For the Dream! - A Bardic Fundraiser

I am back because there are things and they are exciting things!!!

Lady Lorelei Skye is spearheading an awesome project to benefit the SCA general fund, which as you may know has taken quite a hit lately.  She's putting together a 2-volume compilation album of SCA bardic works, which will be available soon through Heather Dale's iBards.org.  Each downloadable volume will be $10 a pop, and all proceeds will go straight to the recently depleted general fund.

And guess what - my beer song is on it!*  I'm posting the track here as a teaser, to whet your pallets for the full album.  I'm going to leave this track up for you to listen to until the album goes live on iBards, and then I'm TAKIN' IT DOWN!!!  Cuz y'all gotta go buy the album, see?  It's for a good cause.

Oh noes!  The album's ready!  No more listening for free!  ;-)  I'll see about posting a snippet-preview, and a big, exuberant announcement blog post later today, when I'm not...like...at work.



*Barring some technological disaster, of course.  I feel compelled to point out that in the event that the file I sent to Lorelei spontaneously combusts upon uploading it to iBards, all bets are off.  It's unlikely, but it is the first time I've done this.  :-)

Ealdormere Crown Tournament

We moved up to Ealdormere just slightly too late for the reign of Quilliam and Dagmar - a bit disappointing, as I'd heard nothing but excellent things about them as people and as monarchs.  So I was pretty excited yesterday to watch 20-year-old Quilliam win his second crown.

Coming from an all-rapier background, I don't know nearly enough about heavy fighting for the blow-calling to make any sense.  But I can tell this - when everyone a person kills looks really happy about it coming off the field, that person is doing something very right.  Best I can tell, Quilliam fought with deadly honor, and I've not heard a soul breathe otherwise.

The rest of the day was filled to the brim with music, and I want to share this song by Lady Marie l'Englois.  She wrote it for Quilliam's first coronation, and reprised it most aptly at feast last night.

     

Northern Heir
... being a bardic retelling of the happenings at Ealdormere's XXIVth crown tourney, to the popular Elizabethan tune of Lord Willoughby's March

The last day of October in AS44
King Nigel sought a royal heir to lead his land to war.
The strongest northern fighters all gathered in the cold
To learn who would inherit the lupine crown of gold.

Syr Mordain and Syr Edouard both fought a valiant fight,
But in the end they fell before a stalwart squire and knight.
Syr Wat addressed the people in windblown Ard Chreag,
Then Quilliam showed his mettle with a heart-felt dialog.

He spoke of inspiration, and of a childhood dream,
He spoke about the baroness whom he would make his queen.
He spoke of his opponent, his honoured consort's knight,
And thanked him for the training that brought him to the fight.

When Quilliam finished speaking, Wat gave a bow profound.
The two embraced as brothers upon the tourney ground,
Then knight and hardy squire each other did assail
Until, for love of kingdom, young Quilliam did prevail.

My noble lords and ladies raise cups and voices high
For Adrielle and Nigel, and their heirs we name hereby,
For one spring day in Greyfells, bards of the trillium
Shall sing of the ascension of Dagmar and Quilliam.
         -Marie l'Englois, December ASXLIV

You can see a recording of Quilliam's speech and the ensuing bout here.  I love this song because it's got everything anyone could want in an SCA bardic piece - it's a stirring account of people we know doing great things and it's totally authentic.  Lady Marie wrote this to the tune of "Lord Willoughby's March," a song from period that recounts a person's accomplishments in battle.  Not only is the tune period, but the practice of melody-borrowing itself was common throughout period - in fact you can find a period filk of this very tune here (PDF).  It's even persona-appropriate - though Prince Quilliam is a Viking, Lady Marie is a 16th century English woman living in France.

Information on period printings of "Lord Willoughby" can be found here.  Lady Marie has a recording and the score available for download here.

And Waes Hael to Prince Qulliam and Princess Dagmar - may their reigns be fruitful and frequent!

As promised - bardic night...

...was a whole lot of fun!  There were a lot more instruments than I thought there would be - 2 guitars, a bouzouki, a flute and a recorder in addition to Gertrude.  It was different from other bardic gatherings I'd been to in that there wasn't a lot of going around the circle performing for each other.  It was more of a jam session - someone would start playing something, be it a song or just a lick over some chords, and we'd all just start playing right along until it came to a close.  I think this had more to do with the people there than Atlantian bardic culture, but dude - I am not complaining!  I haven't done a whole lot of jamming on the harp, and it was crazy fun!

