Message-Id: <2.2.32.19981005191423.0121d390@socrates.Berkeley.EDU>
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Date: Mon, 05 Oct 1998 12:14:23 -0700
To: minstrel@pbm.com
From: "Fred (Flieg) Hollander" <flieg@socrates.Berkeley.EDU>
Subject: Re: minstrel: Nature of Bardic Competitions
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Flieg here --

At 08:46 PM 10/4/98 EDT, cynthia j ley wrote:
>
[.trim.]
>
>Granted, there are some books well known to be acceptable as sources,
>such as the Oxford Book of English Madrigals. Then there are things no
>one except the entrant has ever heard of, and teaching is part of the
>task of a competitor.

    Hunh!???  What?  Sez who?  I enter a competition (and I don't 
often) to show off what I can do and to challenge myself (perhaps)
to do something new.  No competition I have ever entered has said
that teaching is part of my duties as an entrant. I have in fact seen
only one where that was the case; the competition was in research 
papers.
    Imho -- documentation is to show the judge that the competitor
knows what is period; presumably the judge already knows. Especially
when the competition is a _job_ interview (which is where this all
started out, at the Bard of the Mists Competition), documentation
is not the purpose of the competition, entertainment, performance 
and competence are.
    Imho -- we have _way_ too many competitions. Period. People should
do things because they enjoy them. Competitions as they are usually
run foster an attitude of "enter to win" not "enter to compete/show
off."

  -- Flieg (being a little grumpy.)
  (This to illustrate my attitude to competitions.)  

  Had a silly time at the Kingdom Arts Compeition in Performing Arts this
weekend. The competition was "rounds". Entered on the spur of the moment
because I had made an amusing (well, I thought so) round to the tune
of "Rose Rose..."  To me "Performing Arts" is a _broad_ category. To the
Arts Minister, it meant "Performance". I was up against three choir
groups.
  So I taught my song to the audience (which was mostly those who were in
the three choir groups, so I knew they could sing).  I didn't win, of course,
but I hadn't intended to. One of the groups is going to add my round to 
their repetoire. I think that's cool.

  Here's the round:  A Doleful Round
                    -----------------
     Woe, Woe, Woe, Woe
     All our warriors now are dead
     We shall perish as they did
     All by-- the-e sword.

(c) 1998 Frederick J. Hollander
Permission to sing this song is freely granted.
You can make copies to give to your friends. 
If you want to make money singing it or printing it, 
we have to have a little talk about sharing.

>
>

   *   *   *    Frederick of Holland, MSCA, OP, etc.
  *|* *|* *|*   flieg@socrates.berkeley.edu        
 |===========|   
  (((Flieg Hollander, Chemistry Dept., U.C. Berkeley)))
 ====================== Old Used Duke  =====================
 [All subjects of the Crown are equal under its protection.]


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