Tag: Solo

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New Beginnings

If anyone knows me, they know that music is the number one priority in my life. Whether I am singing or playing instruments or encouraging others to perform. I know the power that music can hold and I want nothing more than to make sure that others have this saving grace in their lives as well.

A few years ago I was very involved in a choral group called “Voce di Sonata”. These were all volunteer vocalists from Malagentia. We would run through pieces and work on them. Eventually we would get to have other performance experiences as well. However, after running it for 2.5 years, it was time for my life to explode and I simply couldn’t organize it again at that stage of my life. Life happens.

Even without formally running it, I would have folks approach me and ask for group singing and soloists to perform at their events (and weddings). I would gather ad hoc groups as needed as well as find appropriate soloists. In addition, those vocalists in the group would come and say, “Solveig, we would really love to sing with you”. My heart couldn’t say no, but I just didn’t know when.

In addition, I was also involved in the Malagentian Players. From a solo member as well as a member of their troupe. However, through discord and life, it too mostly went the way of Ol’ Yeller.

This broke my heart.

A few months ago I moved to the Riding of Giggleswick. It is a small riding but with some fiery and passionate hearts. I have a stable place to live and partner. I love my new job. Emotionally, I am in a good place. It was time.

Last night was the first meeting of the Giggleswick performing arts group.  I had 6 people show up! That’s huge for our little riding. There is promise for more to show as well. We had very new performers telling their first story in public, more seasoned performers working on newer pieces. We had rounds. ROUNDS GALORE. Folks who claim they don’t sing, sang with us! It was beautiful and harmonious. We even had a few repetitions of singing through “O Magnum Mysterium” which is no small feat. It was beautiful. The feedback was positive and I am ready to do this again in 2 weeks.

The plan is to have folks perform their pieces. Should they want feedback, they will ask. If not, no feedback is to be given. I am hellbound on making sure this is a safe space for all to perform. There will be workshops and classes to come as well.

For now, a new beginning, like a fresh layer of snow.

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Paneling Arts and Sciences as a Bard

I find that there is a very large divide in the world of Arts and Sciences between those who create and have a half life and those who create and their art is fleeting. I fall very much into the fleeting art. I love to re-create music that has already been written and perform it in it’s period style. I find that I can compose in a decent manner, but my passion is the recreation. As I mentioned in my previous post, getting out there is difficult. I don’t have the money to get good recording equipment to get out reproduced tracks so I perform at as many events as I can

With that said, at Stonemarche’s winter feast celebration, I brought the handsome Aegir to his first event he’d be performing at. Aegir, ever since we started our relationship, has been very adamant that he wanted to sing with me as well as solo. I had him attend one of my classes on beginning stage presence, but he’d need to get out there to get comfortable. Stonemarche is a very relaxed group with very positive individuals, so this joyous event would be a good place for him to get his feet wet. We’d be the background music. The Event Stewart, Astridr, had contacted me a couple months prior, asking if I’d perform at the feast. I, of course, agreed. She not only asked because I am always performing at their events, but because my family is Jewish. The feast this year was a completely Jewish based feast so they wanted songs in Hebrew and Ladino. Also, we were staying away from traditional holiday music as well.

Aegir and I had a mixture of songs, from Hebrew to English, and some to banish the cold winter away. By the end of the day, his confidence about performance has been boosted and I also got in my need to sing.

Before the day was over, the current champion of Arts and Sciences had asked me if I would be providing anything for the Arts and Sciences competition. I hadn’t put in any thought to it, but I did keep my documentation of my works on my handy dandy smart phone. I am also stupidly organized in my personal life. I have folders for my folders, so I could readily find the documentation and art work to go along with a couple of pieces that I had composed.

I had produced my songs Ah weh and lullaby for the queen. Besides presenting my physical documentation, I was asked to perform them as well. (TWIST MY ARM). These were pieces I had written in a Norse fashion using skaldic poetic style and typical Scandinavian composition patterns. Singing was not the problem, it was talking about my work. It’s very personal to me. I had never sat down in front of a panel and had to equate why my work was good enough. On top of that, I felt like I was speaking a foreign language to the panel. Musician’s speak their own language.

