page_title: Medieval folk rock
section_title: Decline and diffusion 1976-80
hierarchical_section_title: Medieval folk rock / History / Decline and diffusion 1976-80
caption_attribution_description: English: Photographed, by me, March 1978 at London's Hammersmith Odeon
context_page_description: Medieval folk rock, medieval rock or medieval folk is a musical subgenre that emerged in the early 1970s in England and Germany which combined elements of early music with rock music. It grew out of the British folk rock and progressive folk movements of the later 1960s. Despite the name, the term was used indiscriminately to categorise performers who incorporated elements of medieval, renaissance and baroque music into their work and sometimes to describe groups who used few, or no, electric instruments. This subgenre reached its height towards the middle of the 1970s when it achieved some mainstream success in Britain, but within a few years most groups had either disbanded, or were absorbed into the wider movements of progressive folk and progressive rock. Nevertheless, the genre had a considerable impact within progressive rock where early music, and medievalism in general, was a major influence and through that in the development of heavy metal. More recently medieval folk rock has revived in popularity along with other forms of medieval inspired music such as Dark Wave orientated neo-Medieval music and medieval metal.
context_section_description: The first half of the 1970s was a short-lived peak in popularity for medieval folk rock. Gryphon enjoyed some mainstream success when they played the National theatre and Old Vic and supported Yes on tour. However, with line-up changes from about 1975 they began to drop their distinctive medieval sound and became increasingly a mainstream progressive rock band, before they dissolved in 1977. Similarly despite retaining elements of medieval music, bands like Gentle Giant rapidly moved off into further experimentation and were soon being classified under the more general category of progressive rock.
  The only places where medieval folk rock was growing in the late 1970s were France and the Netherlands. In France, particularly from Brittany, there were bands like Ripaille, formed for a highly regarded eponymous album in 1977, and Saga de Ragnar Lodbrock in 1979. In the same period the most enduring French folk rock band Tri Yann also moved into medieval territory. There were also a handful of bands in other European counties, including Thomas Flinter from the Netherlands from 1978-80. However, although starting later most of these groups had disbanded or moved on at the start of the 1980s.
  If surviving medieval folk rock bands shifted towards more mainstream progressive rock, progressive rock bands often included early music among their influences. Despite emerging from the British blues boom, the vocal style of Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull was often compared with a medieval troubadour, while the signature sound of his flute, later combined with the keyboard and stringed instrumental skills of the band, lent itself to a medieval element of the music. This emerged most clearly with the album Minstrel in the Gallery (1975) and later in the folk inspired Songs from the Wood (1977). Medieval images and sounds are so prominent in the band's career that they have occasionally been classified as 'medieval progressive rock'. Yes took occasional flights into medievalism, perhaps because of their highly talented keyboard player Rick Wakeman, who in 1975 produced the rock opera album The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.
  It is argued that progressive rock obtained its distinctive sound of modal harmony from medieval music. It was probably through progressive rock that early music influences found their way into early heavy metal, for example in the modal keys employed by Black Sabbath from 1970 and in the Renaissance inspired songs of bands like the Ritchie Blackmore founded Rainbow from 1974.
  However, early music was only one of a range of influences on these bands, including classical, jazz and world music, from which progressive groups selected and adapted. As the popularity of progressive rock declined in the face of punk rock, new wave and electronic rock in the second half of the 1970s, early music tended to disappear as a major musical influence in rock, and while medieval and fantasy themes remained a feature of developing genre of heavy metal, there was little conscious attempt to replicate early music.
caption: Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull at London's Hammersmith Odeon, March 1978
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