From: SHICOFF@unc.oit.unc.EDU
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: period songs
Date: 29 Aug 92 18:22:00 GMT
Organization: The Internet

Or, you can try Niall & I's solution: only do those period pieces
which fit the requirements of the rest of our repetoires--
tell a good story, move along, or are otherwise INTERESTING
or ENTERTAINING, or set a very strong mood (like Belt & Chain).
On our first tape, "Not Quite Period" (some are, some aren't,
but everyone is worth listening to) (oh, more are planned, as
soon as we have sold a sufficient number of the first) it
has been a very great pleasure, that when people come up & say
(this happens fairly often) "o, please sing "X", it's my
favorite song on the tape.", that "X" IS ONE OF THE PERIOD
SONGS.
This has it's drawbacks, of course, esp. combined with
the fact that I DETEST POINTING OUT that a song is peroid
/giving documentation when performing.  I find it jarring in
the extreme.  Come to me later & ask, & I'll cheerfully
tell you as much as I know about a song.  Niall & I both
have our Pearls, now (
atlantian arts & sciences award), but I gather that there
was MUCH arguement over it (polling award, y'see...),
based on the fact that the other Pearls kept saying,
"But, do they ever do anything PERIOD!??"
Good for many laughs.  Several possibilities come to mind,
since Niall & I have been performing up & down the Kingdom
for close to 2 years, maybe a) These people go to bed
early & have missed bardics when we were in their area,
b) These people have heard us do things, & BECAUSE the
pieces were entertaining, didn't realize they were documentable,
c) These people haven't bothered to attend the Kingdom
Bardic competition for the last 3 years (well, some
of them were long, let's say they may have left early,
or arrived late--Niall & I both prefer to go 1st or 2nd,
depends on who won the arguement that day :-), or another,
d) that they're from Storvik, & don't travel away from home very
much (about the only areas we don't get to in the Kingdom
much are Storik/new Ponte Alto, because we don't enjoy
going to those areas much, & consider it something we
have to get around to, rather than because we want to go.)
BUT, the rest of the Kingdom is slowly getting used to hearing
period music (sometimes even if they don't realize it) from
Bards, & many of them DO come to talk to us, & DO know that
there are at least SOME period songs that they like.  Music
seems to be one of the few things that almost everyone has
opinions on (witness the recent brouhaha), & if you can
expose people to pieces they are apt to like, without the
pre-bias of thinking "O, this is period, I'm not going to
like it.", well, then, sometimes you can persuade them that
it's not all bad.
Besides, we're not doing this because we're chasing awards,
although many of our friends are happier, now.
Our jobs as Bards are as much to educate & inspire, as to
entertain.
A problem I have with the word "contrefait", is just exactly
HOW we're going to use it.  To me, it means using an actuall
documentalbe tune, & setting different words to it.  Great,
no problem.  I get the impression that people want to stretch
that to period-like tune, & then we have problems with
what sounds period-like to whom.  Music of the current
middle ages, is also good, but how do we separate things
like "Song of the Sheieldwall" (inspirational, original
tune) from "The Squire Song" by Sir Robert de Bois, to the
tune of "Honey, I miss you" (actually, I consider this an
IMPROVEMENT over the original, but I don't sing it at events
-much).  I have noticed that most of the jarring "filk"
that people object to, as breaking the mood, has several
things in common:  most always something humourous, to a
very recognizable modern tune, & mentions either "SCA"
by name, or contains modern-only items.  It IS much
easier to make people laugh, than to cry (especially for
reasons other than being sad/depressed), & if you want
popular acclaim, it's relatively easy to write something
to make people laugh.  Don't take this to mean I don't
like/do funny pieces, I'm just trying to sort this out.
Any suggestions for what we call original/non-jarring music
of the current middle ages?
Julitta des Chevaux
Royal Bard to Atlantia, M.S.O.B.
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca