Sing!

Alas, my love, how you do me wrong

To cast me off discourteously

For I have loved you well and long

Delighting in your company

-Greensleeves verse 1

Picture if you will a land with no television, no computer, no xbox 360, Nintendo, Playstation, electricity, (indoor plumbing) nothing entertaining. Sounds boring, right? Of course it does! So, you're sitting around with your friends with nothing to do (no school! YES!) and you're bored out of your mind. The solution? Music of course! Now that it's the middle ages, music is changing all around. Where songs from the church used to reign supreme, new songs and poems about far off places or heros are coming into the light. And to make things better, travelers have brought back beautiful new instruments that make sounds you didn't even know were possible. And, since you have no ipod, you have memorized numerous songs from all around. Since you know so much about music and poetry and you've learned it doesn't all have to revolve around church (but don't tell the priest). Songs and poems about love found, love lost, love desired are bubbling up to the surface. Sick of love? There's plenty of other genres to keep you entertained. Many songs even have historical stories behind them. Court singers could often be turned to by the king because of the historical knowledge they carried just from their songs. So if you're a singer, not only do you have something to do on a Saturday night, you could also recive a lot of respect. At least, that's how it used to be. Things have since changed. Songs nowadays have since lost their importance beyond something to distract you in long car ride. But that's not to say that new music doesn't still sound awesome! Just imagine if they'd had an electric guitar in the middle ages!

Greensleeves was all my joy

Greensleeves was my delight

Greensleeves was my heart of gold,

And who but my lady Greensleeves

-Greensleeves chorus

The Rack

Torture wascommon in the middle ages, as we all know. Numerous devices were invented, reworked, and used solely for the purpose of inflicting as much pain on the human body as was possible. Of all these devices, few became as infamous as The Rack. An elegant and simple device, The Rack was one of the most feared tortures one could endure. For those of you who can't figure out how it works from the picture, let me break it down for you. The prisoner is laid, generally on his back, on an uncomfortable wooden table. Their arms and legs are strapped into cuffs and stretched as far as they can go. Or so you think. But The Rack is tricky. Cranks either only on the top or on the top and bottom are slowly turned, stretching your muscles and tendons far beyond their capacity. The first to be dislocated is normally your arms, but even after that, they'll still pull making for an excruciating sensation that makes you wish they'd just cut your arms off. With a special mechanism, the adjustments on The Rack can't be turned backwards allowing for whoever is doing the torturing to make the pain last for days, or weeks, or however long they might want to enjoy your company. The Rack depicted above isn't the only way the decive was used, either. It was tweeked and modified to be more and more horrible as the human imagination grew darker.

Big Churches and Stained Glass

There are three defining characteristics of Gothic architecture: pointed arches, a ribbed vault, and flying buttresses. This allowed architects to give the church larger windows and much bigger which allowed for a much more spacious and bright, inviting cathedral. These churches express the power and wealth of the church in the middle ages. Many churches and cathedrals took a century or more to build. That takes commitment.

As time went on, mural paintings (which had been widely popular) began to loose favor to stained glass. Due to the new Gothic style of architecture, large stained glass windows could now be placed in cathedrals. Illustrated texts provided ideas for the designs of many of the windows. These windows were often separated into twelve pieces, supposedly representing the twelve apostles. Stained glass windows are still in use today and are normally one of the key markers that you are in a church should you get lost. That is, if the giant Jesus statue isn't enough.

http://www.historylink101.com/lessons/art_history_lessons/ma/index.htm