Bardic Bedlam

Last weekend, I made it to Calontir for their second ever Bardic Bedlam - their take on the Bardic Madness franchise.  It was fantastic, and I had a wonderful time!  The event itself was scheduled against another big-deal event, so they didn't get the turnout they'd hoped for - about half of what this year's Bardic Madness in Northshield was.  But frankly, for the second ever Bardic Bedlam, I thought it was a respectable crowd and a very comfortable size.  I didn't get any of the introvert-burnout I tend to get at big bardic events.  Everyone was engaged the whole time, everyone had fun, and performing was easy in front of this crowd (which contributed to some great performances to watch).  This has as much to do with the people as with the size of the event - I came away with such a good impression of Calontir (and this despite my admitted rapier fighter bias).  They were fun, friendly and welcoming, they throw a good party, and they're good to foreigners.

During the event, Master Owen Alun taught a class that dealt with Welsh and Irish triads.  During this class, he pointed out that a bard's first task is to listen, to observe and so the assignment he gave us was essentially to record three things we learned over the weekend.  So here are mine:

1)  The quality of a bardic venue has absolutely nothing to do with size.
2)  Culture is spontaneous - it's the way people welcome strangers, the songs that spring up in chorus around a campfire.  It's everything that comes out of the hearts and minds of a group of related individuals.
3)  Given that, culture is not something that can legitimately be enforced.

Pedal Harps and Folk Harps, Harpists and Harpers

Aeron sent me this article by Wm. Rees, and I thought it was worth sharing.  I'm down with almost everything he says, except for one thing: the pedal harp is a spectacular solo instrument!  Some of the most impressive instrumental solos I've ever heard are pedal harp solos.  I challenge anyone to listen to Carlos Salzedo's "Whirlwind" or "Variations on a theme in ancient style" and say otherwise.

Although I disagree with that conclusion of his, what he says about the acoustical differences between the two instruments is spot on.  The smaller folk harps have a different, often more subtle tone that makes them the better choice for solos in which harmony and counterpoint, as opposed to sheer technical range and prowess, is the focus.  They're obviously better suited for intimate settings, and they're preferable to pedal harps for accompaniment of voice and duets with certain instruments, such as guitar, lute or recorders.  They are different instruments that are made for different music.

I learned to play pedal harps as a teenager, and before I started playing Gertrude, I absolutely fell into the ignorant mindset that folk harps were dinky little wanna-be versions of "real harps."  I now know that could not be further from the truth.  Although I still miss wrapping my body around a harp that's bigger than me and ripping the hell out of it, I'm having a great time exploring the capabilities of folk harps!

But I think part of the reason I was so ripe for that misconcpetion was that I hadn't been exposed to much really excellent folk harp, whereas I took lessons from a former student of Salzedo's.  Now granted, I still am not really a part of any folk harp "scene," and most of my very limited exposure to folk harps has been through the SCA.  But so many players of folk harps never break out of plinky little chords and arpeggios, never really explore their dynamic range.  Folk harps are cheaper, so the ratio of "beginners" to "advanced players" can be quite a bit larger than with their more expensive and commitment-demanding counterparts.

I think this is why I have a hard time calling myself a "harper" (although I do).  I realize the distinction is this:  harpers play folk harp, harpists play pedal harp.  I have no pedal harp right now, so I'm unambiguously a harper.  But somewhere deep in my prejudiced little psyche, I also associate pedal harps with big, difficult, macho technique, whereas I associate folk harps with pretty, tinkly, simple technique (in fairness, folk harp technique can be very difficult, but big and macho it aint).  Guess which association I like best?

So in an effort to break down this bias, both in my own head and in the bit of the world I can touch, I'm going to continue to try to improve my technique and to write blisteringly hard accompaniment to my songs (I've slacked on that lately, I can do better).  I'll also look into local folk harp "scenes" - there's one here in Madison, but I'll probably have to wait until I move to DC to really have time to dive in.  I'm also going to try to feature examples of really excellent and impressive harpers on my website.  This'll require some research on my part, but I think we'll start with Patrick Ball.  Stay tuned.