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Robin Snyder
I am an early music vocalist by night and a physicist-turned-theoretical-ecologist by day (and let's face it, many nights as well). I began performing as a solo singer when I was a postdoc, singing 15th and 16th C French and Italian lutesong with Theatrum Musicum. I've always been drawn to medieval music, however, and so just before I took up a faculty position, I founded Briddes Roune and recorded an album of 13th C English song. I haven't been quite as active as a musician since I became a faculty member, but I recently (just after tenure!) recorded a second album, La Domna Ditz ("The Lady Says"). This album is devoted to the songs of female troubadours ("trobairitz") and contains many of my own settings, as only one trobairitz lyric has an extant melody.
"One extant melody?" you say? Yep. For many medieval lyrics, the tune has been lost. In these cases, performers have two choices. One is to write their own setting. The other is to sing the lyrics to the melody of a song with the same metrical structure, if one exists (creating a "contrafact"). For help finding melodies to use as contrafacts, see the Troubadour resources page.
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Lenten is come by Briddes Roune
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La Domna Ditz - Songs of the Trobairitz by Rossignol
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To contact me:
| Robin Snyder | Case Western Reserve University |
| office: (216) 368-8838 | Dept. of Biology |
| FAX: (216) 368-4672 | 10900 Euclid Ave. |
| Cleveland, OH 44106-7080 |
email: res29atsigncase.edu (Replace "atsign" with "@")