Mi Contra Fa

Royal Bardic Competition

Round One: Any piece
Augh!  What do you pick?  Funny, martial, romantic, original, period?

I should probably assume that this is a winnowing round, and a solid performance is what's needed.  I have my eye on "The Better Thief," a piece by an SCA author in the style of the 18th century "Pills to Purge Melancholy."  My lord husband recommends my original poem For Sylvanus Perrin, which (as I reread it)... yeah actually, I did a pretty nice job with that.  I'm just worried it'll be too close to what I have planned for Round Two.  Blind King John falls in the fray is another possibility.  I just really like that story.

Round Two: A documented period piece
No contest: Wulf and Eadwacer.  I've translated it poetically and I perform it with the lyre.  I do need to memorize it.  I'm frankly pleased as all get-out with the resulting performance; it's not "the usual," but I think it's unusualness makes it compelling.

Round Three: At Their Majesties' pleasure
Pretty much a wing and a prayer, here.  I should go over my repertoire and see what still works after years of forgetfulness.  Sometimes it's an easy one, like Love; I've heard it be as specific as "Spike," Atlantia's unicornate seahorse mascot.  Their Majesties are Viking, so I might brush up on things relating to that great son of Ecgtheow, pride of the Geats and slayer of monsters, as a source of Vikingish material.

Foiled by Oxford

"Alfonso X’s ‘Cantigas Project’ occupied most of his reign (1252-1284) and was seen by him as an important part of both his political survival and his personal salvation."  The Oxford Cantigas de Santa Maria Database.

So, not so much from 1000-1250. Drat.

Twelfth Night: Strategy

Tempore Atlantia: The cantigas are dated to the reign of Alfonso X, 1210 - 1284.  So they're at least partly in the current Tempore Atlantia category.  I document my translation decisions on "Non sofre" and in it can go.  It's not a strong entry, but what the heck?

Poeta Atlantia: The documented period form should clearly be Anglo-Saxon alliterative poetry; it will light a fire under my butt to pull together my generic documentation for it.  Time permitting, it should be a new piece, probably the eulogy for Rhiannon that I wanted to write for Chalice.  Time not permitting, it could be something I've already written (unless there's a rule against it?).

The poem for the queen I could do in the same style, to address personal research and performance goals.  To show breadth, though, I could do a virelai.  I can reuse some of the documentation from "Blind King John falls in the fray."

Duke Gyrth Oldcastle: Aheh.  This will probably fall off the back of the line.  If inspiration strikes, I can do something in couplets, but my mental stock of fabliaux themes and stories is low.

Royal Bardic: Do I: do what I usually do, my latest and greatest and least polished, or try with something old and tried and true?  I'm not sure what the guidelines are; I think it's something period, something original, and king's whim.  I could do Non Sofre, one of the pieces I'm pulling together for one of the other events, and, well, whatever the king asks for.

Twelfth Night Artsapalooza (and future events)

I had no idea so much was going on at Kingdom Twelfth Night!

King's and Queen's Bardic Championship: Knew about this one. Not sure if I want to compete.  There's always the chance of winning, and I'm not sure I have time to devote to the job.

Poeta Atlantia Competition: Requires two poems, one in a period style (with documentation) and another about the Queen of Atlantia.  I could not get it through my head that this was not poetry in performance.

Duke Gyrth Oldcastle Memorial Poetry Challenge (formerly Smackdown): This one is performance, and the theme is "fabliaux."  Chaucer's Miller's Tale?  Like that.

Tempore Atlantia, 1000-1250: I tend to forget that you can actually submit poetry to Tempore Atlantia.

Robin Hood and the Potter: Our debut, huzzah!  ...I should really contact an autocrat about this.

There's a University in February, then Kingdom A&S Festival in March, followed by Performer's Revel and the baronial bardic championship.  KASF will have performing arts.

Augh! So much to do, so little time!

GTP: Non sofre edits

Line-by-line fixes to problems in the first draft:

Refrain line 4: For she does not abandon her own children
Problem: Emphasis wrong on "children"
Resolution: Singing it... it doesn't strike me as being so bad, actually.  For now, I'll leave it.

Verse 2, Line 7: That's what he gave to the young serving girl
Problem: Musical emphasis turns this into YOUNG serVING girl
Resolution: "young girl serving," "young girl servant," "serving girl there"... I dislike nonce words (although I'll use them) so I tend to want to go with "young girl serving."  What's she serving? Dinner, clearly.  I'll run it past some other people to see if the meaning comes through.

Verse 3, Line 6: Yes they prayed that she might help them in this thing
Problem: Sounds vaguely gangster; "thing," like "stuff," is a word best avoided
Resolution: None as yet. It's not that bad and one of the goals for the GTP is to knock these pieces out quickly.  It's singable and the meaning is clear, so I'll leave it alone.

Verse 3, Line 8: That their dinner in full to her servants she'd bring
Problem: Flagged for scansion
Resolution: Was I smoking something? The line seems to scan fine this morning.

Verse 4, Line 6: That is dancing about inside of our trunk
Problem: Stress on "of" is awkward to sing
Resolution: "That is dancing about in our SOMEthing TRUNK" - traveling/trav'ling?  Hate to delete the syllable to force the fit.  "Baggage" is redundant.  "Leather"?  Or "wooden"?  What's a trunk made of?  Wood, probably.  "That is dancing about in our wooden trunk."