The panel was kind and warm. All in all, I feel like this was a step in the right direction for the fleeting arts.  I don’t feel like I won, as I don’t feel like my work was as adequately prepared as my fellow artisans, but I do feel like with some tweaking, it could be.

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Teaching Online- Barriers and Successes

A few months ago I was asked by the resurgence of the East Kingdom College of Performers to teach a class online. As I have been serving as the Deputy Chatelaine, I feel very connected to this group and it’s successes. I agreed but had to think of what I could teach. Very much, like the iconic Taoist bear, Winnie, I sat and thought and I thought and I thought.  Then in struck me, like a a sack of bricks… or something more gentle I suppose, as my face and body are intact. As a modern medievalist, I spend a large amount of time attached to social media. I use it to make connections in our modern world and I use to to connect to better resources. Living in the more Northern Part of the East Kingdom and being separated from our vast populace, there are only so many places I can travel. The internet is for more than porn and kittens… and memes.  (By the way, my Partner has just given me a huge lecture on the actual teachings of Taoism)

One if the largest issues about being a performing artist is how to get your work out there and how to get noticed. Below is an outline of my class. If you’d like more in depth information regarding what I talked about, please feel free to contact me.

 

First and Foremost, your online appearance:

 

Good/Yes!                                                              

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Bad/No!!!

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Be neat, clean and groomed. It doesn’t matter your personal style, but no one wants to see you fresh out of bed.

1) Getting noticed

  • Bards/Performers are a 1 off performance (fleeting performance)
  • How do we get seen outside of competitions and bardic circles
  • We are not all composers (and don’t need to be)

2) Platforms for getting noticed

  • Competition
  • A and S
  • Word of mouth
  • Campfires/Events

But…. is this effective? Let’s talk digital!

Social Media Platforms

  • WordPress
    • Can maintain images/texts/videos
    • Simple to use
    • Easy cross platform posting
    • Free, but Can pay to upgrade for additional features
    • Maintenance heavy
    • Free
  • Livejournal
    • Text only
    • image/video embedding is not as simple
    • Older Platform
    • Not as well trafficked
    • Nominal customization
    • Free
  • Reddit
    • Home of trolls
    • Very well trafficked
    • Not well respected in documentation society
    • Simple to use
    • Easy Embedding
    • Easy search engine to use
    • Posts are easy to discovered if you are looking for them.
    • Minimal customization
    • Free
  • Facebook
    • Well Trafficked
    • Well integrated
    • Easy embedding
    • Videos can be downloaded and uploaded
    • Images are easy to upload/download
    • Algorithms are wonky
    • Missing data
    • Timeline only (Scrolling text and no customization)
    • Free

 

  • Myspace (LOL)
    • Houses Tracks
    • No space for Blogging
    • Basically a dead site
    • Free
  • Soundcloud
    • Tracks only
    • Free
  • Podcasts
    • Tracks only
    • Can have upkeep costs
    • Can have potential for income
  • Homemade websites
    • Fully customizable
    • May require coding knowledge
    • Generally have a cost
  • Youtube
    • Videos/Songs only
    • Cannot have copyrighted material
    • No limit but can take forever to upload material
  • Yahoo Groups
    • Text only
    • Dead source
  • Instagram
    • Images only/Videos/Vines
    • No text

Silliness ensues

  • Twitter
    • Short text only
    • Good for link sharing/Cross posting
  • EK Wiki
    • Good for short and basic info about your persona
    • Can link videos/Images
    • Not very versatile for blogging/Documentation

Blogging in general

Talk about WordPress in general and availability

 

https://solveigbjarnardottir.wordpress.com

 

https://wiki.eastkingdom.org/index.php?title=Solveig_Bjarnardottir

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIGXtcuwfZg

 

https://myspace.com/laurentreidel

 

EK Wiki:

  • Everyone should have one!
  • Easy to maintain. If you don’t have one or don’t know how, we can connect to make sure you have one
  • Should have who you are, awards, affiliations, interests and events you’ve staffed. If you have any other focuses, those can be listed as well. Should really be just short reference and quick so people writing you in, people reviewing you for the order and scribes and do you proud.

