For more information, contact Cindy Young, (937) 775-3232.
November 3, 1998
MADRIGAL DINNERS BRING ANCIENT
CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS TO LIFE
King Arthur and the Knights of the Round table meet dinner theatre--that's how Hank Dahlman, a choral director at Wright State University--describes a madrigal dinner. The Christmas time events, sometimes known as 12th Night Dinners or Boar's Head Feasts, are increasingly popular events on college campuses since their rebirth in the 1970s, according to Dahlman.
Madrigal dinners transport the audience to a fabulous medieval or renaissance ceremonial feast. During the Middle Ages and continuing into the Renaissance, the Christmas season was a time of great celebration.
"After Advent, a time of introspection and fasting, they made elaborate preparations for a truly festive event," explains Dahlman, director of Choral Studies in the Wright State Department of Music. "The celebration became part of a week of ‘misrule,' in which the nobility and the clergy gave the peasants a chance to throw their own party.
"It was a real blow out, with eating, drinking, dancing, and even animals parading through manor houses and churches," Dahlman adds. He says the "Lord of Misrule"--usually a minor nobleman or priest--would be responsible for organizing the "misrule dinner."
"They basically gave them the freedom of the city, and they would be allowed to run it things the way they wanted," says Dahlman. "This was a chance for the common people to take it out on the other two estates."
Because many guests traveled great distances for the celebration, they stayed and feasted for several days. The event provided an opportunity for family and friends to visit and exchange news. After prayers in chapel or at the table, trumpet fanfares signaled the service of specific courses and dishes within the feast. Guests danced, told stories and sang in
enthusiastic outbursts of merrymaking.
The philosophy of the time, according to Dahlman, was "Before we go into seven weeks of fasting, let's party hearty." He suggests a similar tradition continues today, with the New Orleans Mardi Gras serving as a major celebration leading into the Easter season.
Madrigal singing began as entertainment in Renaissance Italy. It quickly spread throughout Europe. Dahlman says madrigal singing reached the height of its popularity in Elizabethan England, where several collections of madrigals were printed in Queen Elizabeth's honor.
Throughout upper-class England, the singing and dancing of madrigals became a customary part of refined social life. In private homes, the host distributed printed music after the meal and the guests would challenge each other to sing the latest or most popular madrigals. At the royal court the singing of madrigals became part of elaborate entertainments staged for the queen.
The fun continues today with madrigal dinners produced by Wright State and other universities around the nation. Wright State's effort began in 1983 with one performance and has grown to entertain 1,600 guests over five performances each year.
"We always make it into a pretty rollicking good time," Dahlman says. "It's one of the most beloved and popular cultural traditions here." In recent years audience members have begun to get into the madrigal dinner spirit. A few have attended performances in costume, and some have even memorized the lines. Dahlman says the Madrigal Dinner is a great family event and he encourages visitors to "come in your best Elizabethan outfit."
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