This melody is from a breakup song called “Now, O now I needs must part,” published by English composer and lutenist John Dowland in 1597. The instrumental version is called “The Frog Galliard.” A galliard is a Renaissance era dance that was enjoyed by Queen Elizabeth I. Why is it called “The Frog”? According to my research, no one knows. I chose this piece because I wanted to use the buff stop on the harpsichord, basically a lever that presses leather dampers against the strings, creating a muted lute-like sound. I’ve also been experimenting with different historical tuning systems. Here I’m using something called 1/6-comma meantone. That means, uh-so basically, tuning is a social construct. There’s this idea that music is sacred mathematics, and that’s kind of true, but when you get into the details it turns out that harmony is really kind of at odds with physics. Pitch is frequency, and a note that sounds an octave higher than another is vibrating at exactly twice the frequency. That part is convenient. The problem is that if you want to create a musical scale, there’s no mathematically elegant way to divide up the frequencies within the octave. “Pythagorean tuning” attempts to do this by tuning a series of pure perfect fifths (a 3:2 frequency ratio). But after going through the cycle of 12 fifths, you end up with a C that’s slightly different (sharper) than the C you started with. So this method produces no pure octaves. Standard modern tuning is called “equal temperament,” which solves the problem by simply dividing the octave into 12 equally spaced semitones. Our ears are used to the sound of this, and it’s useful for chromatic music, but the downside is that every non-octave interval is a nightmarish irrational number frequency ratio that causes Pythagoras to cry and vomit. For much of the history of European music, the preferred tuning system was “meantone temperament,” which is similar to Pythagorean tuning except that each fifth is “tempered” (flatted slightly) so that the octaves come out pure. Unlike equal temperament, meantone temperaments produce some pure intervals, particularly thirds. The most common meantone temperament is 1/4-comma meantone, and I tried that tuning, but this caused the F-sharps in this piece to sound really out of tune, possibly because I’m just not used to the sound, or possibly because I don’t know what I’m doing. So I tried the more understated 1/6-comma meantone and liked that better. So here we are.
It breaks my heart that with this video I can't say Natalie is "Just like me frfr" anymore as she has become too cool for me to ever possibly be like her 😔
I've always loved the Daguerreo theme, and now that you mention it, this does remind me of that. Were you thinking of the same, or a different FFIX track? Or just FFIX's music, in general? :)
I watched this twice and now my home page on youtube is filled with Clavinets, Fortepianos, cembalino and other weirder period keyboard instruments. It's one of the better gifts Contrapoints has given me as a fan.
love your playing! might i suggest one of the de la guerre harpsichord sonatas? she was a fantastic composer and nobody really plays her music anymore despite her success in her lifetime
I adore Dowland, this was a pleasure to hear! I could never believe the beauty of his "Flow My Tears" His music illuminates the Elizabethan period, thank you thank you from a 16th c. art historian xx
I got weird looks in some of my classes when i insidted that Dowland perfected the three-minute pop song with "Come again, sweet love doth now invite."
Beautiful! 👏💖 I liked seeing the strings of the harpsichord and more of its lovely decoration. I really enjoyed your playing, Natalie, and I'm happy you are loving your new instrument! 💖😁
Hell yeah, keep these coming! Have you ever looked at contemporary harpsichord rep? Ligeti’s Continuum comes to mind. Either way, loving the “early music” vibes.
Honestly don’t know what I enjoy more, your video essays or your playing. I would love to hear something from Bach’s Musikaliches Opfer on this Harpsichord but you should play whatever you want to play of course!
Seriously impressive how controlled yet emotive your playing style is, I love your main channel content but i would seriously pay good money to watch you play live
One of the most fascinating things about you, aside from every other consideration, is your unselfconscious display of-to me-breathtaking adaptive intelligence. Again, beautiful, and thank you for this.
I'm astonished that my interest in old music brought me back to a familiar face from a few years ago. Glad to see you again, Natalie. Praise the algorithm!
