Why 'medieval musician'?

Obviously, I am not a musician from the middle ages, so why use the phrase 'medieval musician' as the title of this blog?

I guess I am trying to make this distinction: I haven't come to this activity as a musician who happens to know some medieval tunes; but rather as a medieval enthusiast with a particular interest in music (amongst other things, of which more later). Similarly, for me, performing this music is not just about learning some music that happens to date from before 1400 and playing it to the best of my ability, but rather trying to understand something about the context of composition, transmission and performance - to get at least a little way into the medieval mindset. This blog is a place for me to discuss ideas and evidence that can contribute to this inevitably fuzzy concept.

To illustrate the point, one of my main instruments is harp, and when people find this out they usually ask if  (or even assume) I regularly attend the Edinburgh International Harp Festival. But I am not super enthusiastic about the harp as an instrument per se - I have no special interest in hearing or learning about classical or folk harp music, which make up the majority of the event. I play harp because it was one of the most popular instruments in the middle ages, the dominant plucked instrument until the lute took over around 1500 (according to Myer's chart of instrument popularity, p.64 in Timothy J. McGee 'Medieval and Renaissance Music' - sorry, I can't find an online version of this fascinating chart).

I play a small lap harp, and a gothic bray harp, and each imposes important constraints on arrangements and technique that would be hard to discover if using a modern folk harp. Sure, trying this music on whatever instrument you have to hand may be a good way in, but I don't think it is the way forward. Unless your musical intent is to borrow something medieval and fuse it with something else - but I'll be posting soon on why I don't like fusion...