Word Press:

This is where you make the dream happen

Images!

Videos/Recordings

Blog entries

Compositions

All other social media can be linked to and from

 

What sort of things should I be blogging about?

  • What you are doing
  • Period pieces performing
  • Documentation
  • Videos and recordings of your performances
  • Stuff you have composed/wordsmith-ed (Images if they are avail) If there is documentation on that, include it too
  • Non musical stuff. People want to see that you are more rounded
  • Classes you are teaching and their documentation
  • Feedback and reflection

 

The major barrier of teaching online is engagement and response. Also, equipment levels from your audience.

Success!!! I got a bunch of information out from my house, I had a moderator and more people are blogging.

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The Coronation of Willhelm and Vienna

Mad skills to pay the bills. Or something like that.

I don’t typically go to coronations because I don’t know any of the Kings or Queens. It’s hard to go to a day of pomp and circumstance if you feel like a stranger. Honestly, if I know folks getting awards, I am all for it and I will attend with a smile on my face.

This coronation was different. I went this time first and foremost because I actually had some semblance of who the incoming royalty because I had met them at crown service as Sir Marcus’ consort. He had nothing but wonderful things to say about this couple, so I figured it would be worthwhile to attend. Plus, I was most of they way to site the day before due to Mundane engagements.

About 4 weeks prior to the event, I received a message from Sarah Byrd, of whom I had worked with previously on an adhoc choir for the Feast of St. Nicholas. She had asked me if I’d be willing to sing in the choir since it was the Queen’s whim to have music her reign. I of course agreed.

3 weeks before the event she asked me if I would sing some solos during the performer’s showcase. I had a few pieces which were her majesties persona and period so I agreed (Twist my arm… make me sing more)

2 weeks before the event she reached out to me and asked if I would be willing to sing Alto. I’m not an alto, but if anyone knows medieval music, it really didn’t matter.

1 week before the event ” Oh hey Solveig, would you mind conducting the choir?”. Sure, I’ll do a thing.

The day of, I had 45 minutes to wrangle a choir and instrumentalists to make a thing happen. Sure, no problem.

 

 

 

After all was said and done, Her Majesty, Vienna did the one thing I never thought I’d see in my days in the society. She thanked all the musicians, continued to invite them and then made all performers that day a member of the Order of the Troubadour. ( I got inducted two more times, hehe. My name was called 2 more times that day since I had already been inducted a couple years ago.

This is probably once of the most memorable days in my SCA performance career and not because I was recognized, but because of the hard working musician’s around me were.

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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)

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EK- 50!

Where to begin with such a gigantic milestone for the East Kingdom. My home. This is the place where it felt safe to sing in public again. What else could I do for the Kingdom I love besides give it back the gift it gave to me?

I decided I would give everything I had to singing this weekend. It was too hot to do anything else. I think the heat this year was as bad as Pennsic 2 years ago where the heat won more bouts than the fighters. I’m glad no one was too seriously injured from heat.

With that being said, although I had transitioned to late period garb, the heat beat me in that battle for the weekend. Saari not Saari. Thats right, I ran around … well, walked around as a proper Indian woman should. It was a new feeling for me as I, in general, don’t show off this much skin. I’m a pretty modest dresser.

I bring this up  because it has a lot to do with how I perform. Confidence is key in your performance. If you are not confident, your performance will suffer. Another point being is that when you practice to perform, you should, for all intents and purposes, rehearse in garb and shoes similar to what you will wear in performance. This was not the case for my 3 concerts I did over the weekend.

EK50

I was, however, blessed to be surrounded by performers and family of whom I respect immensely as performers.