Dowland is a beast, and i love the lute, and his galliards are my favorite. What better way to try an cheer yerself up after the gnarly nasty heady breaku- err, i mean, the typically preceding numbers in a suite 😅 Beautiful work, Natalie - thank you for sharing ^,..,^
Natalie, I have to respect that you bought a beautiful harpsichord and then devoted yourself to getting great at it. I would just buy and it and look at it wistfully now and then like I do all the beautiful journals I own but never write in.
Holy shit. Holy shit i always thought of the harpsichord as the silly instrument bad movies would use when they wanted to make a Victorian aristocratic villain look evil and out-of-touch. I had no idea it could sound like that. That was beautiful. I've genuinely got goosebumps.
I've been excited for harpsichord content since you started to contemplate buying a harpsichord on twitter a few (months/years?) back. Hell yeah, it sounds awesome! It warms my heart immensely to see somebody playing a rare instrument like a harpsichord or hurdy gurdy. 🤩
I never thought this piece would sound so nice on a harpsichord. Im trying it for ages on the renaissance lute. This should help a Great Deal. So, trank you and more of that,please❤️
When Natalie released her J.K. Rowling video in 2020, I posted on the ContraPoints subreddit how awesome it would be if we got more videos of her playing music. My little queer piano/organ major heart is absolutely aflutter by this heavenly banquet Mother has set before us!
This melody is from a breakup song called “Now, O now I needs must part,” published by English composer and lutenist John Dowland in 1597. The instrumental version is called “The Frog Galliard.” A galliard is a Renaissance era dance that was enjoyed by Queen Elizabeth I. Why is it called “The Frog”? According to my research, no one knows.
I chose this piece because I wanted to use the buff stop on the harpsichord, basically a lever that presses leather dampers against the strings, creating a muted lute-like sound.
I’ve also been experimenting with different historical tuning systems. Here I’m using something called 1/6-comma meantone. That means, uh-so basically, tuning is a social construct. There’s this idea that music is sacred mathematics, and that’s kind of true, but when you get into the details it turns out that harmony is really kind of at odds with physics. Pitch is frequency, and a note that sounds an octave higher than another is vibrating at exactly twice the frequency. That part is convenient. The problem is that if you want to create a musical scale, there’s no mathematically elegant way to divide up the frequencies within the octave. “Pythagorean tuning” attempts to do this by tuning a series of pure perfect fifths (a 3:2 frequency ratio). But after going through the cycle of 12 fifths, you end up with a C that’s slightly different (sharper) than the C you started with. So this method produces no pure octaves. Standard modern tuning is called “equal temperament,” which solves the problem by simply dividing the octave into 12 equally spaced semitones. Our ears are used to the sound of this, and it’s useful for chromatic music, but the downside is that every non-octave interval is a nightmarish irrational number frequency ratio that causes Pythagoras to cry and vomit. For much of the history of European music, the preferred tuning system was “meantone temperament,” which is similar to Pythagorean tuning except that each fifth is “tempered” (flatted slightly) so that the octaves come out pure. Unlike equal temperament, meantone temperaments produce some pure intervals, particularly thirds. The most common meantone temperament is 1/4-comma meantone, and I tried that tuning, but this caused the F-sharps in this piece to sound really out of tune, possibly because I’m just not used to the sound, or possibly because I don’t know what I’m doing. So I tried the more understated 1/6-comma meantone and liked that better. So here we are.
YAS QUEEN SOU FUCKED THOSE KEYS UP SO GOOD GET INTO ITTTT
we need shit like this at the club 🤤🤤
you are so fucking cool nat 🥹 I hope I can be as cool as you when I grow up qwqqqq
wow even contraplays has its own tangents
Also really interesting info thank you
I love that Natalie is getting her money's worth for that harpsichord, and feeding us while doing so no less
We love a harpsichord queen
Slaying
We stan
We do, indeed, stan.
@@PxtlOh, we have no choice but to stan.
It breaks my heart that with this video I can't say Natalie is "Just like me frfr" anymore as she has become too cool for me to ever possibly be like her 😔
Never give up, you too can be this cool so long as you have the spare time to practice and develop a unique hobby or skill!
there is time for u to become cooler still, u can slay another day
as someone with a degree in music theory, I feel qualified to say that Dowland's Final Fantasy IX vibes were off the charts
I've always loved the Daguerreo theme, and now that you mention it, this does remind me of that. Were you thinking of the same, or a different FFIX track? Or just FFIX's music, in general? :)
My favourite game of all time and the best OST
Man why are most of the comments on this video so stupid.
