Not much to report other than I created an online form that allowed for a fast tally of votes. I also picked folks of varying backgrounds to be the judges. I think this worked well. I will work on the final scoring in the future.
Words for Phillipe- Silver Brooch
Words by Lady Solveig Bjarnardottir
Based off a 12th century Troubador Song by Guillaume IX (1071-1127)
Translation by Baronness Kirsa Oyutai
I shall make a new song
Before the wind blows and it freezes and rains
My passion is trying me and putting me to the test
To find out how much I love it
Well now, no matter what the struggle is, I am moved for that reason
It shall not loose me from it’s bond
Instead I become it’s bard and I deliver myself to it
The consuls may write my name down in their charter
Now, don’t go thinking I am crazy
I love my noble kingdom
Without it, I give no song
I have caught a hunger to serve with my music
None shall remove me
I serve no other kingdom
If I do not give my music, I shall wither and die
Today, I pledge my oath
As I now serve
A brooch as it’s mark, the consuls bestow
On this day, a silver brooch I am born
Une nouvelle chanson j’écrirai
Avant que le vent souffle et que la terre gèle
Ma passion m’éprouve et me défie
De trouver tout l’amour que j’ai pour elle
Maintenant, peu importe quel est l’obstable, je suis transporté
Je ne peux échapper à son emprise
Je suis dorénavant son barde et je me livre à elle
Les consuls inscriront mon nom sur leur charte
Ne croyez pas que j’aie perdu le nord
J’aime mon noble royaume
Sans lui, je n’ai aucune mélodie
J’ai faim de servir avec ma musique
Nul ne peut me retenir
Je ne sers aucun autre royaume
Si je ne peux partager ma musique, flétri et mort je serai
Aujourd’hui, je prête serment
Comme dorénavant je sers
Une broche comme marque, les consuls m’offrent
En ce jour, une broche d’argent est née
Words for Symonne aus Chevaux d’Or- Silver Wheel
Based off an 11th century Troubadour song Bien me deusse targier
One ought to cease making song with words and music
One makes song with one’s deeds
Since she travels quietly, her work speaks for her
She does not boast
But others do
From the lowlands to the high
That she does more for the kingdom than for any lover
Yet she is glad to put her body and soul into her work
Symonne aus cheveaux D’or, proudly rides throughout the kingdom. Event steward with a smile, her heart gifted to all. Officer of the people and a quiet, proud servant. May her work be remembered as do our Consuls Tindall and Alberic do see it fit to have her inducted into their esteemed order of the Silver Wheel this day _.
On devrait cesser de faire du chant avec les mots et la musique
On fait du chant avec ses actes
Puisqu’elle voyage doucement, ses labeurs parlent pour elle
Elle ne se vante pas
Mais les autres, si
Des plaines aux montagnes
Qu’elle fait plus pour le royaume que pour aucun amant
Or elle est joyeuse de se mettre corps et âme à son travail
Symonne aus Chevaux d’Or chevauche fièrement à travers le royaume.
Intendante au sourire, cœur offert à tous.
Officier du peuple et servante calme et fière.
Qu’on se souvienne de ses efforts comme nos Consuls Tindal et Alberic jugent bon de la faire intronisée dans Leur estimé Ordre de la Roue d’Argent ce
Sweet Nymph, Come to thy lover
Singing! The digital age pt 2! A few days ago, Amalie and I were approached by the Baroness of Stonemarche, who happens to be a performer in I Sebastiani (The greatest comedia troupe in all the known world). They had one of their performers who was supposed to perform in the intermezzo have a health emergency come up. She approached us asking if we could “Do a thing”.
We have both been Bardic Champions of the Barony and long time friends . We agreed to perform a duet. There wasn’t anything in either of our repertoires that really suited what they wanted, so off to learn new rep it was!
Amalie went digging through CPDL and Thomas Morley fell on to our plates. This was Tuesday Night. Wednesday, off to learn a thing!
Thursday, Thursday,…. Thursday. I guess i should record a thing. My friend, George, who is a mundane friend had been getting me into doing some streaming. With this came some awesome and free software. OBS. I was able to make this beautiful half of my recording. It also instantly transfers my files to videos for consumption.
21 takes later this is what I decided to keep. Live performances are fleeting and you cannot dwell on mistakes and imperfections. Videos… those are permanent and scary!
Text:
Sweet nymph come to thy lover,
Lo, here alone our loves we may discover,
Where the sweet Nightingale with wanton glosses,
Hark! her love too discloses.
Sweet Nymph Come to Thy Lover (Morley, Thomas). Composition Year, 1595 or before
First Published in 1595 in Canzonets to Two Voices (No.3)
Make sure to check out Amalie and all her other amazing things she does:
Know World Courtesans Performance
Digital performance is still new grounds for me. I don’t have much space in my living zone right now. Covid has made it worse and using a web cam with a nice microphone is weird. Ideally, I’d have a backdrop or be outside. This is a performance where I am comfy sitting in a chair in my garb. There are ways that I am able to provide good timber, but the lack of a live audience really changes the mood. I don’t have too many thoughts on this at the moment, but i wanted to share that digital art can still exist.
