Pensic 50. I DREADED it. I’m not huge into parties, covid is rearing it’s head again and I just don’t want to make the 10.5 hour car ride there and 12.5 back (I make a detour to visit the cutest kiddos and favorite middle sister on the way back). We have done a lot of work on our house and I was just a bit traveled out, but my husband wanted to go, so I made sure to head to Pensic.
Friday am arrival. Fastest gate I have ever processed through. I waited maybe 10 minutes in line total before we were seen and out completely. Then, rolling down to the Bog. HOME. MERMAIDS SONG. Like the name sounds, we are all Bards or some type. The best part of our Bardic Mayhem group is that none of us specialize in the same artform. We have a magician as “Camp Dad”, A harpist, a shanty-man, a vocalist who specializes in period works, a story teller and the rest provide us with libations and support. Friday night was just a night in camp to enjoy friend’s and reconnect. It would not be Pensic without random bursts of music and such to which we did.
Saturday came around quickly, but not the worst for timing. I once again decided to join my comrades from ACROSS the kingdom for another Song Byrds Concert. I believe we hailed from 6-7 Kingdoms between us and only 2 lived in the same kingdom and they were partners (so that made sense). Bird, Aibihilin, Colette, Geoffrey, Robbin, Leaf and Mathias and of course me. This set list was almost entirely new to me. The only piece I had some inkling of was Ecco La Primavera. However, every piece we performed was period. It was so much fun to do an immersive period concert since that is my focus. 5 completely new pieces to me and 1 I knew and 1 which I had conducted but never sang (and I ended up learning Soprano and Alto for different performances)
Set List:
Now Wolde Y Fayne, Mors Sui, Se Je NE Vous Vois, Je Ne Cuit Pas, Ecco La Primavera, Doulz Viaire Gracieus, The World an Illusion , Il Est Bel Et Bon.
In between each of the pieces we each had a chance to perform a solo. I chose to do my Landskneckt piece which has only been performed for an audience once before, a year ago. It’s a persona accurate piece for me and a joy to do in persona garb. This performance comes later in the week but rehearsals needed to happen. We had folks shifting parts as well as participating because of illness and commitments. This group was incredibly flexible in their abilities to switch parts at the drop of a hat. I am 1 of 2 professionally trained musician’s in the group and the rest just have an overabundance of passion for performance and they are all absolute joys to work with.
Later that evening I had been cordially invited to perform at Duchess Caoilfhionn’s Bardic. This is an invite only performance set. This Bardic is special to me because VDK is a fighting household and to see that their warrior queen supports the arts, performs herself and child performs, is very near and dear to my heart. I used to fight armored combat for a period of 6 years but my body decided it wasn’t right for it but typically you fight or art. It’s nothing more than a time dedication. People who focus on more than 1 activity can struggle to keep up with both or will burn out. I chose to sing about love and loss. This year has been such a full of those I could think of no better subject than that. My ladino piece was bitter sweet, La Prima Vez. The rest of the night was full of other incredible performers, old and new to me. oh! Another point to note, I am a huge advocate of “Clothing changes how you move/perform”. I chose to wear male presenting clothing because I’m still having difficulty knowing how to gauge my body temperature changes. La prima Vez felt new and almost foreign. I interacted in new ways than I historically do. It was so interesting to feel the drastic change.
Sunday… the doom day. I had promised my Pelican that I would not overbook myself. Originally when I had booked my schedule it was only 2-3 things a day…. here we are 5 commitments. Heck. Welp! I started the day bright and early in rehearsal to play in the pit of Romeo and Juliet. This is the first time I have played in any form of a pit since 2004. I’ve been a long time recorder player, but not my main focus. It was like falling off a wobbly bike. I got back on but still wobbled. It was joyous though. My soul -needed- this. I have been dying to be part of an ensemble instead of the solo performer or conductor. I got to play with varying levels of skills and make music. I got to play -harmony-. I NEVER get to do harmony. It made me so happy. Also, my super amazing awesome Laurel, Sabine was our concert mistress which always makes for a supportive and awesome good time.
