of the film, it has been uploaded to YouTube by FlightxOfxFantasy