Cutting Edge Music

Posted by Oct 20 2009, 2:26 pm in ,

As Blythe Gifford posted in September, I also listen to music when I write. I even create a playlist to get me in the mood. So how is this post different than the excellent one she posted last month?

Well, most of what I listen to is popular music. Cutting edge music. But we all tend to think of historical music as “classical.” Venerable. Revered. Even stodgy and dull. What we all forget is that the music we now think of as stodgy and dull was the popular, cutting edge music back in its day.

Think of the waltz? Boring dance right? Well, maybe compared with modern gyrations on the dance floor it might be, but when it first appeared it was scandalous. Men and women in each others arms, pelvises together mimicking…sex. It was popular. It was cutting edge. And everybody was doing it – even if they only did it behind closed doors.

Now think of the musicians creating that music. Creating scandal. As today, they were the bad boys that all the women and girls probably watched with baited breath whether they admitted it or not.

What do we think of when we think of Mozart? He’s the epitomy of classical music today. But when he was making music, he was a scandal. He was rude, crude and obnoxious (if the play/movie Amadeus can be believed). Yet the women went nuts for him. Well, if he really looked like the portrait to the left, I can guess why. There’s a wicked twinkle in his eye that women respond to. He’s not bad looking and dang, he created some amazing music. How could he not attract the chicks? He was the Elvis of his day. And I bet the dads hated the guy and kept their little girls far, far away.

I’m sure the antipathy between dads and musicians go back far longer than that. After all, the Middle Ages featured the troubadours. Young men who traveled from place to place with their instruments and made a living off their music. Secular music. Music about love. Courtly love. Forbidden love. Oh my…more sex. How delightfully wicked.

Imagine Nickelback (or fill in your favorite rock band with appropriately hot lead singer) showing up at your front door offering to play their music while you eat dinner. What’s not hot about that?

In the image I’ve added here (painted by Edmund Blair Leighton) I don’t know if the dude with the fancy hat is the father or the husband, but either way…he looks worried. And well he should. Musicians are and were the hot bad boys we’d all love to dally with in our deepest fantasies. And back in the day, their music was the scandalous, cutting edge stuff that rock music or hip hop is today. Keep it in mind when you’re writing because it can help you create a useful and/or funny scene for a historical romance you write in the future.
What’s your favorite historical music? Do you think the composer or performer was stodgy or a bad boy back when he wrote it?
»

9 Comments

The Book of Hours in the Middle Ages

Posted by Jun 20 2009, 7:39 pm in , ,

Books in the Middle Ages were precious things. They were expensive to create and handwritten (up until the printing press). Each book was created by a craftsman and therefore unique. Most people didn’t own books. The nobility however could afford to purchase books and one book they typically owned was a Book of Hours. A Book of Hours was a popular devotional text of the laity (non-clergy). Because the book was so important to the people of the Middle Ages, I wrote a scene where my hero Eaduin buys just such a book from a traveling book merchant for his

»

7 Comments

Recent Posts


The Latest Comments

  • Angelyn Schmid: These historical events certainly provide perspective, don’t they? Thanks for stopping by,...
  • Angelyn Schmid: abduction: fascinating. Was it someone famous? Lady Ferrers: I’ve heard of that one, but not in...
  • Barbara Bettis: I find it just incredible people couldn/can be so cruel to each other! And prosper, at that. These...
  • Nancy: A wife who was legally separated from her husband was abducted by him and hidden away. Her friends went to...
  • Angelyn: Or worse. Your observation is so very true and, in a way, haunting. Thanks for commenting, Callie.

Tags


Archives


RSS Feeds
 
     
 

home | authors | about | contest | classes | members | newsletter | contact

© 2011 Hearts Through History Romance Writers. All rights reserved.
Site designed and maintained by Bemis Promotions.