Agincourt Carol - Maddy Prior and June Tabor

[lsdmadman]

gods this is nice...what happpened to out species?

[TheArtistOfKuroo]

Anyone else think the harmony creates an effect that sounds like a hurdy gurdy?

[DitchBiscuit]

"England one France lost." Sad.

[BoldogKennel]

Ah! But what if the Pagans had resisted conversion! Now THAT would be a world worth living in today! : ) So sad what is happening to the UK today... once the greatest power in the world - now, they make old Rome look healthy.

[eclecticstars]

I can not belive their are some people commenting on whos side god may or may not of been in bloody old wars. its a song. lovely song. the sentament behind it is a rancid comment on war. Enjoy the tune and voices

[acerb45666555]

be proud of youre ancestors brave deeds that very risky day! "Long Live Harry"!

[finnbjerke]

man those vocal harmonies are truely amazing

[mOdWrx53]

Beyond good. Ridiculously great.

[RenBeth]

Hearing these two sing independently of one another is an awe-inspiring experience. Hearing them together is nearly a religious experience. The two albums they recorded are on my "Desert Island" list.

[bluevocals]

june is the one!

[gwydiot]

i sure like that June Tabor.

[Sandyyd1]

Just love it!

[bungeebeader]

Part of this is sung in Latin--that can make it harder to discern the words.

[0ldb1ll]

Forgive the history lesson, but Henry V was a Plantagenet out of the House of Angevin direct descendant of Matilda of Flanders, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Isabella of Angouleme, Eleanor of Provence, Eleanor of Castile, Isabella of France, Philipa of Hainault, Mary de Bohun and he married Catherine de Valois. He spoke only French and the only English present were the poor bloody infantry, even the archers were Welsh. The last Englih king was Harold and he was half Norwegian.

[adventussaxonum]

@0ldb1ll - Henry spoke English,French AND Latin. And YES,SOME of the archers were Welsh.

[tigranvartanovitch]

@adventussaxonum It's even more complicated than that. Welsh was spoken in parts of England, as well as numerous dialects of English. England also owned large parts of France. Aquitaine, for example, was English for hundreds of years. As well as South Welsh and English troops , for the 1415 campaign the English artillery were German and Flemish, their crossbowmen were Gascons, and there were also troops from Navarre.

[robibm2003]

I have the Silly Sisters album and it was like they were almost made to sing with each other. The record is just so ridiculously gorgeous it's too bad I haven't seen any concerts with Maddy and June together.

With how the Corrs and Celtic have been hits here in the U.S. I would love to see an equal amount of attention accorded to this pairing.

[kabivose]

Lovely sound. Yes, I'd love to hear it with proper 15th century diction and "genuine" 15th century Latin but would we know if someone did it? How could we? Strangely melancholy for a victory song. The Goss Male Quartet manage to make it sound much more joyous though their piano makes their version very strange to my ears.

And why did Maddy and June do verse one twice, verse six once and miss out the rest?

Minor grumbles about a great version.

[proulxmontpellier]

And one last: if England, with barely two million inhabitants, had, in the end, won the 100 years War, how would the language have survived, in a United Kingdom of 12 million people, of which the vast majority spoke French and the language of the elite? I think English would today be spoken as a dialect in Yorkshire and Lancashire

[hawkmoon03111951]

@proulxmontpellier Ahh, the famous what if! Must admit I had never thought of it that way but you may well be right. However just think what else might have/have not happened. England might still be catholic, America might have been Spanish. Our rivalry has led to the world being the way it is today. What would it be like without that rivalry?

[buttonpuncher]

@hawkmoon03111951

O, aye, what might have been... If cows could fly, I'd want to be in the umbrella business, come to that.... :-))

[torval39]

@proulxmontpellier

More than likely the Norman Kings would have moved the capital of the combined Kingdom to Paris. So yes, we would be speaking French now.

[TheJonnymorris]

@proulxmontpellier What's English my friend? It was mixed with latin, saxon, danish...then french. In Yorkshire we speak a language that reflects our Viking past. the grammar, syntax and vocabulary. You french have much to learn.Remember AGINCOURT! x



[proulxmontpellier]

@TheJonnymorris

What the French Elite have most to learn is to curb their arrogance. Foreigners think that the French are arrogant, but this is because the French Elite are utterly arrogant with their own people. As soon as someone displays a trace of provincial accent, that person is immediately scorned.

As for Yorkshire, I am truly admirative that this is one of the last regions where the second person singular is still used.

[TheFutureFossil]

@proulxmontpellier Quite astute. We few, we happy few, would this dying dialect speak.

