Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1998 17:15:25 -0400 (EDT)
Message-Id: <199809302115.RAA11244@sunspot.tiac.net>
From: Rebecca Voris <rvoris@tiac.net>
To: minstrel@pbm.com
In-Reply-To: <19980930180909.10272.qmail@hotmail.com>
	(captainstragin@hotmail.com)
Subject: Re: minstrel: periodness
Sender: owner-minstrel@rt.com
Precedence: bulk


   L Stragin MacGregor wrote:

>   To me if the piece one is doing pleases the audience then my job is 
>  done. I have successfuly accomplished my goal as a bard. I hve 
>  entertained, Informed (hopfuly), and perhaps lightened a few spirits.
>   Now as to whether what I performed was period or not I can honestly say 
>  that sometimes not but as long as it is not blatant like the opennig 
>  line of a song I have heard many times around a bardic circle "oh the 
>  year was 1778 how I wish I was in sherbrooke now....."

To me, if the piece I do pleases the audience, I have fulfilled part
of my job. It is part of my job. as someone who is willing to research
what period music sounds like and how it is played, to present the
fruits of my research. It is my job, as a major influence on the
atmosphere of an event, to preserve the atmosphere and not violate
it. It is my job to perform with integrity, and not to pass off
something I know is post period as if it were authentic. It doesn't
matter if the bulk of the audience wouldn't konw any better, or
care. _I_ know. Just as I wouldn't serve Kraft macaroni and cheese at
a feast, or wear jeans to an event, I won't sing modern songs at an
event.

Fortunately, this is neither deprivation nor hardship. Period music is
cool. Period music is nifty. Period music is soaringly,
heartbreakingly beautiful. I don't understand why there seem to be
people making a case for performing OOP songs, when there are so many
beautiful, fun period songs in the world. Yes, not everybody can find
period music easily, but not everyone who comes into the SCA knows how
to sew. We still expect them to wear garb. We excuse beginners for not
knowing how to do it very well yet, and for having a wobbly sense of
what's period and not, but we still expect them to at least put in
some effort. Similarly, we also excuse beginning bards for assuming
that "traditional" means "medieval", and for not knowing, yet, how to
read an audience or how to carry on when they mess up. This is not
license to disdain to improve.

--Godith Anyon
Carolingia

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