Thanks Larry, that's quite a catchy tune, and atmospheric. I'm pretty
ignorant about the technicalities of music, ancient or modern, but I
enjoyed listening.
About the pronunciation, if I heard aright I think there might be one
or two anachronisms or inconsistencies. I'll use some X-SAMPA [
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_sampa ] symbols here for phonetic
transcription, and 'ö' to represent short hooked-'o'.
I think the usual view is that /a:/ (=á) and /O:/ (=hooked ó) merged
around 1200 as /O:/, the resulting sound appearing as 'á' according to
the usual normalised spelling. Before this, there would have been a
distinction between, for example 'áttak' /a:ttak/ "I owned" and 'sár'
= 'sór' (with a hook under the 'ó') /sO:r/ "wounds", but in the
singular 'sár' = 'sár' /sa:r/ "wound". Before these sounds fell
together, /O:/ alternated with /a:/ in the same way that short /O/ 'ö'
alternates with short /a/ 'a'. That's to say, /O:/ was the u-mutated
variant of /a:/.
The lengthening of vowels before a liquid followed by another
consonant also happened around 1200, thus 'Hjalmarr' > 'Hjálmarr'.
Two changes that happened over the course of the 13th century: the
merger of 'ø' /2/, /9/ and 'ö' /O/, which fell together as '9' (=the
'ö' in German 'Götter'); and the lowering of '' /2:/ (=/ø:/) so that
it merged with 'æ' /E:/, e.g. 'mða' > 'mæða'. I'm not sure about
when exactly these changed happened or their relative order, except
that they are supposed to have been complete by 1300.
If your unsure about these details, I'd suggest aiming for a later
13th century date with 'ö' as /9/ always, and 'á' as /O:/. Then you
can't go too far wrong.
Anyway, please excuse these petty niggles. It was a great listen;
thanks for posting the recording.
--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, LM <lavrans@...> wrote:
>
> Hi all:
>
> The instruments used are the kantele, lyre, citole, drum, and laouta.
>
> The kantele has six gut strings; the citole is actually a modified
flat-back
> mandolin I made from a kit; the lyre (built by me) is a typical 6
stringed
> Anglo-Saxon type similar to Ben Bagby's Beowulf lyre; the drum is an
Irish
> bodhran and the laouta is a long-necked 4 course oud, similar to
early medieval
> lutes.
>
> The mode corresponds to the modern key of a minor. The
pronunciation is based
> on my best attempts at research and a high level of risk-taking.
Feel free to
> point out any major blunders.
>
> Larry "Lavrans" Miller