[proulxmontpellier]

However, it is very often the other way round: any Anglosaxophone country will systematically go out of its way to hinder French interests over the world.

And the French as a people, are much more symptathetic to the English as a people than the reverse.

[barryUFF]

@proulxmontpellier I met a man from an Anglosaxophone country that could play the clarinet !!!! I met a woman who had an Anglosaxon background and she couldn't play the saxophone or clarinet.

[DarkWolfen]

If this is how it sounded in 1415, then they sounded like Elvish lays. Tolkien impresses me again.

[markjbaldwin]

I think in 100 years American and English will be mutually unintelligible. Alas poor Churchill.

[Pangael]

@markjbaldwin,

I'm not so sure they'll be mutually unintelligible. Mass media does a lot to keep that from happening and I don't think English teachers will let it get too far from Shakespeare :-).

My big fear is that mass media will wipe out all the great dialects in the language, though I have to admit that doesn't seem to be happening.

[markjbaldwin]

Mass media doing way more than the English could ever do. As an American I once could understand Yorkie when I was young. No longer. On the other hand, my hearing ain't what it ince was.

[GrandPrix55]

A great mediaeval sound.

[Villagejonesy]

I don't mean to tread on you, but just out of curiosity, are we certain that today's Latin speakers use the same diction as the churchmen of 600 years ago (which I assume the singers are imitating), or that either of them sound the same as the Romans from whom they inherited it?

[Pangael]

@Villagejonesy,

Truth is, we don't know any more than we know for sure what Chaucer's dialect of Middle English sounded like or King Alfred's Anglo-Saxon. All we have are educated guesses from linguists; and for every linguist who says it's *this* particular way, you can find three more who call him a damned liar.

So we sorta punt. Can I understand their Latin? Yeah. Would Julius Caesar have understood it? Who knows.

[Villagejonesy]

Thanks, yes--that's what I would have thought. And I bet if the Latin speaker were from Lancashire, the Romans wouldn't have understood him even if he'd lived at the same time :D

[Pangael]

@Villagejonesy,

I suspect you're right.

As an English speaker (General American dialect), I have to admit that I have some trouble following the English spoken in Lancashire and Yorkshire sometimes.

And I would suspect their adherence to their dialects of whatever language they happen to be speaking is a long-standing tradition and a point of pride with them. They probably confused the Celts and baffled the Beaker People. :-)

[Villagejonesy]

Ha! Likewise. The first time I went back to England after living there as a child, I was in a waiting room in the Lake District, and the announcer said: "buffle-thwit wuffle-thwaite muffle-alors trine-escompatulate a ginky-dee, and London Euston." I thought: "hm. Well, wait for it to come round again." It did; same thing. On the third go, I looked at the group of Londoners across from me and gestured, "wha?", figuring that perhaps I was just too American. But they smiled and shrugged, "nope!"

[hawkmoon03111951]

It's not the dialect that beat you. I can't understand anything said over a railway tannoy, even in the area I was brought up in. Not only that but, more often than not, it is an Indian accent. The railway companies don't want you to know that your train has been cancelled.

[Villagejonesy]

Funny--so it's the railway company covering up! Well this was not an Indian accent, it sounded like a Yorkshire accent. But my train did come, eventually. If it had been cancelled at the end, I would have made an interesting face.

[Pangael]

@hawkmoon03111951

I dunno. I was speaking face-to-face with a number of Yorkshire folk and there was a whole lot of 'Huh's?' and 'Beg pardon's?' in both directions - along with a lot of laughing both ways, because they were very friendly.

I think maybe the Lancashire and Yorkshire dialects are the Navajo of the English language: you have to be born into it to learn them. :-)

[hawkmoon03111951]

They can be pretty broad and some of the words are totally different but I can usually understand them.  Mind you, my dad is from Durham so I probably have a bit of an ear for it, even though I'm a Londoner. I still say, though, that no-one can ever understand anyone over a railway tannoy.

[hawkmoon03111951]

I can just see all of our traditional folk singers and rock singers practising their latin diction.

[hawkmoon03111951]

Ah well! They probably never studied Latin. It's going out of favour in this country, unfortunately. Even some of the private schools are dropping it from their curriculum. Big mistake, I think.

[guywolff]

These intervals are incredible .

[sirhope]

Shows what you know. Thank goodness UK policy kisses the butts of the likes of GW Bush. What sot!!

[buttonpuncher]

I think that the greatest irony of it all is that 500 - odd years later, French foreign policy is still guided by their resentment at having lost at Agincourt.

