I came in here to recommend a local duo, Bedlam Boys, but they seem to have gone belly-up. Quite disappointing, in that they played wonderful guitar music… Heard them in the Harvard Square subway station, bought their CD on the spot. Their version of “Little Musgrave and Lady Bernard” was great to sing along to.
JRB
Thanks very much to all for the recommendations. I go now to blow huge wads of holiday money on new music.
If you can find a copy of this it could be fun
You could hardly do better than “The Art of Courtly Love”, a collection by David Munroe and the Early Music Consort of London. Produced in the 1970s, but as far as I know still unsurpassed in its particular area.
Dead Can Dance, particularly their album Aion. A lot of their music is more ethereal, but Aion has some of the type of songs you’re looking for, I think.
I really like their version of Saltarello.
Circulus might be worth checking out, though they’re not going to be -exactly- what you’re looking for. They have that medieval, ren-faire feel down pat–but with a great deal of ‘acid’ influence. In fact, let’s take away the quotes–I suspect some pharmacological influence, but in a good way. 
You can find one of their vids on YouTube. Visually, it’s unintentionally hilarious, but it will offer a chance to hear what they’re about.
“Kill the wabbit, kill the wabbit, kill the wabbit . . .”
Seconded. Bawdy is a terrific work, and Custer LaRue’s albums are all good, particularly her lullabye collection with Chris Norman.
Your post got me to thinking that I hadn’t heard any hammered dulcimer since the ren faire, so I went to YouTube and searched for some. Surprisingly, there were a goodly number. I listed to a couple (a short version of Shenandoah was quite nice), but then I listened to this one. You just can’t be unhappy listening to that.
A little more searching for Celtic Harp brought up this beautiful piece.
I’m not sure how this would fit into your axe-wielding or medieval ribaldry–maybe during a romantic interlude?
I think they are intentionally hilarious – over the top, psychedelic folk, Ren-fest hippie parody – and I loves them with all my heart. Check out My Body is Full of Sunlight (YouTube) for a perfectly rendered, dead-on laugh riot.
I just had to pop my head in hear that Renaissance Faire music and medieval-type music should be two different things, shouldn’t they? Not that very many people in our modern world would be able to tell the difference - I surely wouldn’t.
With that being said, to mention a group whose name hasn’t appeared in this thread, look at the works of the Boston Camerata - I have several of their albums and have never been disappointed by one. For example, you can start out with Tristan & Iseult.
Not only different eras entirely, but as I said upthread a bit, VERY little of what is played at Renaissance faires is actually period music. While some artists do at least attempt to expose audiences to the music of the period, most of the music is from the 1800s or later. Some of it may refer to events that happened during the Renaissance, but there’s probably at least as much music that comes from the Easter rebellion in Ireland (1916), the Jacobite uprising in Scotland (1745) and other much later historical periods.
Anyhow… Terrifel - what’d you end up getting? What do you think?
I was going to recommend Dance Music of the High Renaissance, but it’s discontinued. Track 4, the bouree, may sound familiar.
For dulcimer music, you can’t do better than Richard and Mimi Farina
If you like hammered dulicmer, try Mist and Stone by Maggie Sansone.
I just found this album that I forgot I had, when looking for something else: Dances from Terpsichore by Michael Praetorius - good Renaissance dance tunes. Here’s an amazon link to one recording : http://www.amazon.com/Michael-Praetorius-Dances-Terpsichore/dp/B00005LDAW
My album is the New London Consort directed by Philip Pickett - an excellent recording.
Yikes! Um… I confess that when I earlier said “I go now,” I wasn’t speaking literally. Actually, various life-related events have prevented me from doing much shopping in the last few days. I’m working on it though! These recommendations are all much appreciated. The links are a big help too.
I should probably mention that the main reason I wanted this sort of music was because of an art project I’m fiddling around with. It’s got sort of a fantasy-medieval theme to it, and I thought suitable background music would prove inspirational. It’s a purely personal thing though; there’s no real time constraint. On the other hand, since I haven’t had time to shop, I haven’t had time to work on the project either, so it kind of averages out for me.
I did manage to get over to the local Sound Exchange the other day, but I’m still trying to figure out which lesson I should take away from the experience:
Don’t go to Sound Exchange to track down obscure musical genres;
Don’t ask the scrawny guy working at Sound Exchange to help track down obscure musical genres;
Don’t distract the scrawny guy working at Sound Exchange from hitting on his intellectually-hot-looking female co-worker to help track down obscure musical genres.
In hindsight, I suspect a combination of 2 and 3. I may give it another shot, or else try their other store when I get over that way. This may take a while; I’m not familiar enough with the music stores in my area to know which has the most extensive mandolin section. I realize that the Kronos Quartet and others are available through the big chain stores, but I’m trying to stretch my cash out as much as I can, so I’ll probably wind up doing a lot of this online at Amazon.
I did manage to track down “Release the Bats” by The Birthday Party, but I am disappointed to report that I couldn’t see the warrior-poets. Sorry, Struan.
If this thread hasn’t sunk into oblivion before I track some of this stuff down, I’ll definitely share my thoughts. (I may do that regardless, if resurrecting zombie threads in such a fashion isn’t frowned upon in Cafe Society.)
If I may suggest, as long as you don’t have an anti-online shopping bias, check CDBaby.com. Also, many if not most of the Ren faire groups have their own websites and sell direct - or at least have links to whoever they sell through.
[channelling medieval monk]
All this secular music, with wenches and ale, no doubt!
For the sake of your immortal soul, you should look into Chant by the Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo.
[/channelling]