Mi Contra Fa

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.

Classes on deck:

Just some jottings in the old research log here:

A beginner's class on music notation and theory: Requested by Storvik MOAS Beatrix von Leipzig

Introduction to Saxon Lyre class: Possible replacement for A-S Performance class, there are interested parties

Still want to do How to Write a Medieval Song cheatsheet. 

University: Research Class

I did the Bardic Research class again at University, using feedback from my singular student at Highland River Melees.  I cut back on the goal-setting and literature search portions and included an extended example of how to work through preparing a period piece for performance.  The class self-identified as bards or musicians, so I didn't try to fit in too much on poetry and storytelling (although I dropped in one or two references or examples, to show how this stuff can apply to other forms).

Boy howdy, I talk fast when I present.  I covered material that, in practice, took 25-30 minutes in 20 minutes flat.  That apparently made me come off as nervous; maybe I was, although I felt comfortable.  Perhaps excited would be a better word.  At any rate - something to pay attention to in the future.

I forgot to hit the "form appropriate to material" gong, but oh well.  I mentioned style and genre in passing; I just didn't call them out for emphasis.  And if people start using lyric forms for narratives, know what? I can live with that.  Lyric forms are typically shorter and better suited to SCA-style performance.  Not that I'd have a problem with an abridged chanson de geste, but it would have to be abridged.  Any epic narrative form would be.  So you're tweaking no matter what.

Feedback was good.  The material was presented clearly and the ideas got across; better, the ideas were seen as good and useful. 

My only wish is that I'd been in the science classroom with the scientific method poster splashed across the back wall.  It's exactly the same thing as my "research process" poster.

Fall University

So the Anglo-Saxon Performance class didn't get picked up for University. Can't say I blame them too badly; there were a passle of other neat performing arts classes proposed to fill out that track, at a variety of levels.

Now, just wait for the day when we have enough PA&S resources/interest that we can fill two tracks, one with introductory material and one with obscure stuff!  Bwahaha!

Ahem.

So the A-S Performance project is tabled for the moment.  Although honestly, it's really just a matter of finding my citations at this point.  Unless, you know, I totally switch gears and do make it "Lyre and Poetry 201."  I don't know... I kind of like pointing out the differences between a gleoman and a scop, and how there's room for both kinds of performer.

The Research class moves forward, now with more resources for non-music people!

Oral Poetry: The Center for Studies in Oral Tradition
Medieval Narrative: Performing Medieval Narrative

Both sites have extensive bibliographies.

Plus for music theory:
Early Music FAQ

Don't know any especially good introductions to basic music theory on the Web; you can Google for it but I don't know which websites will appeal to which learners.  My hunch is that a learn-by-ear performer will have a better time of it if they partner or team with a real live person to introduce them to the concepts, anyway.

I'm paring the Goal-Setting and Literature Search portions of the class way down to focus more on Aspects of Performance. I will talk to a few major resources in the field, I think, but want to mostly focus on breaking down an oral performance into components you can document.  I need to revisit my organization for that section because I'm wandering when I hit it; right now, it's a big long list of stuff which isn't as navigable as something with a narrative to link it all together.