Mi Contra Fa

Beowulf Birthday Bash

First, before I forget - one of the reasons "Veni" was giving me such a headache was that I had it in the wrong mode. It's Mixolydian, not Lydian.  Now that I'm starting on the right note, it works great.

I've had the week from Introvert Hell (four 10-11 hour days of business conference) so I was not as well-practiced, well-rested or even coherent as I might have been.  But!  I had a lovely time.

Got to sit with the Bright Hills Bards, who are always awesome. 

Entered a bunch of old stuff into the Northern European A&S display.

Showed a few interested folks the lyre; Mistress Molly very generously gifted me with veil pins for the demonstration.

The Anglo-Saxon poetry class had four! students, who followed right along and said I was making sense.  We didn't do a writing exercise, at least partly because I forgot to bring paper and pens for it. D'oh.  So (since at least 3/4 were performers) we talked performance modes instead.

Also in good scop fashion, after I performed "Beocat," I was asked to do it again for the kitchen folks.  Kitchen folks approved and offered me a small measure of mead. Yum!

Got to geek out a bit about my garb with Aaradyn.  Possibly a bit too much...  ("Why did you pick purple and red?"  "Oh! Blah blah Arnegunde blah blah round pins blah pin suite blah blah")  Pleased to report that the chained pin suite/belt combo works very well to  hold the coat/robe in place in lieu of the round pins.

Ooh, also on the costuming front: Since it was chilly, I wore the wool veil I made originally to go with this ensemble.  As it is a bit heavy, I put on my gold-threaded headband (just for bling), then over it put a linen cap from Revival Clothing.  I pinned the heavy veil right to the cap instead of to the headband.  Worked like a charm!  (Got the idea from this book, I think. Or possibly this one.)

I went outside to say hello to Aaradyn and Baron William, and Aaradyn introduced me to her Highness, who was lovely.  We spoke for a bit about poetry and music, and Baron William said some very nice things (apparently I wrote a poem about armoring? And he's kept it?  Very sweet!)

Finally: the performance!  It was not error-free, unsurprisingly, but I think it went very well.  I was not pleased with myself for being on-book, and my eye contact for those pieces was sketchy at best, but life's life.  Despite all my good intentions, practice has just not been happening - although I wonder if it may, soon.  It feels sort of like my energies are swinging back into this.  Still, self-care first - work has picked up with a lot more responsibilities and I need to do things like get exercise and play with the kids.  All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.  One thing at a time.

Beginner's A&S Class: Notes/outline

The notes from my BotB class.

If you're in the Storvik area, I'll be teaching the class again at our A&S night, October 17.

Battle on the Bay: Report

No written feedback on the lyre display, but folks seemed to think it looked good (and in truth, the most obvious bit of ugly is the reverse of the tuning pin bar, and you don't see it unless you flip the instrument over and look for it).  A few people got the joke of the documentation title ("Stoppiaþ! Hamor tīma!" for "Stop! Hammer time!")

I brought my Silvershell lyre along and played a good bit.  A few people were interested in seeing how it was played, and I was happy to oblige with a quick demo.

The class, "A&S Research for Beginners," had no beginners.  I kibitzed about performing A&S research with Richard Wynne for a bit, then a Caidian Minister of Arts and Sciences asked to hear my basic schpiel.  If I hadn't needed to run back home right after the class ended, we might have had a discussion on A&S, documentation and competition - she started to say that she would have structured the class by teaching the judging sheet, to my consternation.  I had consciously avoided linking authenticated research to judging, as if that were the only reason to do it.  I suspect there was some confusion on my part, but I had to run before we could really get into it.

Winter University 2012

I went, I taught, I had a great time!

On the trip down, I stopped at Duke University to view a microfilm copy of Christopher Page's 1981 dissertation on "Anglo-Saxon Hearpan: History, tuning and techniques."  It was awesome, and three hours was not enough to take all the notes I wanted.  But I was a clever monkey, and noticed that the microfilm box came from the British Library.  So, once home again, I Googled "British Library thesis."

Behold, EThOS!  The Electronic Thesis Online Service of the British Library, which will let you download FREE PDFs of digitized British theses.  Including (drumroll) Page's from 1981.  Hurrah!

I stayed in the lovely and affordable Augustus T. Zevely Inn in Old Salem, where I met Lord Mungo Napier and his lovely wife, Lady Sarah.  Alas that the historic Salem Tavern was closed for kitchen repairs.