Hamlet, Hamlet!
Although this was not my own production, I was granted a chance to perform with the gifted cast. A few days ago, my Laurel, Sabine, had reached out to me asking if I would be willing to be a part of the live intermission music for Hamlet. This was a live reading so I thought it would also be really cool to be a part of a live performance in any way I could.
I was trying to wrap my head around a way to make this work. Sure, I have some ok recording equipment which make for OK sound equipment when recording. I also don’t really have any period instruments that I play well enough to accompany myself. However, it hit me that I didn’t -need- one. I have a keyboard in my house and music!
This would probably be the only chance I will have in the foreseeable future to be able to play piano and sing without it being too jarring.
Among that challenge, there is the looming of the novel virus COVID-19, which, has put a damper on my performance muse. I won’t even really sing seriously in front of my fiancé. It’s amazing what isolation will do to your singing spirit.
From there, a small bit of rehearsal and details to iron out.
Day of, everything that could go wrong on the musical side of technology went wrong. After multiple reboots, some sound engineering (Thanks to my fiancé for helping listen for balance checks) and then leveling the volume of the keyboard versus my voice, it was time to go.
Right before I was going to sing, the power supply blew and a quick changing of sockets fixed everything.
Was this my best performance? No. Did I get to be a part of an amazing production? Absolutely.
Thank you again, Sabine for coordinating this and to my fellow performers who made a magical day.
If you have not watched this, please enjoy!
Etherial Court
I was approached by one of the coordinators to do a bardic piece of Ethereal court # 2. I was honored and floored.
I was only given 2 weeks leeway to get it recorded. Would my new mic be in? Would I have time around my new child to get this completed? Oh! Oh! Let’s add one more layer. It needs instruments.
Oh! A theme! Let’s make sure this is 100% period.
I did some digging for my theme, which was mother’s and essential workers. What better than to use the Cantigas de Santa Maria.
I have never performed any of the Cantigas prior to this. This involved me digging, finding correct pronunciation, performance style and accompaniment. The pronunciation of early Spanish is different from the modern Castilian I learned back in middle/high school. I Also, I haven’t done any musical mixing since 20XX…. long time ago. NEW FUN PROJECT!!!!
Cantiga 357: Como tórç’ o dém’ os nembros do hóme per séus pecados
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1iDCVizeMsbw1I21yn7RaPe6iEhcUziGf
Vocalist: Solveig Bjarnardottir
Cellist: Kennereic Aubrey
Recorder: Bird the Bard
Translation:
A woman named Doña Sancha suffered an illness that twisted her face and clouded her eyes. Her mouth was so contorted that she could not eat.
She went to the Church of Santa Maria do Porto and prayed to the Virgin to cure her.
She placed candles in front of the altar and remained there for nine days.
After she had completed her novenas, the Virgin released her from her affliction.
She healed her face and made her features more beautiful than they had ever been before.
All the people there deemed the miracle the best one of all.
Website for lyrics, IPA translation and mensural notation:
http://www.cantigasdesantamaria.com/csm/357
You can also watch the beautiful video at 18:23 or watch the whole inspirational court
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khi88DE8W0c&ab_channel=SCAEastKingdom
I Challenge you… to do this online
My Co-Autocrat and I had spend months and months planning the second iteration of the EKCoP Challenge assembly. This was my first time “running” it and I had found a super sweet location. Weeks before, COVID-19 really started to spread into the US and reared it’s ugly head. The plague doctor could truly not contain this one.
My Co-Autocrat and I made the difficult decision to cancel the even. This was not done lightly. However, not only is this spread via respiratory system, singing/vocal arts were known to be the fastest way to spread it.
I wasn’t willing to go down without a fight. I wasn’t willing to let the performing arts community take a blow to one of their only real chances to gather and perform in a low key environment. Then, it hit me! Why not do this online? What were the logistics?
I spoke to my co-autocrat who has been running monthly online practice to see if this was feasible. It was!
From there we got everything sorted and up and promoted within 5 hours of this idea. Would this work? Would anyone come? Would the delay kill everything? Are we running it like it was run previously? Who knows! here we go!
We eventually settled on a formal of open meet for an hour, classes till 6 and open performances till 10.
Attendance rolled in, every class was attended and well respected.
Well, well, well… What do we have here?
Vermont! Here I come. One of the smaller, but favorite events I get to teach at is Mimir’s well. This is a Viking descriptive event which is all about classes and an A and S display and contest (some years). I tend to offer up on the Bardic track because there are a lot of folks who enjoy performance but not a ton who teach. That’s ok. Not everyone teaches, but I love doing it. In addition, I was asked to teach a class on pewter casting. I have been making tokens for the last year or so as well as award medallions. The Event Stewards wanted to get more folks into doing it since it was as far spread in this part of the Northern Region. I happily agreed.