Shortly after this rehearsal I was speaking to one of the fellow instrumentalists. We we sharing our backgrounds and she had admitted that she was going to be auditioning for one of the Pensic choirs. She seemed nervous. I asked her if she’d like me to find a place for her to sing it to me to get her jitters out. She happily accepted and off we went to an empty A and S tent. As we got there, I asked her what kind of feedback she wanted. I asked “Do you want to hear THATS GREAT or GOOD” or did she want “That was flat” or did she want fixes. I find it’s really important to asked for feedback consent. You can really destroy someone if they aren’t in the right headspace or ready Sometimes folx don’t want feedback at all. Sometimes folx want to hear if it was “good enough” and sometimes they want you to rip them apart as long as you can tell them how to fix it. I was lucky enough that she did want feedback and how to fix it. I was pleasantly surprised by her timbre and skills she came in with. An absolute delight to listen to. I had her sing the piece through and then I gave her 1 piece of feedback each time she sang it for me as not to overwhelm here or give her too much information to process at once. I think we did it 3 times through. She exclaimed that she felt more confident and more ready for this audition. She was thankful and we enjoyed the rest of our Pensic times together.
From there I hustled over to Geoffrey of Exeter’s class. He was teaching basic vocal technique and using this class to teach his piece “The World an Illusion” so I could support him, but also I would be conducting this piece for his procession as he was to be elevated to the Order of the Laurel in court on Tuesday. I wanted to scope out what additional voices we might have and figure out if they would need more Sopranos or Altos (Any other voice part would be out of my very Soprano range).
From there I immediately hustled back to EK Royale as I was running the East Kingdom College of performers meeting. I decided we should be able to include folks from home as it’s not fair that folks who cannot afford or physically make it to Pensic could not have their voices heard. I made a hybrid meeting where we had 2 people remote in and 6 in person. Not bad for a Pensic meeting. They are always hard and there is -never- a good time.
I had a few hours in between there and went to camp where it then began to POUR. I’m sweet but not made of sugar so the rain never bothered me anyways. As the rain let up, Husband and I hauled our way up “The Hill”tm to go speak to our speccy boy, the vigilant. It is my goal, when I speak to vigilants, that besides to present them with a gift (which is usually a composition for them) is to speak from the heart and make them cry. Poor now, Master Speccy Pants, there were tears I tell you.
The final stop for the night was Bhakail Boardgames and Bardic. A glass of “Nerds Wine”… made from freshly squeezed nerds, singing and more camaraderie happened. Bhakail is a second home to me. My Laurel is Bhakaili and my Pelican used to be/still really is Bhakali. Nothing much to note besides heading home for Bog shenanigans.
Monday was more Romeo and Juliet rehearsal for several hours. I then head down to the Casa where my apprentice “Niece/cousin/somehow SCA related because weird things” where we jammed out for a little bit on her brand new citole. Her other one met its demise earlier in the week so this was as good of an excuse as any.
Tuesday was another Song Byrds rehearsal and full run through where we ironed out the details, set list order and set everything for day of. Then, EK court. As I had mentioned earlier, I was concert mistress for Geoffrey’s elevation as he processed. I herded everyone to our performance spot, recruited another singer a few minutes before. We were set… except the court order changed so HERE WE GO. Rapid singing. Not only was I conducting, I was jumping between singing both parts and coordinating the Harpists (who were fab, btw). I am unsure if anyone recorded the performers and if any of you readers find one, let me know so I can add it to here. Geoffrey, amongst all of his emotion said it could be heard from the back of court and was exactly what he envisioned. I’ll take it
Wednesday was the Song Byrds concert. Most everything went off without a hitch. One piece was moved and we added a piece last second because we under scheduled ourselves (which is better than last year in which we had to cut things. Such is life. However, I do want to make another point about our amazing and diverse set of vocalists were all LGBTQIA. So, in a world that is so scary right now for us, we wanted to make a statement. I requested that we all wear some form of a rainbow for our performance uniform. Check out these speccy duds!!!! (Also, Period appropriate hoes/stockings…. just saying)
Thursday was a new adventure for me. I had been asked to serve as a judge for the Pensic A and S. Typically there is a war point involved, but this year, for the safety of all, there were no war points. So, this took some of the pressure off of me as a first time judge. The coordinators/generals provided training on the rubrics and we were given documentation ahead of time to review so we could formulate and ask intelligent questions about the projects. I was given 2 physical items to review. If you have never had a chance to judge an A and S competition, you absolutely should. You get the pleasure of hearing the passion, the process and the whole scope of some ones project in a way you don’t get from a display. I got 40 minutes to hear a shpiel about some ones work for 20 minutes, ask 20 minutes of questions and then feverishly try to score someone. Although this can feel like a pressure chamber, I genuinely got to ask the artist so many questions about their art that I wouldn’t have ever thought to ask. I didn’t ask anything regarding why they didn’t do a thing. I tried to ask questions with genuine intent to learn and clarify items in documentation and creation that I may have missed. All in all 10/10 would do again.