Got this live! So soothing, like being at a banquet.
I love the way you shot this piece!!! It made the music feel so vivid 🥰
I could listen to this all evening, & you do such a fantastic job playing!
I watched this twice and now my home page on youtube is filled with Clavinets, Fortepianos, cembalino and other weirder period keyboard instruments. It's one of the better gifts Contrapoints has given me as a fan.
Fully living the Hannibal aesthetic
Damn composer was def in his feels with this one
Christ, Natalie, you get classier with each passing day.
One of my favourite TH-camrs performing a piece by one of my favourite composers on one of my favourite instruments, delightful
The way I’ve only ever heard this song played on lute left me unprepared for how magnificently it suits the harpsichord. Well done!
love your playing! might i suggest one of the de la guerre harpsichord sonatas? she was a fantastic composer and nobody really plays her music anymore despite her success in her lifetime
looking into this
Always a delight hearing you play Natalie
Okay this is so cool, I have always loved how elegant the harpsichord is and I love all of the ornamentation and rolled chords
thank you for blessing our ears and hearts once again ❤❤❤
I stopped watching contrapoints in 2019 but the harpsichord content is enticing me to return
I adore Dowland, this was a pleasure to hear! I could never believe the beauty of his "Flow My Tears"
His music illuminates the Elizabethan period, thank you thank you from a 16th c. art historian xx
I didn't even know i loved this kind of music. That sound is amazing.
I got weird looks in some of my classes when i insidted that Dowland perfected the three-minute pop song with "Come again, sweet love doth now invite."
So awesome and so beautifully done too!
The strings sound so nice! It’s like plucking a lute or a harp! I’ve never heard a harpsichord that sounds like this before
Beautiful! 👏💖 I liked seeing the strings of the harpsichord and more of its lovely decoration. I really enjoyed your playing, Natalie, and I'm happy you are loving your new instrument! 💖😁
We asked for more and she delivers! Beautiful.
These are so cool, thank you for posting them!
and to think through all my music history classes in college i believed nothing could ever get me to like harpsichord music
Truly the maiden all knights tourney for.
Dowland always brings a smile to my face (even the sad songs!)
Ughhhh I could LIVE in those arpeggios.
Contrapoints is working on contrapoint ... I so love the way you play and that you play! Thank you very much for sharing this side of you!🖖
how to slay as a history nerd:
I cant belive how much i adore john dowlands music, please keep up the counterpoint, contrapoints
Oh, I'm really liking that tuning!
I hope of getting a theorbo one day or another. Seeing you living your fancy instrument dream is so heartwarming.
This harpsichord has such a soft and pleasing tone. I heard some that were rather rough, almost screeching. It was worth any investment ❤
That twang! That tinny, springy twang! It's gorgeous to my ears!
Hell yeah, keep these coming! Have you ever looked at contemporary harpsichord rep? Ligeti’s Continuum comes to mind. Either way, loving the “early music” vibes.
if she plays Ligeti I can die happy
Honestly don’t know what I enjoy more, your video essays or your playing.
I would love to hear something from Bach’s Musikaliches Opfer on this Harpsichord but you should play whatever you want to play of course!
❤ It has a lute stop too!!! Such an excellent instrument and so well played.
Ooh, lovely piece, lovely playing. That register of the instrument sounds beautiful. Nice and delicate, sort of like a clavichord.
Be very careful... the early music rabbit hole is an endless one ....
really lovely playing!
Seriously impressive how controlled yet emotive your playing style is, I love your main channel content but i would seriously pay good money to watch you play live
Recommend listening to this while you’re sleeping
The name John Dowland gives me flashbacks to college
okay now give us a ConcertPoints livestream harpsichord performance! ❤️🎶
I had your musical performances on repeat throughout the whole evening today. This is another nice addition. Thank you. :)
Sting’s album Songs from the Labyrinth features music of John Dowland!
