Navarr music
Style summary
Music generally for celebration not war, songs sung while performing work, songs about travelling, fate, forests, and blood. Navarr bards are very into their heritage; lost cities and sacrifice but music concentrates on remembrance rather than lamentation.
Sources are primarily Greek, Scottish, Irish, Canadian, Galician and Basque/French folk tunes, fast fiddle and pipes alongside soft unison singing with lyrics from songs of travel, poems, or Tolkienesque fantasy.
Commonly known songs
Pick a few examples from the list below to specifically promote as well-known within that nation. Provide lyrics and score/chords. Preferably in a range of difficulties.
A musical tradition
Suggest how the music fits into the cultural behaviour in general (e.g. battle hakas, wassails).
One for the kids
Further examples
Songs
- I Come and Stand at Every Door - sad song about the fall of Navarri cities, easy.
- All the Pretty Ponies - lullaby remembering extinct horses, very easy.
- Ten Thousand Miles - song of love/travelling, medium.
Instrumentation and tunes
Strings, whistles and bagpipes, drums and voices. For tunes look to the jangly bouzouki sound of Greek music, for whistle tunes use Gaelic tunes and instrumental versions of 'mouth music'. Pretty much any instrument works well in Navarr.
Other performance traditions
- Storytelling is discussed in Navarri Culture and Customs
- Dance (most group folk dances would work well, e.g. ceilidh or medieval dances)
- Poetry e.g. Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost.
How to adapt your repertoire
- No tradition would be 'wrong' in the Navarr as they travel throughout the Empire. However, to keep a distinctive sound for Navarr music, try to encourage unison singing.
Our sources
- Modern Gaelic artists, modern pipers e.g. Finlay MacDonald, Scottish-influenced Canadian songs and tunes e.g. Ashley MacIsaac, Great Big Sea (although less poppy), the instrumental stuff by Shooglenifty e.g. Arms Dealer's Daughter (CD), Michael McGoldrick (e.g. Wired), Irish folk, Greek folk tunes and dances.
- Travel-themed songs and poems by Tolkien could provide inspiration e.g. http://allpoetry.com/poem/8500011-I_Sit_And_Think-by-J_R_R_Tolkien and the Misty Mountain song is spot on for the Navarr sound.
Here is a youtube playlist of appropriate or inspiring music.