In the first concert,Bards Ease, I collaborated with my good friends Bird the Bard and Sáerlaith íngean úi Duinnshléibhe (with Guest performances by Mistress Sabine and Mistress Margreatta) We would sing solo, group performances and some off mix of whatever we felt like was a good for the audience. Typically, I’d plan a concert one one genre. However, the 3 of us are so eclectic of performers, I really wanted to showcase that.

The next day we did a showcase of the Sing for the the East CD (which if you purchase this CD to support the East Kingdom Travel Fund, you can hear the track of Ceder San Barefoot and I performing that track. The rest of the concert was the original vocalists performing and the rest of us harmonizing.

The final concert was a sneak preview for the upcoming performance in April, The Decameron. We will be performing a a day of stories and music all from the 14th Century Italian literature. This happy little quartet was again, Myself, Bird, Sáerlaith and Margreatta.

If this wasn’t enough singing, we had our own camp of Bards who withered the night away with song till the wee hours of the morning.

I’d call this a success.

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Pennsic! There is no place like home

PennsicThis 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.

The only super notable things I did were sing at the VDK Invitational Bardic. I learned a new piece of music (to be) composed by the Queens Bard Geoffrey – MKA-David Yardley (AKA captain Speccy Pants) and then I sang in Drake’s Concert, who opened for Heather Dale. That was pretty cool!

 

One more thing of note. I did record for the Known World Bardcast. I put up an original composition (Lullaby for the Queen). Anyone who knows me, knows how anxious I am putting my work out into the public.

 

Pennsic2

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Gerhard’s Scroll

This was a scroll commissioned of me for Gerhard’s von Hoehensee, Order of the Furisant

Amongst the chilled coals, arises an ember
stoking the surrounding kindling
The fire dances and begins to parry the cold
The fire does not dance alone
The fire teaches the flames to dance, to waltz
Sharpening their wit as is the blade of the rapier
Betwixed fine reignments, inspiring those who come after
The fire passes hand in hand and the fire grows stronger
Finely dressed within the ash and glows
What started the fire? We did not start the fire.
Gerhardt, the fursiant, bestowed his craft, his skill to enlighten us all
By his skill from the hands, his perseverance
Deemed it so by Baron Dorio of the Oaks
Deemed it so by Baronessa Jocelyn Del Espada

On this day, January 27, A.S. 52 at A Market day at Birka

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Scroll for Amalia

This was a scroll commissioned of me for Amalia’s von Hoehensee’s Lamp of Apollo

Oh yonder doth sit that little turtle dove, nay nightingale
Whos sweet rhapsody flows through not just music
But weaves and pierces the finest cloth
Each stitch is a note upon the melody of the cloth
Each stanza, a roving of the weave
Dulcet sounds and harmonies nestle into the thread
which is warmed by the heart and hands that are Amalia’s
Like a phoenix in her craft, sets the spirit a glow, a blaze
Pushing forth and reliving, creating each experience
She tests the purity of the cloth with fire
She lights the lamp of apollo which is now granted
By her skill from the hands, her voice
Deemed it so by Baron Dorio of the Oaks
Deemed it so by Baronessa Jocelyn Del Espada

On this day, January 27, A.S. 52 at A Market day at Birka

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Ah Weh, Away! (Birthday Bash)

It was time for something completely different. Well, not completely different, but new to me.  I was going to challenge myself to do a new craft that pertained to Bardic, but still new and would help me expand.

I have many friends up in the Mountain Freehold and tend to make my way up there for their events. However, not many folks up there know me and who I am. I was told that their Bardic community could use some growth so what better way to show who I am but to enter their A and S competition.

The rules were that it had to be inclusive/about the shire.

I chose to compose a piece a bout the shire. I wanted to bring it to the next level. Not only did I compose a piece about the shire, I composed accompaniment and I created a scroll and did the illumination for it. The scroll was done in Skaldic poetic style. The Mountain Freehold is a group that is heavily populated by vikings. The melody was mirrored after Scandinavian motifs and the Cello accompaniment was based off the sounds of the Nickleharpa, a widely used Scandinavian instrument.

 

Here is the final Product:

 

And here is the Scroll:

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I am pleased to announce that I won best overall for the A and S competition.