Welcome to Gaia! ::

My favorite period of all history would have to be the Late (High) Middle Ages. Events I especially like include the signing of the Magna Carta, the War of Roses (I especially think that the Lancaster house is pretty cool, but that's probably just because I like red roses), and the 100 year's war (with the Battle of Agincourt, of course). And I also have an interest in the Black Death. It's rather depressing, but it does lead up to the evolution of the Renaissance. And there's nothing I enjoy more than Ren Faires!

The Battle of Hastings was an interesting one too.
However, for me, the favourite will always be the Battle of Trafalgar!

I'm just a big history buff in general... thanks to watching the History Channel religiously and having a history summer school whenever I stayed with my grandparents while I was growing up.

I took an ancient history class in 9th grade, and then a modern European history class in 10th, which has led me to some of my favorite time periods: early Indus Valley, Mesopotamia, and the French Revolution. It was all the British Lit classes and Shakespeare that got me into the Middle Ages and Renaissance (yay Chaucer!). Then my general, lifelong obsessions that seem to come from nowhere are pre-Viking Ireland, Russia (all of it!) and Byzantium. If it weren't for the fact that I've finally found my niche with ethnomusicology, I'd probably be a history major lol My favorite times for music are before 1600 and after 1800, btw wink

Byzantium = love. My poor first daughter is going to be named Anna Theodora.

Indus Valley, especially Mature Harappan and the question of state/not state, lack of violence, etc., is most curious.

So I kind of just stumbled over this last night, and thought that maybe someone here would enjoy this wink
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/byzantium/
I haven't gotten to investigate all of it (just the music files so far), but it's quite lovely.

Just a little background of my love for Byzantium: I started falling in love with Byzantine chant 5 or so years ago when I found a CD by Azam Ali called Portals of Grace. It has a lot of Medieval/Renaissance chant and music on it, including some Byzantine chant, and I just totally fell in love with it. At that point it was just the music, but after reading "The Historian" by Elizabeth Kostova, I became really interested in the region as a whole. And now I'm doing a project on Eastern Orthodoxy in America (mostly chant and icons and their use to connect the worshippers here with the land of origin), and writing a piece for cello ensemble based on Byzantine Chant (called either "Heart of Byzantium" or "Shores of Byzantium", I'm not sure yet). I've been going to Eastern Orthodox churches all term, and next week I'm actually going to Pascha (Easter), which will be amazing! So yes, that's me and Byzantium. I would love nothing more than specializing in Eastern European music!

No, I'm not.
Family tradition says that if I have a daughter her name must contain some variation of Ann, though. & Empress Theodora is one of my absolute favorite historical figures.



I find the icons are especially interesting, and absolutely beautiful. And Istanbul is one of the most amazing cities on earth. I must state, though, the music is foreign to me. So, yes, many thankyous for the linky.