Evening star., 1947-08-31
Minstrel School
Is Historical
|ThrowbaCk
By Alice Eversmon


with the routine study of instru-
ments or of the voice, few have
introduced new types of music
making that can be utilized by
amateurs and by those less gifted
for public career of note. The
Trapp Family Singers showed the
possibilities of including group
singing in the intimate confines of
the home and their school in Ver-
mont each summer has had a large
enrolment of farsighted parents
who would like to organize the tall
ents of their families and others
planning for fine musical evenings
among friends.
The latest departure from the
customary study is the establish
ment of a school of minstrelsy by
Richard Dyer-Bennet in Aspen,
Colorado. Mr.. Dyer-Bennet, who
gave one of his interesting pro-
grams at the Statler Hotel in the
spring of 1914, will conclude his
courses the first of September after
six weeks of intensive work in the
town that was once the most promi-
nent of the Rockies boom silver
camps. Two concerts by the noted
ballad singer there were the in
centive for starting novel school.
The course included vocal training.
instrumental study, principally the
guitar, and musical research.
Little Credit Where Due.
It is rather remarkable that IN
all the effort expended on artistic
musical education, so little thought
has been given to those special
musicians who opened the way for
the development of music. The part
played by the 'troubadours, trou-
veres, minstrels, minnesingerS and
meistersingers in . forwarding the
knowledge of what was to become
a supreme art, is scantily acknowl-
edged in history and forgotten COM
pletely by those busy with musics
later greatness.
Yet at time when the world
was sadly in need of some uplifting
effort, these musicians not only as
sisted in raising the morale of peo-
pie but recorded history and broad
ened the limited expression Of music.
They came into prominence follow
ing the turbulent times of the Dark
Ages and answered a need felt by
all nations for a surcease from war
and a cultivation of things Of
esthetic value.
The Middle Ages saw great ad-
vance in the art of poetry and the
church had fostered notable litur-
gical music. The latter, however,
did not satisfy thoroughly the newly
awakened desire for intellectual in
terests of the people themselves.
Their daily life, now more than
eyer dear to them in the years Of
peace, required its own expression
in a manner different from the
established form used in religious
worship. The troubadour was the
answer to that need.
Clever Expansion of Form.
These wandering musicians COM
bined the melody and style of the
folk songs with the more refined
elements of the Gregorian chant in
a manner to give new life to music.
In the cultivation of graceful
phrases, the adaptation of poetic
metre to musical rhythm and in
genious expansion of form, they de-
veloped an art that has been the
foundation of the later song litera-
ture. They were historians also car
rying the news of heroic deeds from
town to town, and helped to create
the age of chivalry with its honor
ing of womanhood. Not all their
songs were of such a high level, for
drinking songs and dance songs
livened many a gathering.
In their journeys from one feudal
castle to another, they were respon-
sible for music becoming a social
factor of great Importance. Most Of
these singers and musicians were OF
noble birth, as is the Goth century
British minstrel, Dyer-Bennet. But
the middle classes soon had their
own representatives of the new art
which spread rapidly from country
to- country. The Towering period Of
was in the 10th, 18th and
18th centuries, declining gradually
with the introduction of printing.
The names of the most renowned Of
these artists who composed and
sang their own songs are inscribed
in music history and there exists
collections, rather limited in amount,
of their works.
The role of the minstrel had
reached such Importance by the be-
ginning of the 18th century that
guilds were organized requiring that
all belong who practiced the art. A
charter given by Edward Nv of Eng
land and confirmed again 200 years
later remains in existence today.
But the refined and gentle art that
frightened the days and spurred the
creative powers in the Middle Ages
has fallen into disuse. Mr.. Dyer
Bennet has reminded the present
day musical world that much can