After my brain was fried from new artforms, back to my camp, in the bog to teach my rounds class. This class serves 2 purposes. 1) To sing period music 2) To make a safe space for new and old singers. This is a judgment free zone that should, in theory, allow folks to have a safe learning environment in which they can explore a period topic. I teach this class similarly to when I was teaching youth. Depending on the duration or language of the piece I would do the following process: 1) Sing the entire song for people to hear. 2) If the piece was short enough I would sing it, ad nauseum, until they felt comfortable enough to jump in 3) When the majority started singing I would “chase” them to give them an idea of how the round sounds with it while creating some minor part independence. The only change of process is if the song was longer or in a foreign language I would break the son into smaller chunks. Id do one phrase at a time then connect 2. then the next one and repeat until the song was whole. In this particular session I had a HUGE variety of skill levels and confidence. I had someone who hadn’t sang since high school and never sings in public, I had someone who appeared to have some musical background and finally a music teacher who is going deaf. My assorted camp mates came in and out to sing with us as well which is always a joy.
After my class, the individual who had not sang since high school and never in public approached me. They advised that this was an amazing class. They said they felt safe and secure and that it was a good place for them to make music. They appreciated my corrections being subtle, non aggressive and not pointing them out at all. My heart was overjoyed to hear this. Not to mention that they have a beautiful singing timbre as well.
If you are interested in downloading my book, here it is. Just please credit me for use. With this link you will get updates to my book as I add them.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PvID7hHNG2gvJjWctuWdpQiK-OyhmB_GlVLQhHqEcI8/edit?usp=sharing
Friday was the last day. Usually I am leaving on Friday so I can have a nice leisurely drive home for visits with the family. This year I was staying behind to play in the pit of Romeo and Juliet. This was going to be a super unique situation as we were playing “Under The stars”. What this means is a change in light availability as well as sound reverberation (or lack there of). Tent walls are hard and provide additional bounce. Bodies eat bounce and the sky is a nebulous black hole. We were a small but mighty group and we could do it. We got to play through at least the stage warming music. No more than 30 minutes in did the sky open up and we needed to move inside. This again changed dynamics but we made it work. I had forgot to mention earlier all the music I learned for R and J was new to me as well and all period music. We played Heart’s Ease, Amoroso, La Doune Cella, The Hunts Up, Chi Passa Per Strada and Where Griping Grief. Where Griping Grief comes from the original score of R and J and I actually got to sing that instead of play it. I did with Chi Passa Per Strada as well.
All in all, Pensic filled my heart in ways that I wasn’t sure it could this year. I had a leisurely drive home after which included the cutest 11 year old and 4 year old you’ve ever seen, my ever patient Pelican, friends for lunch at the best Jewish Style deli in CT and washing off the Pensic tan.
This was my first year at Pennsic. I’m not going to lie. It’s all pretty much a blur right now so I will keep this short and sweet. I sang every night till the wee hours of the morning. I went to a Bardic Circle every night and sometimes multiple in a night.
Meddlings of the Minnesinger 