Medieval Drama

The distinguishing features of medieval drama are its Christian content and didactic purpose. Vernacular plays typically dramatized the live of saints, Bible stories, or moral allegories. The biblical cycle plays, sometimes called mystery plays, were originally performed under church auspices but by the late 14th century were produced under the supervision of craft guilds (misteres) and performed in public places on the feast of Corpus or during Whitsuntide.

Although they contained Old Testament and nativity sequences, the cycles were primarily devoted to portraying the life and passion of Christ, his harrowing of hell, his resurrection and appearances to his disciples and to the two Marys, but these were suppressed in Protestant countries during the Reformation. Typically the plays adhered as closely as possible, given their "translation" into verse, to the biblical narratives, but some are based on episodes left undeveloped in the Bible, such as the visit of the Shepherds or Balaam and his ass, or are derived from legendary sources, such as plays about the Antichrist. The cycle plays reached their greatest expansion in the 15th and early 16th centuries but in England were suppressed as "popish" in the 1570s.

Protestant antagonism also account for the disappearance of most of miracle, or saints, plays. Only two are extant; the Conversion of Saint Paul, narrative history similar to the biblical cycles, and Mary Magdalene, which combined biblical-cycle elements with the framework of the morality.

The morality play was an allegory that depicted the fall of the representative Everyman, his life in sin and folly and his eventual redemption. In most elaborate of these, the Castle of Perseverance (c.1425), the soul of Humanum Genus resides in a castles encircled by the forces of good (God, His Angles, and other agents) and evil (the World, the Flesh, the Devil, Covetise and the other Seven Deadly Sins). The play follows his life, its climax being a battle in which the forces of good beat off the evil ones with a barrage of roses, symbolic plays were solemn, however; Mankind (c. 1470) depicted the fall and life in sin of its protagonist in an often farcical manner.

The most famous morality play, Everman (c. 1500), an English work probably derived from a Dutch original, is less typical of the genre in that it omits the fall and life in sin and instead dramatized Everyman's summons by Death to account for his sins. These moralities were performed by professional and traveling troupes. The influence of the form can be seen in Christopher Marlow's Doctor Faustus and in the Faistaff scenes of Shakespeare's Henry IV, as well as in other Renaissance plays.

Jessica Simpson Come Back in Country

Jessica Simpson hopped off her flight from Mexico and jumped right back to work. She works back for sing a new country song.
The pop star, who returned to Los Angeles yesterday after spending a few days unwinding (from what, we wonder) with her family south of the border, apparently isn't in the mood for more R&R.
She was on the move today, making a quick stop at a Marriott hotel in Sherman Oaks and then holing up in a West Hollywood recording studio.
A source close to the song stress told E! News that Simpson planned to spend six to eight hours at the studio working on material for a "country crossover" album. Sounds about right for a little lady who's been suspiciously without her Cowboy for a while.
New Album Grandes Exitos

You can hear some short song from this music group below:

Mañana, Mañana

Lo Mucho Que Te Quiero 98.6

Una Vez Jure

Monica

Dime, Dime

Harmonica

A musical playing the harmonica, a rectangular instrument also known as the mouth organ, produces sound by blowing and sucking air past free needs mounted in air channels. The harmonica's origins can be traced as far back as 1100 ac to the sheng of southern China. In its nature from, the sheng consists of a beautifully lacquered wooden bowl with a protuding mouthpiece and slender symmetrical cane pipes inserted vertically in the base; the base contains thin metal reeds that sound when the finger holes above are closed.

Eventually spreading throughout Eastern civilization, the sheng reached the West perhaps by the mid 17th century. The mouth organ, invented in Berlin in 1821, spread rapidly wherever Western civilization reached; it was used as a toy and was easily adaptable to folk music. In the 20th century, Larry Adler attained fame as a harmonica virtuoso, inspiring Darius Milhaud to write a suite that Adler performed with the Philadelpia Orchestra in 1945. The harmonica is popular today in folk music and blues.