From: whheydt@pbhya.PacBell.COM (Wilson Heydt)
Subject: Re: Basic Courtesy
Reply-To: whheydt@PacBell.COM (Wilson Heydt)
Organization: Pacific * Bell, San Ramon, CA
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 19:14:47 GMT

In article <3186@creatures.cs.vt.edu> jtn@nutter.cs.vt.edu (Terry Nutter) writes:
>Greetings to all, especially Tibor, from Angharad.  Let me give
>this another try, because I'm apparently not getting through.

A generally good post--especially noting the cultural variations
involved.

I wish to add a point that I think may clarify some thoughts in the
thread and make a specific point.

Filk *is* period.

It just wasn't called 'filk.'  "Filk" (as a term) is a modern
creation.  One period term is 'contrefait'.  (And, yes, the modern
descendent is 'counterfeit'.)

I think what needs to be done is a small shift in terminology.

Let us refer to 'filk' as being modern words, situations, or tunes.

Let us refer to 'contrefait' as being period tunes, period and perioid
situations, and SCA-internal situations.

Let us recoginze that these are ambiguous definitions.

Three examples--

A friend (she's an avid costumer) has a song to the tune of
"Greensleeves" (a documentably period song) that relates how her love
put 'green sleeves on purple shirt'.  The topic is modern.  The "tone"
of the song is modernd.  The tune is period.  This particular song
would probably be considered 'filk' by neraly everyone, though a
musciologist might very well disagree.  (By-the-by, I think that the
categorization of it as filk would mostly be because the tune is one
of the *few* period tunes that would be widely recognized and
identfied.  In this instance, knowledge is actually
counterproductive.)

My Lady Wife has a song about the barnacle goose and the goosenecked
barnacle.  The tune is a modern folk song--written within the last 20
years or so.  The topic is a period belief.  There are enough
references that it *totally* devastates people who are familiar with
the refernced customs--I saw Vis. Maythen Gervais completely crack up
the first time the peice was performed--and the language is accessible
to any modern English speaker.  Is this filk?  It is certainly welcome
at Bardics in the West.  It deals with period belief . . .  It's only
the tune that isn't so period--any so much folk music goes far enough
back that it's close enough to being actually period (though not
provably so) that that *type* of music is accepted . . .

My Lady Wife has a song that is set to a tune that is *just* out of
period.  The subject matter is poking fun at the animal symbol of a
neighboring Principality.  The 'style' is period.  The music is
*extrememly* close to being period.  The content is SCA.  It is
clearly contrefait, and should be welcome anywhere outside of
Cynagua.

I think the real critique of the posting that kicked this all off is
that, those who are 'stuffier' about their campfire music would like
to see talented bards drive their work towards contrefait and away
from filk.

	--Hal

        Hal Ravn, Province of the Mists, West Kingdom
        Wilson H. Heydt, Jr.,  Albany, CA 94706,  510/524-8321 (home)
-- 
Hal Heydt                    |    "Boycott Time-Warner"
Analyst, Pacific*Bell        |         --J. Danforth Quayle
510-823-5447                 |    "... kill all the lawyers."
whheydt@pbhya.PacBell.COM    |         --William Shakespeare
From: Stephen.Whitis@f4229.n124.z1.fidonet.org (Stephen Whitis)
Sender: FredGate@ocitor.fidonet