THE MIDDLE AGES

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Art and music were critical aspects of medieval religious life and, towards the end of the Middle Ages, secular life as well. Singing without instrumental accompaniment was an essential part of church services. Monks and priests chanted the divine offices and the mass daily.Some churches had instruments such as organs and bells. The organistrum or symphony (later known as a hurdy gurdy) was also found in churches. Two people were required to play this stringed instrument--one to turn the crank and the other to play the keys.Medieval drama grew out of the liturgy, beginning in about the eleventh century. Some of the topics were from the Old Testament (Noah and the flood, Jonah and the whale, Daniel in the lion's den) and others were stories about the birth and death of Christ. These dramas were performed with costumes and musical instruments and at first took place directly outside the church. Later they were staged in marketplaces, where they were produced by local guilds.

MUSIC IN THE MIDDLE AGES

One way we learn about music in the Middle Ages is by examining Medieval art. There are instruments in the borders of many manuscripts. Angels play everything from organs, vielles and harps to trumpets and shawms in the paintings of the period. By the 12th century music grew from one melodic line (monophony) to two or more (polyphony). One of the earliest major centers of polyphonic music was at Notre Dame in Paris. Another important aspect of medieval music is that, for the first time, we have written-down notation and composer attributions. Bands played for special religious feast days, such as Christmas, Easter, and Corpus Christi, at trade fairs, civic ceremonies, royal occasions, banquets, affairs of state, and university functions. Minstrels, minnesingers, troubadours, and trouveres told stories about life and death through the songs they carried from village to village. They wrote the poetry and set them to music and travelled with their jongleurs who accompanied them on a variety of instruments, mostly strings. When the dull nights of winter arrived, and during periods of time when the nobles were isolated from the poor during the plague, people sang songs and told stories, many about love and romance, some of them humorous, heroic, and sometimes bawdy, to pass the time. Many of the songs were written in praise of the idealized woman.
   Music was very important during the Middle Ages.  People considered music as an art.  They also used instruments to help them create music.   Their musical instruments were very special, and they were very different from musical instruments today.

GAMES

During the Middle Ages the Nobles played games like chess, checkers, backgammon and dice. All of them were made to be played indoors. Nobles did not play many outdoor games. (They did play chess outdoors sometimes.)The serfs (peasants) played many of the games that the Upper Class people didn't play. The lower class played Hockey, or Stickball (Similar to baseball or softball). They also played soccer and golf. The only game that included both Upper & Lower class was Ice Skating (they went when the lakes or water sources froze over).

SPORTS

Folk football was a wild and rough sport.  The game was so violent, that Renaissance humanists, such as Sir Thomas Elyot, thought that it as more likely to maim than to benefit the participants.  Folk football survived in Britain and in France until the late 19th century.

 During the Middle Ages, hunting was very popular for both knights and common peasants. Participants would bring 30 falconers and 60 pairs of hunting dogs. Forests were used as the hunting grounds. Knights usually hunted foxes, deer, otters, badgers, rabbits, wolves, and boars.  Many  peasant women even hunted and kept falcons.

Jousting was probably the most famous sport and the most exciting game to the nobles and lords during the Middle Ages. The game was for two knights, both of them wore a suit of heavy armor and sat on a horse holding a long weapon.  The point of jousting was to stab the each other..  To practice their jousting skills, people often used a quintain.  A quintain was a dummy jousting target.

Archery matches, were usually arranged months in advance. Town versed town in archery matches.  The spectators usually became very excited over the matches and it was common for contests in running, jumping, cudgeling, and wrestling to be offered to the lower classmen who attended the match.. Feasts were common while watching the matches, and drunkenness commonly added to the craziness of the spectators.