From: greg@silver.lcs.mit.edu (Hossein Ali Qomi (mka Gregory F. Rose))
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: period songs
Date: 1 Sep 92 01:55:36 GMT
Followup-To: rec.org.sca
Organization: The Rialto

Unto the good gentles of the Rialto does Hossein Ali Qomi send greetings
and prayers for the blessings of Allah.

My lady wife and I were dismayed to read the recent posting by Lady
Julitta on period songs.  The insult which this posting gave to the
Order of the Pearl of Atlantia was so gratuitous that we thought it
certainly a misunderstanding.  Email was exchanged, the upshot of which
suggests that the insult was not unintended at all.  The record needs to
be set straight.

Lady Julitta posted:

>>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).

I do not dispute that period pieces should be interesting and entertaining.
However, your example of a "period" piece calls into question whether you
know the plain sense of the word "period."  "Belt and Chain" was not
written in the Middle Ages, its melody is not a medieval melody.  It's
a song about the SCA written to a modern tune.  It isn't even particularly
"periodoid" -- it's a stirring modern song about customs in the SCA.
I think that it's fine for performances at events -- but it is in no
meaningful sense a _period_ song.

>>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.

I confess that I do not know what is on your tape, but I think it unlikely,
given the many public performances which I have seen you give, that
much _period_ music is requested.  If it is, then why are you so loathe
to publically perform it?

Now we come to the kicker:

>>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.)

I am not a Companion of the Order of the Pearl, but I know many of them
and have had occasion to discuss the matter which you raise.  There is
no question that you are an exceptionally talented singer.  However,
the question "but do they ever do anything PERIOD!??" is not laughable,
but cuts right to the point.  Under other circumstances your
ignorance of medieval music might be called laughable, but given the
insult you have laid upon the Pearls, the word "contemptible" comes
more readily to mind.  Your "excuses" for disbelief in your alleged
expertise in period music _are_ laughable.  _I_ don't go to bed early
at events.  I have heard you perform roughly twelve pieces approximately
three dozen times in the last year: one was roughly "periodoid" (i.e.,
sounded as if it _could_ have been medieval), the remainder were largely
SCA-centered pieces of _modern_ music.  Just because it's about the SCA
doesn't make it _period_.  It's not that people know nothing about period
music, but the contrary -- it's only abject ignorance of medieval music
which would permit someone to think that the bulk of your performances
are period in form or content.

I was at the last kingdom bardic competition and I heard your performances.
I was unaware that a panegyric to Michael of Bedford set to the tune of a
19th century song about a whore from Texas ("The Yellow Rose of Texas") was
medieval music.  Panegryics to kings are period; American Civil War songs 
about prostitutes are not.

I think that matter has little to do with who lives in Storvik and your
snide remarks about it.

Do you really think that your fellow Companions of the Order of the Pearl
are so uniformly ignorant, petty, and comtemptible as you suggest?  It is
not they who are lacking knowledge and grace, but you.

>>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.

If they are hearing period music, it isn't from listening to you.

>>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.

Do you mean to imply that everyone else in Atlantia who _does_ period
material is "chasing awards"?  As for the job of a Bard, I suppose that
one out of four isn't bad for a first time out (I have never said that
your performances aren't entertaining).

You have insulted both the Companions of the Order of the Pearl and those
bards in Atlantia who do period performances (and you managed to bring
the unsuspecting and utterly unculpable Niall into it).  You owe them an
apology.

In Service to the Society,

Hossein Ali Qomi/Gregory F. Rose
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca