Tag: New Hampshire

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Stonemarche, Our Hearth, Our home, our Stead

I was asked several years ago to compose and athem for Stonemarche. I have had very little faith in my own compositions. The kingdom is filled with very many talented composers and who am I to try to be amongst them? It was brought up again that we needed an anthem and I finally got the gumption to write one. It’s not perfect and it’s a little quirky but so is our Barony.

Below is the recording of it’s first performance and the lyrics are below.

In the snow capped mountains
From far away lands
Dwelled the folks in 3 towers
Who wear white and green bands

We fence and loose arrows
We sing and we dance
See the gifts that we offer
Our love’s not a chance

We’ve a motto in Stonemarche,
There’s no famine we said,
In Stonemarche, Stonemarche
Our home, our hearth, our stead
We’ve a motto in Stonemarche,
There’s no famine we said,
In Stonemarche, Stonemarche
Our home, our hearth, our stead

Rolling lands rich with sheep
Cross the grass covered hills
A gift from lochleven
We tend to their wills

Cross the grass spanning lands
And as they wander and roam
Our children do gather
And bring them all home

We’ve a motto in Stonemarche,
There’s no famine we said,
In Stonemarche, Stonemarche
Our home, our hearth, our stead
We’ve a motto in Stonemarche,
There’s no famine we said,
In Stonemarche, Stonemarche
Our home, our hearth, our stead

If you come from the outside
If you dwell in our tillage
All around us are welcome
Inside our family’s village

Paint us up a bright chorus
Join our Bards in their song
We fight and we dance
No activity’s wrong

We’ve a motto in Stonemarche,
There’s no famine we said,
In Stonemarche, Stonemarche
Our home, our hearth, our stead
We’ve a motto in Stonemarche,
There’s no famine we said,
In Stonemarche, Stonemarche
Our home, our hearth, our stead

We’ve a motto in Stonemarche,
There’s no famine we said,
In Stonemarche, Stonemarche
Our home, our hearth, our stead
We’ve a motto in Stonemarche,
There’s no famine we said,
In Stonemarche, Stonemarche
Our home, our hearth, our stead

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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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Allll by mysellllfffff

Sometimes you just need to sing. Living in the southern edge of NH means I don’t have a ton of folx I can be like SING WITH ME. Especially the night before an event. So, I decided to make some music with myself-ish.

Last year, I was honored to be able to participate in a concern hosted by my friend, Colette. We sang a mix of pieces, but I fell in love with a piece by Machaut which we performed. The version of the piece we sang was a duet. This could be done with 2 voices, voice and instrument, 2 instruments. We performed with 2 instruments.

Colette had sent everyone learning tracks (Being the amazingly kind human that they are). I still had access to these tracks so I grabbed the one for the bottom part so I could sing with it. It is Colette la Trouvere singing the bottom.

This was the result of boredom.

I hope you enjoy!

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Seal Skinned One

I often find myself scared to share my music with other people. Music, if you couldn’t tell, is a very important part of my life. When I share something I compose, I feel vulnerable and as if you could simply step on my heart any time you choose to.

I’ve been trying to be less vulnerable about it. I happened to be inspired to compose a piece. I haven’t really written like this is a very long time. Sure, I write filks… those are just words. Sure, I do scroll assignments…. those are just words.

This? This -was- music. This was -my- music. This was my soul.

What makes this even more terrifying is the person I composed this for is also a composer and performer as well. I have an incredible amount of respect for them. Despite them being very close to me and knowing they would never do anything intentionally hurt me, I was still scared. What if it sucked? What if they didn’t like how I composed? We have different skill sets. We have different instruments. I was -terrified-.

This person is full of passion for selkie lore and the sea itself. I can also see the parrallels of their actual life to that of a selkie. I wanted to create a new Selkie piece. One that was not the helpless maiden. Not one where there would be failure, but partnership. So… I began to write….

I set myself an artificial deadline to have it done by so I couldn’t back out. I did test a bit of the motif out on them without them knowing (or atleast, I don’t think they knew at the time) to see if it might be to their taste. With a positive enough of a reaction, I continued on.

