Videos

Mistress Elashava bas Riva has made an ongoing project of recording bardic performances in the SCA and putting them up on YouTube (with permission from performers and authors, of course).  There are lots of good performances there, and a huge range of what goes on in SCA bardic.  I stumbled across it just as I was thinking about diving in myself, and it gave me a really good idea of what I was getting into.

Her channel is ShavaSue, and it's worth checking out.  At last weekend's Bardic Madness, she got a couple of videos from me, and I thought I'd post them here, just...to have done it.  I cringe when I see myself filmed, but I think I'm just one of those people who will never really be happy with a recorded performance of myself.  All I can think about is what needs improving.  Anyway.  She got "Sunufatarungo" and "Aeron's Song" (with lyrics slightly tweaked to include some references from Their Majesties' favorite film).  I've put the videos on the songs' respective pages, should you be wondering what they're actually supposed to sound like.  :-)

Aeron's Song

The jewel of the sky has turned to steel. 
As I watch my lover's form recede, I feel 
The wind cut through my hollow body 
          like an empty, longing ache. 
"Come back!" I cry, too late with my appeal. 

Though he'll return to me, I long have known 
His scars have blinded him to why he is my own. 
Can he yet feel my jealous fingers 
          fight the wind to touch his hair, 
And never see how fair my love has grown? 

My scorching lips he feels against his face 
And never understands his beauty fuels their blaze. 
My lover's arms are strong, hands gentle, 
          body lithe and stature high, 
His soul burns from inside his shadowed gaze. 

He's noble as the oak, and still more strong, 
He'll neither flagrantly, nor lying do me wrong, 
But does he know my love is true 
          like love he's never known before? 
I've told him this and more through our years long. 

My love's not for the scarf I often tie. 
To all his word-fame and his laurel, I reply 
I'd love his soul, his hands, his body 
          were he peasant, don or king. 
He feels the love I bring him, but not why. 

Does he fear my love will blow away, 
          not rooted to the ground? 
Does he fear that I'll awaken 
          from some dream in which I'm bound?  

I'd have him look into my eyes 
          and see his grace reflected there. 
I look on Aeron, for he's where my love is found.


Notes:  Written for my husband.  This was my first attempt at composing a piece in a period style - actually, it was my first attempt at composing a piece period.  This here is Song #1.  :-)  I wrote it in the style of a troubadour canso, or love song, taking sylistic cues in particular from the songs of the trobaritz - the female troubadours.  There are some historical glitches - it's iambic, where troubadour poems were syllabic, there's only one melisma in the entire melody.  But overall, I think I achieved my goal.  And it makes Aeron blush.  Heee!  :-)  As you can see in the image, I displayed it transcribed into the square notation used in the troubadour manuscripts.  For the full documentation, download this here PDF.

"Sunufatarungo"

Two frowns of father and son                 each one reflecting
The other’s quiet concentration.             Hoping to catch traces
Or hints or handfuls                                of that which they hunt.

From the bushes a butterfly                    finally bursts.
At that scalding-bright sky-jewel           their scowls quickly vanish,
Two happy grins exploding.                   What great pleasure to see
These two mirrors of mirth,                    one who made the other,
Sunufatarungo.

Your mother, she took you                     when you were tiny still
To be fostered afar                                  by strange-mannered friends.
She longed that others might love you   as others have loved her,
So a different tribe teaches you.             But though you’ve been taken
Far from the hall of your father,             his heart is never far.
So readily it reaches for you                  it cannot rest without you,
His boy. He is by you                             for his heart beats within you.
Sunufatarungo.

Learn from his life,                                he was like you when young,
He was wiggly and wild.                       It’s no wonder you are
As long and as lanky                             and loving as he.
He can tell you what treasures              and talents you’ll find.
Answers he’ll offer                               when others cannot.
He will guide you in growing               into a good man.

Look on the face of your father,            you’ll see your future.
Look on the smile of your son,              you’ll see your past self.
Look on your father’s stature,              you’ll learn to stand.
Sunufatarungo.

Notes:   "Sunufatarungo" is an Old High German (OHG) word that means "father and son."  While reading "The Hildebrandslied," it really struck me how some deep, irreplaceable bond between father and son is expressed by combining them into one word.  I found it very compelling.  I'm always a little afraid someone will read this piece and get the wrong idea.  Yes, I'm drawing a link between the medieval practice of fostering and the modern reality of children going to live with far-away stepparents.  But as a stepchild and now a stepparent myself, I know that just like fostering, it can be a very good thing, it's not inherently tragic.  But there's pain involved nonetheless.

This was my first stab at alliterative poetry, and I'm not completely happy with it.  If it looks a bit different (looser maybe?) than Anglo Saxon poetry, it's because I was following the OHG model.  I usually like to arrange fairly (probably unduly) complicated accompaniment, and I was a little embarrassed by the simple drones I played when I performed this for the first time (very shortly after finishing the melody).  It's grown on me though.  I still feel compelled to beef up the harp part, but probably not by much (actually, now that I see the video, it definitely needs some hard-core beefing up...louder harp wouldn't hurt either...).  Big thanks to Teleri the Well-Prepared, of Atlantia, for many excellent pointers on setting Germanic tonic poetry to music!  Anyway, the details are in my documentation, which you'll find in this here PDF.