Message-Id: <199810071517.LAA23951@cathedral-seven.mit.edu>
To: minstrel@pbm.com
Subject: What filk *isn't* (was minstrel: Re: To All Filkers )
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Tue, 06 Oct 1998 18:38:52 EDT."
             <199810062238.SAA00280@xkey.com> 
Date: Wed, 07 Oct 1998 11:17:20 EDT
From: Vanessa Layne <dagoura@MIT.EDU>
Sender: owner-minstrel@rt.com
Precedence: bulk


From the FAQ:

> 6. What about "filk"?
>
> The practice of putting new words to an existing tune is quite period.

Ahem.  I object to the definition of "filk" as "new words to existing
tune".  It is a definition that is obviously at odds with the popular,
vernacular, actual *usage* of the word "filk".

Most people would describe Leslie Fish as a filk singer and a filk
writer; many have even called her the consumate filk writer.  And
every last one of her works has original music.

"Song of the Shieldwall", which won a Pegasus (filk) award, and is the
song I have most oft heard the Kingdom of Calontir sing into battle,
has an original tune.

Tangwystl herself can comment on whether she objects to the term
"filk" being applied to her legendary works "Are You In a Play" and
"Red is for Purity", but certainly they *are* referred to as filk,
despite being wholly original.

Furthermore, there are many spoofs, parodies, and outright plagerisms
which we do *not* call filk, starting with the American national
anthem and going right through everything Weird Al ever did.

To define filk as "new words to old music" is wrong.

To justify it as "period" or "perioid" because putting new words to
old music was done in period is silly and pointless.

It seems to me that "filk" is really the folk music of a particular
amalgamation of subcultures, Science Fiction Fandom, the SCA, and
technical academics.  Indeed, sometimes an effort is made to
differentiate between "SF filk" and "SCA filk" and "tech filk".  For
instance, I don't think anyone here, no matter how ardently they love
filk, is suggesting it would be alright to bring "The Programmer's
Alphabet (A is for ASCII)" by Frank Hayes to a bardic circle.

So really, when we talk about filk, we're talking about the SCA's folk
music -- the music writen by and performed by the people of the SCA
about their experience of being in the SCA.  

It is important to remember that we're in the SCA even when we're not
at the SCA.  We don't stop being Scadians when we're not at events;
hence all the YKYBITSCATLW stories.  Songs like "Are You In a Play?"
and Yakov ha Mizrachi's "Oh, Lord, wontcha buy me a new Pennsic Van?"
talk about exactly that -- the Scadian navigating the mundane world.

(This is part of why I object to people using the term "authentic" to
mean "period".  Look: filk is authentic -- the authentic voice of the
SCA, not the authentic voice of our period.)

Part of why I really don't like hearing filk at events is that the
majority of it *is* from the outside-looking-in perspective.  That
makes it interesting and revelent to us as people, but it's *really*
at odds with the atmosphere. 

I'm not even talking about period vs. non-period -- I'm just talking
about the collective fantasy that we're all noble lords and ladies
gathering for a revel, that we're not just a bunch of geeks in funny
clothes; I'm talking about the atmosphere of granduer and pagentry and
festiveness and mirth and all, and the idea that you leave the droll,
grey, mundane world at gate.  

I don't like listening to filk which invokes the mundane world.  It's
like going to a good play and having one of the actors suddenly turn
in the middle to the audience and say "Hey, I can see the back of the
scenery flats from there!"  Yeah, we all had to use automobiles to get
to the event, that doesn't mean I want to hear about them *in* the
event.  I don't want to hear about mundanes, when I'm at an event, and
I don't want to hear wink-wink-nudge-nudge we use modern materials
like duct tape.  It really violates the whole atmosphere.

However, I come from the East, were events are, by and large, one-day
affairs, and there are post-revels.  Filk is what happens at
post-revels.  So, unlike areas that don't have post-revels, there not
being filk at events *doesn't* mean there's no filk at all.  It just
happens off-site.  After the event, we can go to someone's house (back
when I had a house, usually mine ;), and stay up late and drink and
sing filk until we have laryngitis or the booze runs out or we had to
go in to work.

I suspect part of the reason feelings are running high on this topic
is that folks from where most events are multiple-day camping events
and there aren't post-revels are hearing complaints about filk at
events as threatening to the very existence of filk.  Meanwhile, the
folks from areas like the East, where most events are short and there
are post-revels, are utterly perplexed at the (apparently rude)
refusal to concede to the modest request to take the filk somewhere
more appropriate.

Good gentles, all, please start identifying where you are from!  I
think it will be enlightening.

-- Tibicen 
   Carolingia, East
   dagoura@mit.edu

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