Getting to the event was easy enough.  I took Master Efenwealt's helpful and informative class on DIY recording and got some useful hints and tricks.  Then it was time for my teach-a-thon.

'Writing a Research Paper' had but five students, although they were wonderful and engaged students.  I felt it went a little unevenly in parts, but overall seemed like it went well.  I should have the class notes posted today.

'Constructive Criticism' went very, very well!  A large class, with lots of back and forth - almost more of a workshop.  The students raised the difficult but very relevant question of what to do if we saw/heard another judge being unnecessarily harsh and mean, and I think we eventually decided that the right thing to do would be to say something.  (We were trying to balance minding one's own business/not escalating drama with damage control, and concluded that stopping real damage was more important.)

'Research and Documentation for the Bardic Arts' also had good turnout and vocal, involved students.  I've come up with a refinement not in the current handout - about Information Search being used to find content, context, and performance information, which I quite like and helps organize that section much better.  I'll try to do an update soon.

But I did leave with a sense that I need to be doing a bit more actual performing.  Of course, we've been mostly out of the SCA since The Boo was born two years ago; that's just the nature of the small, grabby beast.  But as the outdoor spring events start up, we're going to try to make more of them. We'll probably have to leave before feast/bardic, but it's a start!

Blah

It is extremely difficult to find the motivation to write up class notes when one's experience with holding classes at any non-University event is about even odds to get either zero or one student.

Making Period Performance Fun

1. Translate things so people understand them.  You might have to tinker with the original rhyme or  meter.

2. Select pieces with modern appeal.

3. It's okay to massage a humorous piece so that it's funnier.

4. There's a spectrum:

Original -> Translated -> Excerpted -> Summarized -> Change verse form and/or variations to music -> Period material, period form, period music, new composition -> Period material, period form, modern music, new composition -> Period material, modern form, modern music, new composition

It's okay to not be at the far left of the spectrum.

Ba-dum-bum *pisssh*

Winter University Report

Overall: Thumbs up!  Largish (10-11), enthusiastic class.  Varied attendance: poets who wanted to learn a new form, poets who wanted to learn about performance, musicians interested in broadening horizons, and the casually curious.  Students were involved and asked questions, and participated gladly in the practicum parts.  Indeed, the actual writing and performing was singled out as being the best part of the class.

For next time: More examples.  Or any examples at all, really.  Somehow, the poems I'd printed out did not actually get packed, and there were not any examples in the class notes.  For an intermediate poetry class, I could probably rattle off meters and terms like alliteration and not give extensive examples, but this was for beginners, too.  And it became clear later that some of the concepts did not get across at all; my fault as teacher.  And I think examples would have gone a really long way to clearing that confusion up.

Minor bonus: One student was interested in hearing Wulf and Eadwacer.  I gave them my performance from Twelfth Night, minus the lyre, and nailed it pretty well. 

Winter University

I've been practicing the spiel in the car; I'm pretty happy with it.

Tonight: Copy class notes, buy pencils and paper.  Go over CDs, DVDs.  Tune harp and lyre.  Pack printouts, pencils, etc. into bag with books.  Select garb, pack kit.  Pack water bottle. (I always forget that.)  Get directions.

In theory, everything will be ready to grab-n-go Saturday morning.  I need to be on the road by 7:30am to make it there with margin; earlier if I want to get breakfast on the road.  Weather looks great.  Up to seven students.  Very excited!

Class Notes, ahoy!

Anglo-Saxon Poetry and Performance (link goes to a PDF) is ready to go, clocking in at 8 pages and 14 references, plus a handful of useful websites for future work.

Winter University

It's in one week!

I have a class handout drafted; it runs 11 pages with 14 footnotes and for some reason, two of the pictures just won't center.  Sigh.  If I can fix that, I may call it done and post it.

I have six students signed up; not bad for an obscure early-morning two-hour class.

Packing List:
Class Notes (10 copies)
Blank paper for poetic composition
Pencils (10)
Print-outs of Anglo-Saxon poems
Rosemarkie harp
Saxon lyre
Flute and recorder
Drum (?)
Wire roller basket to carry it all!

Optional Multi-Media:
Laptop
Beowulf DVD
Edda CD
Other relevant sound clips culled from Internet

To Do List:
Find good translations of Anglo-Saxon poems to print
Print them
Print/copy class notes
Buy pencils
Find/cue up relevant multimedia tracks on laptop

Anglo-Saxon Performance, Beta version

More generic documentation, done mostly from memory.  (Hey, I have a good memory.) 

I hope to spiff it up when I have more time.  So... 2014 sometime.