Holding Out for a Bard

This cover of “Holding Out for a Hero”  stuck out as weird to me. The singers, Whitney Avalon and Hildegard von Blingin’, are incredible. The animation is fantastic, the lyrics rhyme and are clever. In their words, it is “to thrill and excite.”

Cover title. Source: Youtube

But, I can not fully enjoy their musical cover. It is sung in the “Bardcore” style, professing to be performed like in the European Medieval Ages. Imitating the errant bards who sung for coin, carrying along their lutes.

But to those who know music history, the song is not Medieval. Avalon and “von Blingin’” sing tonally, matching their voices to a chord progression in the instruments. The technique, harmonics, is relatively modern. Medieval music was heterophonic, tonal. Then, instruments matched the singers’ melodies. Complexity in heterophonics comes from each musician improvising on the melody.

So, I enjoy this song. But only as Medieval themed. Not actually historical, in style or spirit.

The Lute Player, painting by Caravaggio. Source: Wikimedia commons