Oliphant is a Finnish

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

 band

Musical ensemble

A musical ensemble is a group of people who perform instrumental or vocal music. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles...

 playing medieval music

Medieval music

Medieval music is Western music written during the Middle Ages. This era begins with the fall of the Roman Empire and ends sometime in the early fifteenth century...

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History

The Oliphant ensemble for medieval music has a repertoire consisting of music from the 12th century to the polyphonic ars nova. Formed in 1995, it has brought to light and recorded a wealth of previously unknown trouvère music. Its colourful performances, drawing on improvisation, have won the admiration of audiences and critics alike, and its CDs Songs from the Crusades and Gace Brulé were nominated for the title of classical Record of the Year by the leading Finnish daily Helsingin Sanomat in 2000 and 2004, respectively. Joie Fine, released in 2006, is of chansons pieuses – pious trouvère songs of the 13th century. In 2008 and 2009 Oliphant immersed itself in German medieval music, resulting in a HERZ, PRICH! – HEART, BREAK! concert and disc.

Oliphant has appeared abroad in Sweden, France and elsewhere and at numerous Finnish music festivals. In addition to giving concerts of its own and performing on other occasions, it was one of the architects of the production of the medieval liturgical drama Ludis Danielis and has premiered new Finnish music. Its repertoire consists of trouvère songs of various kinds (chansons de croisades, chansons pieuses, chansons de femme), German medieval music and items from such collections as Carmina burana and Cantigas de Santa Maria. Representing polyphonic music are works by Guillaume de Machaut, Francesco Landini and Oswald Wolkenstein, and ars antiqua.

The members of Oliphant play a variety of historical instruments, each in their own distinctive way. The basic sound is produced by the human voice, fiddle, recorder, dulcimer and medieval lute, but the ensemble can also turn its hand to many of the instruments familiar in the Middle Ages: citole, bombard, bagpipes, slide trumpet, symphony, double flute, bells, Jew’s harp and many kinds of drums and other percussion instruments.

Members

• Uli Kontu-Korhonen, soprano
  Soprano
  A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
  
  , dulcimer
  Dulcimer
  Dulcimer may refer to two types of musical instruments:* Appalachian dulcimer, a fretted, plucked musical instrument which is also referred to as a "mountain dulcimer", "lap dulcimer", "hog fiddle", "fretted dulcimer" or simply "dulcimer"...
  
  
• Janek Öller, recorder
  Recorder
  The recorder is a woodwind musical instrument of the family known as fipple flutes or internal duct flutes—whistle-like instruments which include the tin whistle. The recorder is end-blown and the mouth of the instrument is constricted by a wooden plug, known as a block or fipple...
  
  s, bagpipes
  Bagpipes
  Bagpipes are a class of musical instrument, aerophones, using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. Though the Scottish Great Highland Bagpipe and Irish uilleann pipes have the greatest international visibility, bagpipes of many different types come from...
  
  
• Leif Karlson, citole
  Citole
  Citole, also spelled Sytole, Cytiole, Gytolle, etc. , an archaic musical instrument of which the exact form is uncertain. It is generally shown as a four-string instrument, with a body generally referred to as "holly-leaf" shaped...
  
  , lute
  Lute
  Lute can refer generally to any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back, or more specifically to an instrument from the family of European lutes....
  
  , percussion
• Eira Karlson, fiddle
  Fiddle
  The term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...
  
  , slide trumpet
  Slide trumpet
  The slide trumpet is a type of trumpet that is fitted with a slide much like a trombone.The slide trumpet grew out of the war trumpet as used and developed in Western and Central Europe: Don Smithers in The Music and History of the Baroque Trumpet before 1721, argues that the slide grew out of the...
  
  

Discography

• Deus ad un turnei enpris Chansons de croisades(2000)
• Gace Brulé (2004)
• Joie fine Chansons pieuses(2006)
• Herz, Prich! Heart, break! Medieval German Music (2010)