I had decided to challenge myself. I have a really big fear of putting my own work for the general public. Not only that, I never feel like my polyphonic works are good enough. I was inspired by their Royale Highnesses to compose them a processional. His Royal Highness crown winner has an early roman persona. I pulled from the texts of Augustus. I used a small portion of the texts that I felt would represent our Royalty
Bella terra et mari civilia externaque tóto in orbe terrarum suscepi3 victorque omnibus veniam petentibus4 cívibus pepercí. Externas gentés, quibus túto ignosci potuit, conserváre quam excídere malui. Míllia civium Rómanorum adacta sacrámento meo fuerunt circiter quingen ta.
Wars, both civil and foreign, I undertook throughout the world, on sea and land, and when victorious I spared all citizens who sued for pardon. The foreign nations which could with safety be pardoned I preferred to save rather than to destroy.
Below, find the MP3 and the recording I made during rehearsal. Sheet music to follow. I chose to teach this during the ad hoc choir that I run. It was a dream group because I had a pretty good balance on all voice parts. Everyone learned it quickly and took direction well. Again, everyone was excited to perform this during court while THR processed. TRH were banished from the room while we rehearsed because I wanted this to be a big surprise.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1xSn0BGTbBZfLUvubdQLD7hwQkYXfbw8J
Pewter casting came later. I went through all the different forms of casting materials from clay, cuttlefish bone, soap stone and sand. We went over the materials I use in my anachronistic process (which you can see in my post for making the tokens for Ozurr and Fortune) and then, everyone who gave a donation could bring their own piece home. I had made two molds, one a Mjolnir and one a Viking brooch replica. I wanted to keep with the mood of the event. Also, this is the first time I’ve ever let anyone use my supplies or cast in front of me. I made sure to bring safety equipment to make sure everyone was safe and was ready to have my first vict-.. first student attempt this as HRH walks in. I of course offered him the chance to cast and he took it. A perfect pour! It wasn’t the first time I’ve ever had royalty attend my class, but it was the first time they were ever actively a part of it.
Everyone had gone home with their own, personally casted piece. There were no injuries. Only a few broken rubber bands and my mantra (NO PAPERWORK) seemed to work.
If you’re curious about the site tokens I made (all 200 of them) here is a picture of the completed tokens.
The rest of the day I got to enjoy classes. I had my Partner with me and his son, in matching garb (which was cute as heck!). It was also his son’s first event. He got to calligraph, make an LED lantern, chainmail and even got a token from TRH. You could see the magic in his eyes as he entered our little village and made new friends. He felt right at home. This is a huge deal because he doesn’t have a lot of friends. They say he’s weird (Honestly, he’s a normal kid who really enjoys Pokémon and telling you about it. Also, wicked smart at math). If you have been part of our village, these are qualities we all share.
The end of the day was here. Court! My partner loves court and he’s only been to one. It’s not the gift he got (both times) but the celebration of people and the pomp and circumstance that goes with it. I got to explain the awards people were getting, the vocabulary we were using and what was what and who was who.
It was my turn in court. I am one of the officers for EKCoP (east Kingdom College of Performers). I serve as Chancellor as well as Deputy Chatelaine for the Northern Region. I had been given the Travel journal to pass on since the recipient was sick (with the world being like it is right now, we don’t want any of your flu/COVID-19 crud). I asked if I could present it in court. It’s a cheesy way to get the college some recognition and make the recipient feel more special. As I was about to sit down, their royal highnesses told me to hold on.
What had I done? Did they hate my song? Wha I being Banished because I’m an obnoxious and loud Bard? No.. they were doing a thing.
I was inducted into the Order of the Silver Wheel. This is an armigerous level award for those who do community service. I never expect to get awards for what I do. Sure, I dream about them like anyone else, but I do what I do because I enjoy it and want others to enjoy. I was literally dive tackled by 2 of my peers in the order… who also happen to be in the Free Company of the Stella Maris. With teers and joy I entered the order.
Please see this BEAUTIFUL scroll done by the hand of Kenneric Aubrey. Text is based off of L’homme Arme (The Armed Man)
Here is a copy of the sheet music for the processional:
Here is an MP3 of it, at a fast tempo, This should be performed at a marching tempo and militantly timed.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hvby7YD2y9oJRj0biix5tQtXn3OoN_Fh/view?usp=sharing
AOA- Halfdan
This was based off Beowolf
Delight, praise of the prowess of people-kings
of sword-armed Halfdan, skilled in combat,
we have heard, and what honor this Saxon brings!
Oft foes fought with feuded feats,
from a large tribe, Stonemarche, the bear-pits tremble,
the echos called. Since ego laid down
friend, a feat, fables reclaim him:
for he waxed under weights, in western battles fought,
Pennsic, shoulder to shoulder, far and near,
who wisdom was vast as whale-way, heard his mandate,
gave him recognition: a wealth of reason!
To him minds-worth laid before,
a son in battle, an elder to books
to favor Grímnir’s lip-streams, meeting their flights head on
the Wielder of Wonder, with world’s renown.
Mighty Queen Margarita, glory-filled, awards you arms
this day, A market day at Birka, AS 54 in the Barony of Stonemarche
Meddlings of the Minnesinger 