Master of the Queen's Music is a post in the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. The holder of the post originally served the monarch of England, directing the court orchestra and composing or commissioning music as required.
A minstrel was a medieval European entertainer. Originally describing any type of entertainer such as a musician, juggler, acrobat, singer or fool, the term later, from the sixteenth century, came to mean a specialist entertainer who sang songs and played musical instruments.
Beldgabred was a legendary king of the Britons as accounted by Geoffrey of Monmouth. He was preceded by Sisillius III and succeeded by his brother Archmail. Geoffrey says that Beldgabred surpassed all other musicians on every kind of instrument and was claimed to be the god of minstrels.
Odd Fellows, or Oddfellows, also Odd Fellowship or Oddfellowship, is an international fraternity consisting of lodges first documented in 1730 in London. The first known lodge was called Loyal Aristarcus Lodge No. 9, suggesting there were earlier ones in the 18th century. Notwithstanding, convivial meetings were held "in much revelry and, often as not, the calling of the Watch to restore order." Names of several British pubs today suggest past Odd Fellows affiliations. In the mid-18th century, following the Jacobite risings, the fraternity split into the rivaling Order of Patriotic Oddfellows in southern England, favouring William III of England, and the Ancient Order of Oddfellows in northern England and Scotland, favouring the House of Stuart.
Once Upon a Mattress is a musical comedy with music by Mary Rodgers, lyrics by Marshall Barer, and book by Jay Thompson, Dean Fuller, and Marshall Barer. It opened off-Broadway in May 1959, and then moved to Broadway. The play was written as an adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale The Princess and the Pea.
The Victual Brothers were a loosely organized guild of privateers who later turned to piracy. They affected maritime trade during the 14th century in both the North and Baltic Seas.
A Kobzar was an itinerant Ukrainian bard who sang to his own accompaniment played on a multistringed bandura or kobza.
Jason Clarke is an Australian film and television actor. Clarke has appeared in many TV series, and is known for playing Tommy Caffee on the television series Brotherhood. He has also appeared in many films, often as an antagonist. His film roles include Zero Dark Thirty (2012), White House Down (2013), Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014), Terminator Genisys (2015), Everest (2015), Mudbound (2017), Chappaquiddick (2017), in which he portrayed Ted Kennedy, and First Man (2018), in which he portrayed astronaut Ed White.
A thieves' guild is a concept in fantasy fiction consisting of a formal association of criminals who participate in theft-related organized crime. Examples appear in the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser story "Thieves' House" by Fritz Leiber, and role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons. Though these more modern works are fictitious, there are real world examples as well, such as Jonathan Wild and his gang of thieves.
From medieval times up to the early 19th century, every British town and city of any note had a band of waites. Their duties varied from time to time and place to place, but included playing their instruments through the town at night, waking the townsfolk on dark winter mornings by playing under their windows, welcoming Royal visitors by playing at the town gates, and leading the Mayor's procession on civic occasions.
A minstrels' gallery is a form of balcony, often inside the great hall of a castle or manor house, and used to allow musicians to perform, sometimes discreetly hidden from the guests below.
Germanies were guilds of artisans in the Kingdom of Valencia in Spain. Each germania represented a single trade. The germanies are similar to the hermandades of Castile, which were paramilitary law-enforcement militias. Similar to the hermandades, the Germanies at times took up arms to defend Valencia against raids from the Barbary pirates, but this privilege was revoked and the Germanies suppressed after they revolted against the royal government of King Charles I of Spain.
An itinerant poet or strolling minstrel was a wandering minstrel, bard, musician, or other poet common in medieval Europe but extinct today. From a lower class than jesters or jongleurs because he did not have steady work, he instead roamed about to make his living.
Walter Halliday was a long-serving royal minstrel in England in the 15th century. He was a founder member of a minstrels' guild which was the forerunner of the present Worshipful Company of Musicians. He is believed to be the founding father of the Halliday family of Gloucestershire, and an ancestor of some of the Halliday/ Holladay/ Holliday/ Hollyday families in the United States.
House of the Blackheads, or House of the Brotherhood of Black Heads, in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, is a former headquarters of the Brotherhood of Blackheads. Historically this was a professional association of ship owners, merchants and foreigners dating from the 14th century. They were active in Livonia but fled to Germany during the Soviet occupation of the Baltic States in 1940. The House of the Blackheads was visited by several Russian Emperors including Peter I, Paul I and Alexander I who also became honorable members the Brotherhood.
Music in Medieval England, from the end of Roman rule in the fifth century until the Reformation in the sixteenth century, was a diverse and rich culture, including sacred and secular music and ranging from the popular to the elite.
The 1300s in music was a decade involving some events.
12th century in music – 13th century in music – 1300s in music