I am convinced that the battle is the reason for the French constant opposing of all Anglophone countries' foreign policy since then... unless, of course that they've once again been successfully invaded and need someone to bail out their useless butts.

[GexNantua]

@buttonpuncher Lol I hope you're joking because your comment is laughable. After Agincourt came Castilon, Patay, Orléans, and of course the English lost the war and it was not only a French victory but also an english bladbooth...The irony of all that is that the English attitude to France is still guided by the ressentment you have after your defeat in the HYW (and at Hastings) ...

[buttonpuncher]

@GexNantua , I'm a born and bred Texian, and I don't have a dog in this fight, as we say here. My parents were Welsh, and Scots-Irish, so I don't have any particular love for the English in any case.... Sorry If I mislead you in my comments.

[SOS763]

@GexNantua I disagree. Look at Britain's modern military scope and history. We defined modern warfare whilst the French mastered the art of surrender and waitering.

[LestatxLouis1]

@SOS763 Napoleon would like to have a word with you.

[SOS763]

@LestatxLouis1 Napoleon wasn't even French lol. All jokes aside, love Napoleon. Though I love my own nation's history too - and can you blame me?

[LestatxLouis1]

@SOS763 He considered himself a Corsican throughout most of his life, yet serving France after that one unfortunate incident in Ajaccio with all his heart and is thus generally considered a Frenchman. Still, the British influence especially in naval strategy and fancy dress uniforms is undeniable and even if your influence on land warfare was ... marginal to say at best, I'm an Anglophile myself. Which is why I want you to adopt the Euro (with a design identical to the Pound XD) till 2013.

[SOS763]

@LestatxLouis1 I sincerely hope we do not join the Euro. There is no benefit for our island. I will do all I can to make my stand. Secondly, our history in land warfare as a whole - leading up to modern day combat, is more than impressive. Our nation is renowned for our military. And fancy dress uniforms - from a Frenchman? Lol. There is a famous saying in English - 'pot calling the kettle black'. Look it up.

[LestatxLouis1]

@SOS763 I'm German, not French. *We* have no fancy dress uniforms.

[SOS763]

@LestatxLouis1 Correct - your uniforms were extremely ugly - and combined with that nasty goose stepping technique so perfect by the modern German military, one can only suggest if nothing else an upgrade in military image! :)

[LestatxLouis1]

@SOS763 Er, goose step has not been used since the fall of the GDR ...

[SOS763]

@LestatxLouis1 It was a joke! I thought German's had a decent sense of humor! :-P

[LestatxLouis1]

@SOS763 We have, but it is a tame sense of humor that is quick to assume a slur.

[SOS763]

@LestatxLouis1 Sounds fun (!).

[LestatxLouis1]

@SOS763 Monty Python is more fun.

[SOS763]

@LestatxLouis1 Haha correct. Python is brilliant.

[pervious1]

Ex-Raf and served in two war zones, before it became cool. Watched 'The Life and Times of King Henry V' whilst in the Falklands, in '82.

Loved it then...love it now.

[LJOUWERD]

Terrific song and thanks to the British archers who carried the day at Agincourt. To the twat below who insults the military forces read a poem by Kipling called Tommy before you have the temerity to insult men of honour.

[615jenkins]

What a beatiful harmony. Love Maddy Prior's voice.

[Dougallism420]

@615jenkins powerful and soothing

[buttonpuncher]

hawkmoon, thanks for posting. It's important that we conserve the culture and history of our people. If we don't know where we came from, we'll be lost trying to decide where we ought to go. Magnificent song, and magnificent singers.

[jobriath85]

Don't feed the troll. It's not an argument, it's noise. Vote down and let's get this off the page.

[pervious1]

This was the carol that was composed in King Henry's honour to give grace to God for his vctory over the usurper French Dauphin. No matter what may be the current thinking on that victory, it was a victory that sent shock waves throughout the medeival world. Mayhap God WAS on th side of the English.

[endora60]

God, there are some seriously nasty people here. Lovely song, beautifully performed.

[elliechoir]

Beautiful...interesting how melancholy it is given that it is about an English Victory!

[loki1066]

Henry would have won with half his men if they could have used the bow like longbow oz , check out his videos.

[tracykateparis]

simply lovely!

[swissroll55]

Thanks for putting this up. As shuddersfield said: Wonderful to stumble across hidden gems :)

[shuddersfield]

wow! this is what i love about youtube....unknown gems like this...thanks so much for posting....

[dsewell]

Beautiful, beautiful performance. I was hoping for live video of Maddy & June, but it was not to be. Yeoman's effort to bring the Battle of Agincourt alive with still illustrations.