Turn up the volume!

This post was sparked both my previous comments on the 'lute in the great hall' problem and also thinking a bit about rebecs - thanks to an earlier comment. In particular, how most reconstructed rebecs I have heard (with a few notable exceptions) sounded very weedy (could even be drowned out by a crumhorn!). Was the rebec a particularly quiet instrument, and the problem is our expectations based on the lush sound of a violin or cello? Or is this an indication that the reconstruction is probably not a good one?

This quiet tendency can be found more generally as a current performance style for medieval music - the gently tinkling harp, the soft breathy voice - but I think might be an aesthetic that owes a lot to modern amplification and recording techniques (and even in the absence of technology, the expectation of rapt silence  from the classical concert audience). The modern musician often does not have to concern themselves over whether their instrument or technique produces sufficient volume. The real medieval musician who played or sung too quietly to be clearly heard would not have been admired.

A little note on this with regard to voices, from Chris Page's 1988 article, 'The performance of Ars Antiqua motets'. Apparently there are many medieval sources praising 'haut' or 'alta' voices. Although the literal meaning is "high", and that has been a common interpretation, it could equally mean "loud": he gives two quotes from a 1340 sermon showing both meanings being used (p.154):

when a brother has a voice so alta and so beautiful it is customary to say that when he sings there is not a corner of the church which he cannot make resound

 It should be noted that any man is said to have an alta voice who sings five notes higher than his fellows

(note that 'five notes higher' suggests a tenor, not a counter-tenor).  Page points out that vocal production generally means 'high' and 'loud' go together. But it is also worth noting that 'loud' in the sense of audible can also be linked to 'high' if the context of performance includes background noise, particularly people talking. A pitch of voice or instrument that sits above the range of normal speech will be more easily heard. I've come across a few period comments about the audience talking while the minstrel performed - perhaps material for another post.