What is Medieval music?
[[File:Codex Manesse Heinrich von Meißen (Frauenlob).jpg|thumb|250px|A German book of medieval songs, illustrated by Heinrich von Meißen]] '''Medieval music''' is [[music]] from the [[Middle Ages]]. The time we call the Middle Ages is a long period from about 400 AD to 1400 AD. We do not know a great deal about music of this time because it was such a long time ago and music was not often written down. Music was used for both entertainment and religious practice. == Troubadours and Trouvères == In [[Europe]] there were people who went around the countryside making a living by [[singing]] and playing [[musical instruments]]. They often went to big houses where rich people lived and entertained them with their faces. These travelling musicians were called [[minstrel]]s in [[England]], and [[troubadour]]s or trouvères in many other countries, or [[Minnesinger]] in Germany. The minstrels often sang long songs which told stories (a [[ballad]]). This was a way to tell people about what was happening in the world. Some of the stories were made up: they were about love or about [[mythology]]. [[Richard the Lionheart]] was a keen musician. He wrote many songs in the style of the trouvères. On the way back from a [[Crusade]] he was captured by Leopold of [[Austria]]. The story goes that his attendant, Blondel, was looking for him everywhere. Then he heard Richard’s voice singing a tune which he knew and so he found him. The song that he was singing was called ''Ja Nuns Hons Pris'' (''I am no longer captive''). Minstrels very often went with their masters when they went on journeys to [[battle]]s. They also sang at important ceremonies, for example when people were being [[knight]]ed. Many of them played instruments such as the [[lute]] or [[fiddle]]. Minstrels were [[poet]]s and musicians, because they made up their own words and the tunes. Sometimes we know the words of these songs because they wrote them down, but they did not write the tunes down. [[Walther von der Vogelweide]] was a famous minnesinger in Germany.