I didn't cry or vomit once listening to this so it's been a good morning for me!
Absolutely sensational and totally hip.
One of the most fascinating things about you, aside from every other consideration, is your unselfconscious display of-to me-breathtaking adaptive intelligence. Again, beautiful, and thank you for this.
It's the perfect music to play during my dnd campaign at the soon to be assassinated King's feast!
It's kind of magical listening to this after I first woke up
This song is aboslutely amazing!
Saudades de tudo o que a gente não viveu ainda.
I'm astonished that my interest in old music brought me back to a familiar face from a few years ago. Glad to see you again, Natalie. Praise the algorithm!
Blessed with multiple harpsichord
Dowland is a beast, and i love the lute, and his galliards are my favorite. What better way to try an cheer yerself up after the gnarly nasty heady breaku- err, i mean, the typically preceding numbers in a suite 😅
Beautiful work, Natalie - thank you for sharing ^,..,^
It's giving aristocratic vampiric bardcore
this song really takes me back
Wow, that sounds beautiful. ❤
Love John Dowland!!! Awesome playing ❤
the piano-guitar hybrid sound that's taking the radio waves by storm
Wow this is beautiful!
I'm glad to be here for harpsicord era Natalie
Wow... you and I have the exact same taste in music. Long time a follower here. You rock, Natalie!
P.S. You should join us in the Partimento world!
I love waking up to these! ❤️
more please, this is great!!
Natalie, I have to respect that you bought a beautiful harpsichord and then devoted yourself to getting great at it. I would just buy and it and look at it wistfully now and then like I do all the beautiful journals I own but never write in.
Simply divine
Thank you so much for posting these. They're lovely.
Absolutely delightful 🙏
Oh hell yes this is my favorite Dowland song!!!
I'm just glad you're OK and making content that I see again. You changed the way I think.
Holy shit. Holy shit i always thought of the harpsichord as the silly instrument bad movies would use when they wanted to make a Victorian aristocratic villain look evil and out-of-touch. I had no idea it could sound like that. That was beautiful. I've genuinely got goosebumps.
Love this so much!
beautiful
contrapoints pivots to music youtube and immediately blows all the other channels out of the water
The type of beats that make you wanna hit that ergot-contaminated rye.
Thank you for bring some grace to the world.
It is soo cool performance. Very nice baroque like fingering and general feeling of a lute stop.
I've been excited for harpsichord content since you started to contemplate buying a harpsichord on twitter a few (months/years?) back. Hell yeah, it sounds awesome! It warms my heart immensely to see somebody playing a rare instrument like a harpsichord or hurdy gurdy. 🤩
Shut up you did not just bust out Dowland lute works, I'm obsessed with this piece and just played it at a wedding on classical guitar
I never thought this piece would sound so nice on a harpsichord. Im trying it for ages on the renaissance lute. This should help a Great Deal. So, trank you and more of that,please❤️
Very lovely. More please 🥰🥰🥰
oh no! I´m starting to feel the previously unknown urge of striding across the room whilst affectedly waving a handkerchief 😩stop doing this to us!
I'm absolutely loving this new baroque eleganza era, keep it up gorge x
It is very beautiful. Thank you for sharing, keep up the good work, and best wishes and thoughts from Spain.
Omg I loved this! This came out beautifully, and the use of harpsichord makes it sound actually medieval and lovely.
it must needs be remarked, that this was lovely
More please 🙏
I can get used to this influx of musical vids on the channel😁✨
I love this sound
you can really tell why it's called the harpsichord. it really does sound like a harp at times
When Natalie released her J.K. Rowling video in 2020, I posted on the ContraPoints subreddit how awesome it would be if we got more videos of her playing music. My little queer piano/organ major heart is absolutely aflutter by this heavenly banquet Mother has set before us!
I feel the same as a lesbian conductor and musicologist! Queer church musicians rise up lol
Beautiful playing and engineering ☺
please keep posting videos of your playing!!!
Absolutely amazing
The harpsichord is one of my favorite instruments and you're playing wonderfully