| The Three Ravens Hymn, a contrafactum | ||
| by Fridrikr inn gamli Tomasson | ||
| In period times, what we today think of as “filk songs” were labeled contrafactum, or counterfeits. From Wessex Parallel Web Texts, “What is a contrafactum?” ≪http://www.soton.ac.uk/~wpwt/notes/contraf.htm≫ : |
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| [The absence of contrast between 'secular' and 'sacred' styles of music in the Middle Ages] 'can be shown simply by the observation that a secular song, if given a set of sacred words, could serve as sacred music, and vice versa. Only recently has it been recognized how frequently such interchange took place, and the more we learn about medieval music, the more important it becomes. The practice of borrowing a song from one sphere and making it suitable for use in the other by the substitution of words is known as "parody" or contrafactum.' (Manfred F. Bukofzer, 'Popular and Secular Music in England', in The New Oxford History of Music 3: Ars Nova and the Renaissance, 1300-1540, ed. Anselm Hughes and Gerald Abraham (London: Oxford University Press, 1960), p. 108.) |
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| A contrafactum can move in either direction: from secular lyric to sacred, or from sacred to secular. Seems to me that in the SCA, we will likely go from sacred to secular, as we do not generally write sacred music. From the same website, one example of a Latin contrafactum from the 12th century. This adaptation takes a Latin hymn praising the control of both the emotions and the appetites and turns into a drinking song: | ||
Iam lucis orto sidere Now at the dawning of the day becomes: Iam lucis orto sidere Now at the dawning of the day |
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(Texts from F.J.E. Raby, ed., The Oxford Book of Medieval Latin Verse (Oxford: Clarendon, 1959), nos. 41 (p. 53) and 237 (pp. 362-3); my translations). Thus, we get a contrafactum. The Three Ravens hymn was written for performance at the College of Three Ravens. It is adapted from the Magnus Hymn, a very well known 12th century Latin hymn from Germany which praises King Magnus, an early Christian convert who was killed by his pagan cousin, Haakon. The original can be found at The Songs of the Vikings The Three Ravens Hymn Lyrics: |
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Flying high soaring high battles carnage he espies Keeping lore learned before singing bloody songs of war Fighting foes bedding hoes armored talons tearing toes |
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