Tag: Harper’s

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Minstrel’s Memory

I wrote this… I wrote all of this. Putting out songs of my own are terrifying. It took me until now to finally feel comfortable enough to publish this. This isn’t the best recording but that’s ok. Folks came in late, a spider was taken off me while performing BUT! people sang along. That is why I felt like posting this. I hope this song becomes an anthem for the Bards. This is about who sings for us when we are gone. Think a-la Hamilton, “Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Their Stories”. Be brave. Sing your songs unashamedly.

Video taken by Jasmine Rochelle Goodspeed

I dreamt of a day when you sang a song
The song was spun for me
Instead of painting a warriors skills
Bardic tales were their decree

I hoped for the day when lauds and praise
For those who most enchant
Not the stories and words of those who berserked
Spoken out for those who can’t

Who will sing my song when I’m gone?
Who will tell my story?
Who’ll remember the days
And sing of the praise
Of the minstrel’s memory

If you would walk the streets at night
Or at a meal or ale
Hark! To those who weave the myths
Sing for them a jaunt wassail

Know you the tales of great Arthur
You have heard of Lancelot
Epic deeds rhymed in memory fair
But the bringers oft forgot

Chorus x2

The sun will rise and the moon will fall
As time will wane and pass
To the memory of those before
We all should raise a glass

To the bringers of the melody
When their bodies live no more
A chorus sung to bring their name
And conjure spirits to restore

Chorus 3x

Of the minstrel’s memory x3

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The Dread Pira….. Privateer

Another boast I had the honor of writing and performing was for my dear friend, Fionnghualla. It can be difficult to capture of the all the amazingness that is a person who does service. Their service can be silent and long done. I have known Fionnghualla since almost the beginning of my SCA career. I wanted her boast to be special and stand out. I don’t like writing boasts that just list off the persons OPID. It’s not what that person deserves. They deserve to have a unique and special experience. I dug down into my old person RAM and dug up some schtick that I hadn’t thought about in 10 or more years. There is a pirate ship which is run by all women called “The Scorned Lady”. This had popped into my brain, I did a bit of digging and research and this is what was produced.

Ahoy!

Shake in your boots and make ready

Avast your idle conversations and turn a weather eye

The Scorned Lady, Scourge of the Sea has anchored

Servant to no one but the water itself

Now enters a most ferocious creature

Her personal banner waves and never were swans and a single rose so fearsome

Make way for the string that keeps the Barony of Stonemarche tied together

Make way for the balancer of the books

Make way for the herder of sheep… and alpaca.

Make way for the shopping mistress

Make way for the keeper of the great gates

You are in presence of the great mastermind

The Keeper of the Brain

The dread pirate… I mean.. privateer

Fionnghualla inghen Mhic Cealleigh

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Warrior Harper!

My friend, Seigne (Jenn) was elevated to the order of the Laurel. I had the great honor of boasting her in. This is not even a fraction of what I think about her, but this is the < 1 minute I was allowed to have to show off my friend! Video attached.

All in attendance, tremble before the Harper, Seigne Ruadh Frizzel. Pray heed this ethereal being with a harp song that claims a listener’s heart as truly as her hunter’s shot claims a stag on the fly. With fingers that dance on strings, she weaves melodies that captivate while her arrows wing true. Like Apollo, who excelled in both archery and music, this harpist-archer seamlessly blends the elegance of her melodies with the precision of her aim. Warm is her heart as is the hearth of her home. All are welcome and so we celebrate Seigne.

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Harper’s Retreat 2018!

Time after time this proves to be my favorite event. This year was no different. I brought my S.O. Aegir with me. He got to experience his first “small” event since his first event was the Great North Eastern War. Little bit of a size difference. Fencing was first on the docket for the day. Stab stab all my friends. Nothing gets me in the mood to sing besides dancing (aka, fencing) with my friends. I didn’t come close to winning but boy did I have fun!

Later in the day I taught a class on stage presence and how to make your piece more interesting to the audience. I had 2 students show up and I was perfectly ok with this. They were two very different performers, but were able to utilize the same skills. The first young woman was a puppeteer and storyteller. She exclaimed her issues were volume and some stage fright. I proposed we use a counting up excersize where we would identify different volumes and then use different shapes of our mouth and words to bring her resonance forward. We also fixed different focal points by adjusting where here body and puppet were facing and worked on a few topics of tempo.

My second student had never been on stage before and had never performed in front of anyone before. We worked through a song he had prepared. We again talked about volume. In addition, we added movement to his body, keeping his eyes open and stage movement in general.

When the class was over, both advised they felt more confident in their skills and would add these into practice. The young woman put it into practice for the Warrior Bard competition that evening.

Feast was next! Probably one of the best feasts to date. The current Baronial Bard and Nexcellency, Keziah Planchette had requested some of the prior and present bards to come perform during the feast. Here is a clip of my performance. I think the liquid courage also made an appearance.

Harper4

 

 

That evening it was time to compete for Warrior and Baronial Bard. The guidelines for Baronial Bard were Courtly love and Virtues. In addition, due to the recent loss of our Baron (who passed away about a month prior) it was requested that we not sing anything sad.

For Warrior Bard I whipped out a quick one of my favorites, Laciate Morire (which, is not exactly not a sad song… but it was in Italian so I fudged the poetric translation).

For Baronial Bard I sang a Ladino piece, La Prima Vez and We are the East (By Drake Oranwood). I may not have won Baronial Bard, but I did truly win because there were very few dry eyes at the end of We are the East. #lifetimegoalsachieved.

The next day in court, I assisted with Heralding because hey, i’m loud! I can haz shouty voice! However, not too long after I had sat down, I heard my name requested in court. I was asked to join the order of the Lamp of Apollo. This is a Baronial Arts and Science award especially for encouraging others to do their art as well. The scroll was done by Keziah Planchett and the words lovingly composed by Amalie von Hohensee and Gerhardt von Hohensee. I was in tears as there was no better gift. (If you remember back to Birka, I had done the words for their scrolls)