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What is Cantaria?
This place is our attempt to preserve and promote the living folk song
tradition, centered around songs of Celtic origin, roots and style.
Started in 1995 with a handful of songs recorded by ourselves and friends,
Cantaria has slowly grown in quantity and quality with the participation of many
singers around the world.
In medieval Latin Cantaria means "chantry." Flourishing throughout the Middle
Ages and Renaissance, chantries were endowments for the singing of masses for the souls of
the dead. Endowed as either separate institutions or chapels attached to a parish church
or cathedral, chantries often provided for a priest in perpetuity whose sole function was
to pray for the benefactors' souls. Chantries thus represented permanent repositories of
song and memory.
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Cantaria creates a similar permanent repository, dedicated to the
traditional songs (rather than
the souls) of Western Europe (from the Middle Ages to modern times), modern
songs written in traditional style, and of course traditional singers and song
enthusiasts the world over. The archive was inspired by the designers' passion for this genre of music and
their desire to further the understanding and enjoyment of these songs for both performers
and patrons.
Singers of traditional Western European song, particularly in America,
Australia and other parts of the world where the songs have immigrated, are challenged
when learning their art by the lack of printed music to accompany period lyrics and the
lack (or geographical dispersion) of other knowledgeable singers to pass on songs in the
traditional manner. Cantaria attempts to mitigate those difficulties by wedding modern
technology with oral tradition. Using downloadable sound and video files, these songs
can be passed on the way they were meant to be: from singer to singer via performance.
The songs contained in the Cantaria collection are presented with the full text of
their lyrics, and in some cases with known variations. Some of the very oldest songs, such
as Hind Horn and The Twa Sisters, have far too many distinct versions to include here. In
such cases that will be noted. Before the text of each song there may be some comments
about the history of the song and performance notes.
Since the history of the Period songs is significant to the the songs themselves, we
have tried to find as much historical information as we can. Unfortunately, it is often
very sparse, especially for songs that have become popularized through commercial
recordings. We welcome any additional information you may have about any of the songs
included in Cantaria. Citations from documented sources are especially helpful.
Use this form to contact us.
The recordings
The audio files in Cantaria were primarily edited in Cool Edit (what has now become
Adobe Audition), in most cases digitized from tape or CD.
Some songs in Cantaria have both short and long sound clips, the intention being for
users to get a small taste of the song without having to wait overly long for the file to
download. If you liked it and want to hear more, then get the larger file.
The recordings are mainly available in MP3
files, but some still have WAV files. We have migrated to MP3 format as
support for it has grown. Compression and quality are very good.
All our files are scanned for viruses before they are posted. You will NOT get
a virus from downloading our recordings.
Who is Cantaria?
Cantaria is designed and maintained by Kate Akers and
Scott Jernigan. It is a recreational endeavor, completely supported by the designers,
and in part by sales of CDs and books in the Chivalry
Music Store.
Scott, a bard of many years in the Society for Creative Anachronism, has provided
many of the digital recordings for Cantaria. He studied Medieval and Renaissance
History at the University of Houston, although he left after attaining his
M.A. to pursue a job with his other love - computers.
Kate has a passionate interest in all Irish and
Scottish traditional music and dance, with a particular obsession for
traditional songs and their historical context. Her fascination is
researching the origins of songs and finding their connections to other
songs as well as historical places, facts and people.
She has been doing Web site design, architecture and tech support since
1993 and for University of Missouri Extension
since 1996. She is also the face behind Chivalry Music, which offers web
site design, marketing and promotion services to independent folk musicians.
In combining their talents to create Cantaria, Scott and Kate hope to provide a
valuable resource for bards and all folk who enjoy and wish to keep alive the traditional
music of western Europe.
If you enjoy Cantaria and find it a useful and valuable resource,
tell
us! Or, if you find problems or have suggestions for improvement, tell us
that, too -- but please try to be helpful, not just critical. We really
do appreciate helpful feedback. Nothing keeps us motivated to keep
building the site like "warm fuzzies!" :)
Thanks! Kate and Scott
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