Before my brother Steven and I formed our musical duo Cerulean Jade, we created, with our family, Talea Studios. We actually view Cerulean Jade being a part of Talea, and that through Talea we're going to have many projects, including an online graphic novel we hope to get up soon, among other things.
But where did Talea come from? What is it? Like Cerulean Jade, we had a very, very hard time picking a name to go by. I can't even remember all our ideas, only that none of them felt right or fit us as a family. Then, one day as I was casually surfing the net, I found myself on an online music dictionary going through terms (sounds boring, but it's a nice refresher). Then, going through the T's, I found Talea. My Mom was in the other room, and as I was bouncing the word around my mind, I asked her, "What do you think of Talea Studios?" Immediately she got excited, and then asked what it was.
So what is it? A varying rhythmic pattern, used in Medieval Motet music. In Isorhythmic motets, the music is polyphonic (many voices singing, or playing, as the same time. There's no harmony). And the tenor line is always on the bottom, with many lines being sung on top.
The Talea is the repeating rhythm the tenor sings. The example above is quite simple, but, especially with 14th century motets, the rhythms can be quite complex. The tenor acts as a stabilizing base, providing an anchor for the song. It's the music's foundation. Even with chaos raging above, the tenor is strong, sure, and interesting. It holds everything together. We liked that . . . and the word looks cool too.
The song below is an example of Motet Isorhythm and Talea that I had to study in my Music Literature 301 class.
So there you have it, Talea! We pronounce the word the same way the name Talia is pronounced. Ta-Leia (as in Princess Leia) is more accurate, but we got so used to saying the word the other way, it's now stuck.
The music geek in me had to share this last one! There's no Talea, written in 1198, but it's so cool. And I love how they show the original manuscript. I can listen to this kind of music for hours.
Have a great day!
Sarah
Good to know! I actually sang with a group called Musica Antiqua that focused on medieval music. We didn't do much of those, apparently, or if we did, I had no idea. :P
ReplyDeleteI love listening to medieval music, though I haven't really had an opportunity to sing it. (Only once, and that was for a class project, though it was amazing). That sounds like a really fun group:0)
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