Message-Id: <199810021627.MAA26681@xkey.com>
Subject: Re: minstrel: Bardic, Period, and assorted rantings...
To: jshewkc@cyclops.pei.edu (J. Michael Shew)
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1998 12:27:21 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Greg Lindahl" <lindahl@pbm.com>
Cc: minstrel@pbm.com
In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.3.95.981002105012.2063A-100000@cyclops.pei.edu> from "J. Michael Shew" at Oct 2, 98 11:05:23 am
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> 	Not to be argumentative, and as those of you who know me can
> attest, I hate to argue, The times I was refering to are when you are
> asked to do SCA standards, (many of which are filk, or modern in
> construction,) or times when the audience requests something in
> particular.

Ah. I don't know how this case even came up then: if somone asks you
to do modern material, of course you find it difficult to do period
material instead. I just say, "Sorry, I don't know that one". I'm well
known for doing that at dances. But I don't expect anyone else to take
a similar strategy.

> 	In a Bardic Circle, (particularly since I am the dean in this
> Kingdom,) I must model the kinds of things the newer bards need to do.  If
> you are in the "fyrd-cave", (a fighter rich party zone, for those of you
> who are not from Calontir,) they want to hear entertainment that does not
> require thinking, and want to hear the "traditional" Calontir type songs.

Perhaps you could create a new tradition in Calontir. You seem to say that
you are showing newer bards to do the same thing you do, which involves
a continuing tradition of mostly modern performance. That's not what
I, personally, am in the SCA for.

[ talking about my strategy ]

> 	In our kingdom, it limits you to refuse to do any kind of bardic.

It's a price I'm willing to pay; I have other things to do if modern
entertainment is the only option at a bardic circle. "Reading your
audience" is something that's been coming up again and again; I
suspect that it's always been the case that the fraction of people
interested in hearing period stuff is always going to be small. The
fraction of people who "don't mind" hearing period stuff is going to
be much bigger, because many folks just want to be entertained, not
caring if the material is period or period style.

BTW, I don't think that doing Calontir kingdom history _requires_
something blatantly modern I suspect that it would require extra
work to build a history that is authentic in style but talks about
Calontir, but it could be done. In the Elizabethan era, Thomas
Deloney did a series of broadsides about historical topics, mostly
cribbed from the same source (Holinshed) that Shakespeare took the
material for his histories. I have a dozen examples on my ballad
webpage. You mostly do earlier stuff, but there ought to be equivalent
examples.

-- gb

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