As I worked on it, I started to share it with friends who I felt were safe to listen to my track. I send them a voiceless midi with the sheet music. I probably sent it to a good 10-15 people to desensatize myself during the process.

This last Friday, I finished the pieces moments before (minor edits the day of, the piece itself was done the night prior). I asked them, when I saw them, when I might be able to present them with their gift and in what format.

I had done a quick recording of it day of in case they said they wanted to listen to a recording of it in private. They advised live but had some things they needed to manage first. The time came. I fumbled for my midi acommpaniment that I had also composed and played it. I was able to look up at them a few times while I was singing it to them to see if I could get a reading. I could not. They were purely listening to it.

I finished. I closed my black choral binder with the sheet music inside, covered by page protectors and waited for a reaction. They had no words. As of today, I still don’t know, but I, at the very least, know they enjoyed it.

I am no recording/mixing artist so this is likely the best you’ll all get uintil I can take some mixing/recording classes.

Seal Skinned One- MP3

Sheet Music

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Silver Wheel- Trian O’Brudair

By THL Solveig Bjarnardottir

Based on Pangur Ban

Traveled wanderer, Triann, devoted Servant,
‘Tis a like task we are at;
Hunting work is his delight,
Hunting work through day and night.
Better far than praise of men
Laborious is he, his time given
Triann bears none ill-will,
He, too, plies his simple skill.
‘Tis a merry thing to see
At our tasks how glad are we,
When at large we often find
Entertainment to our mind.
Oftentimes duties will go astray
In the hero, takes arms, Triann’s way;
Oft’times with joy his songs are set
Merrily competes tasks within wide net.
‘Gainst all odds he sets his eye
Full and fierce and sharp and sly;
‘Gainst the odds of difficulty spied
Completes all acts and duty tried.
When a job appears and then,
O! how glad has Triann’s been;
O! what gladness do we prove
When he solves the doubts you route.
So in peace our task we ply,
Triann, loyal servant, and cry;
In our arts we find our bliss,
We have ours, and he has his.
Practice every day has made
Triann perfect in his trade;
We achieve play day and night,
Turning darkness into light.
So ordered, Triann, servant sent,
A wheel placed around your neck
Order to join with hearts a-glow
Birka AS 58, with silver we do bestow
King and Queen demanded now
Placed from the hands of the crown

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Palio di Stonemarche

This year Palio was very small compared to previous years. However, considering it was up against fencing champs and another full war event, we still had a decent sized crowd. It was bitterly cold and rainy at night, but that didn’t take away from the run.

I ran the fencing tournament that day, but I was also in charge of the Golden Tongue Bardic competition. This is very near and dear to my heart because it gives folks who were newer performers a chance to shine. The rules are that you can never have won a bardic competition. We had 4 folks competing this year ranging from age 10 to a bit older (We never speak of a ladies age!) These folks do not proclaim themselves Bards. They have had rough experiences and similar to me, had sworn they would never perform again.

They said that -I- inspired them to give it a chance again. I was speechless. I just want folks to have a safe performance space.

When all was done, I chose, not the best or worst performer, I chose someone who moved me. I gifted them the prize and asked them to make me a promise that they would work on their story and tell it to me again sometime within the year.

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A More Challenging Assembly

You would think after the 3 prior years of running this event, it would be easy as cake. The problem was that the 3 previous years had all been different. Covid-19 is still raging on and that lends itself to many other challenges.

In the first year of the challenge assembly’s inception, it had a large location in an area that was well accessible by many of the performers in the region. Bringing it up north had it’s own challenges. EKCOP has no money of it’s own, so we would need to find a sponsoring location. Luckily, Stonemarche had some extra money in the coffers and could offer us a sum to run this event. Finding sponsors for the challenges was another item as folks were unsure how their challenges were going to be taken and how they would view them.

This year, I was able to have 18 sponsors of 20 unique challenges. Next, getting folks to travel to New Hampshire and be willing to perform. We still had the requirements of masking indoors and performing outside would pose a challenge as there was a baseball game booked on the same grounds we were using. Can’t really complain considering the site was only charging us 75 dollars for the day. In addition we had to figure out how much food to feed people for day board and how we could encourage folks to teach.

The performance community in Stonemarche is decently sized, however, covid was making this all difficult. All in all, we had 43 attendees and actually made a profit of a little more than a hundred dollars for the day and this with charging folks the least amount we possibly could. We also had 12 amazing classes ranging from singing, story telling, history of stories and insturmental. The videos will be up soon… I hope.

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Demo at the New Hampshire Renaissance Faire

One of my jobs, as it has been for the past year is to serve as the Chatelaine of the Barony of Stonemarche. For the previous year, it has really just been an administrative job due to the nature of events and COVID. However, at the Aisles of Marche, I had set up a mini demo for any possible new comers to be able to see what we had besides shopping. I wanted something that was more visually pleasing than just some folks, standing around in garb and answering questions. I wanted something interactive.

For the NHRF, I started off with a new, revamped booklet, which was not as intense as what we have on the SCA website, but has some key information that a new comer would need walking into their first, second or third events.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1quyibfNwdMUSnwOxnH4hwkdgSateUS5r/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=105255312117189439983&rtpof=true&sd=true

From there, I also created a form with pictures of all the main folks in the Barony, as well as the Royals. This was accurate at the time of it’s inception. This will get updated as officers and royals change.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mND-AeuMKRuFKDMQosknxJdEkfRBMiFy/view?usp=sharing

From there it was grabbing weapons, crafts, books, arts and SINGING! I cannot have an event without singing. I brought a few copies of my rounds book and as folks had time, would encourage them to sing. We also had live crafting demonstrations and board games. I picked a few of my favorite medieval board games and set them out to teach people. On the games, there was a copy of the barony and sca information as well as the rules. I figured this might be a better alternative to business cards. Also, for the hip crew, we had a QR code to scan so I could email folks directly. I know I don’t want to carry a card with me if I don’t have to.

The rest of the day I spent answering questions for new comers, herding my amazing volunteers, scheduling breaks and just having a blast welcoming new comers.

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It’s the most wonderful shopping of the yearrrrrrrr!

Birka. If you have read any of my blog posts, you know this German/Viking loves bling. Birka, besides Pennsic is my favorite shopping event. The vendors are always changing and bringing new and wonderful wears.
This was also my newest partners first Birka. “I can show you the world! Shining, Shimmering, Splendid!” Also, his first event. I don’t bring them in gently. He seemed to do well with the 90 million people he met in a half second, including Her Royal Majesty, who had given him his first token in the SCA. You could see the magic happening… as far as you can have in a hotel.

He was excited to show off his first garb. I had taught him to sew the week prior. He’s a quick study and eager to create. HE even made himself a haversack. None of these had a pattern. I showed him how to pattern off his previously made clothes as a gentle way to bring him in.

Boyfriend
He met 90 million people in 30 seconds but he was happy as a clam. He is far more social than I am.

First court of the day for us was Baronial court. Although I wasn’t currently living in Barony, Stonemarche has always been my home. I often offer to herald or perform for them.

Herald
When court came around, I showed him the joy of other’s getting awards. I was on queens guard, but made sure when I wasn’t guarding he has someone to keep him company or something to do. He was surrounded by those willing to give him information and he was also keeping his hands busy with his newly learned hobby of crocheting. He even got to hear one of my scrolls going out.

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

Scroll

After court was all said and done, I was off to do my most favorite thing at Birka… THE BARDIC CIRLE! This was my 4th year running it and every year I learn new and different exciting pieces and meet amazing new performers. I task myself with trying to support newer performers, performers who are shy and taking others under my wing. This year was no different.

However, these was something new to me. I had always considered a content warning for age restrictions; however, I had never considered a content warning for triggers based on language or images. This was a new idea to consider. I think it’s important to consider our audience. We aren’t stopping our performance, but we are allowing them to have an opportunity to leave should they have triggers to the content. Even my partner, who doesn’t have faith in his own singing was brave enough o perform. We had a wide variety of performers and skill levels. I can’t wait to see what else comes from these folks.