Verse 5, Line 3: If Mary gave me a pork chop to eat
Problem: Stress on "to" is bad form, possibly awkward
Resolution: If Mary gave me a tasty pork chop. 

Verse 5, Lines new 3, 5 and 7: "pork chop" in all
Problem: Musically stressed as "pork CHOP" instead of "PORK chop"
Resolution: This is a toughie.  Yesterday, I wrote with the assumption that either single syllable word, pork or chop, could take the stress. But you know, we say "PORK chop" pretty consistently.  I'll have to think about this one.

GTP: Non sofre rewrite

Again, it's a virelai or estampie-like in form, so the tune for the refrain is also the second part of each verse's melody.  This is the first draft.

Refrain:
Ho-ly Ma-ry⁰ will suffer not
That her true-hearted pilgrims be put on the spot
She hears their prayers and she will answer them
For she does not abandon her own children¹

This is a story of Mary's blessing
Miracle done all at her command
Nine of her pilgrims were walking onward
Visit her shrine is what they had planned



Darkness did fall so they all found an inn
To take meat and some bread and some good red wine
Nine hearty suppers from landlord they asked
Then to rooms for to pray went the faithful nine

Nine hearty suppers is what they asked for
Nine hearty suppers he did provide
That's what he gave to the young serving girl
She saw the food and her eyes opened wide
There was so much on the platter she held
So much bread and the wine and the nine pork chops
Good pious pilgrims do love charity
So she stole a fat pork chop from right off the top

Nine pious pilgrims sat down to dinner
Broke their white bread and they passed their wine
But when they went for to share their pork chops
Eight on the plate they found, not their nine
So they all prayed to the Virgin so fair
Yes they prayed that she might help them in this thing
Asked that she send them another pork chop
That their dinner in full to her servants² she'd bring

Knock-knocking, rapping sound, where's it come from?
I think it's coming from that trunk there
Open the trunk very slowly, slowly
What could be making the knocking there?³
See, it's a pork chop all juicy and fat
That is dancing about inside of our trunk
It is a miracle, nobody doubt
To her shrine we will take it, to give the monks

So they didn't eat the pork chop sent them
Took it with them to the shrine instead
If Mary gave me a pork chop to eat
I think I'd eat it with wine and bread!
But to her shrine they did take that pork chop
To her shrine where it hangs on a silken thread
Now it's a famous and holy pork chop
And no one will dare eat it with wine or bread⁴

0 - Two notes each on "Ho-" and "Ma-"
1 - Emphasis is wrong on children; music goes chil-DREN instead of CHIL-dren
2 - This should be a one syllable word and/or the line needs a rewrite
3 - "There" rhymes with "there."  Something needs a rewrite, possibly involving "dare" or "scare"
4 - Reusing the rhyme here, although it is echoing the earlier line, I think to some effect

GTP: Non sofre (Cantiga 159)

Working from the liner note translation of the Martin Best Ensemble and the original as found here.

If I'm parsing the language correctly at all, the refrain is two lines, 15 and 17 syllables.  Rhymes are aa. The verses are 14-14-15-17, with the last two lines being sung to the same melody as the refrain. Rhymes are bbba.

Each of those lines, musically, feels like it's two parts.

The tune, as I know it, does not have that many notes!  Zah?  Listening to the recording isn't much of a help - they go so fast I can't make out which words they are singing, let alone to which notes.  If anything, I expected melismas (several notes per syllable) in some places.

Approach taken is "good enough for folk music," at least for the first draft.  I'll put a "/" in to denote where the musical break is in each line, because there's a lot of stretching and melismas going on. I'll also boldface the syllables that fall on stressed notes.

Refrain (needs work):
Ho-ly Ma-ry will suffer not / Her loy-al pil-grims be put on the spot (x2)

(Each half of the  line should actually be its own line, rather than just repeating the refrain.)

There is a miracle that I'd like to / Tell you all about, listen well
('that I'd like to' is asking for rhythmic trouble)
That Holy Mary had a hand in / That's the story, as I heard tell
Nine praying pilgrims, Rocamador bound / where the monks and the nuns live in their cells
(stress on "in" isn't good form)
Simply and humbly they went over land / very simply and humbly as good Christians ought

Then in the e-ven-ing, lodgings found they / Entered town and found an inn
(Not happy with inverted word order)
Meat and bread is what they asked for / Supper ordered for all within
Wine for their drink, but then they all got up / to their rooms where they prayed to the fair Virgin
(It's Virgin, not Virgin)
To beg her, to beg her Son to attend / and to hear all their prayers and their pious thoughts

Hrm.  The next two verses have five lines... what?

Also, a close translation is proving... slightly stodgy.  There's too much set-up and not enough dancing pork chop.  (And way too much religion for the comfort of many Scadians, although there's also an element of 'why is that my problem?' there.)

Maybe the best thing would be for me to take the overall story and rewrite it in the details, using the same tune.  My very own Hollywood adaptation.

Feliz Navidad

A Spanish Christmas at the Folger Library, December 12-21, tickets $40.  Music is from the 16th and 17th centuries.

I find that Spanish music of that era simply rocks.  I have yet to buy a CD of late Renaissance/early modern Spanish music that I thought was fusty or boring.  I have been allowed a Mom's Night Out and will be seeing this on the 17th or 18th!

Saxon Songs

Carol Wood has put out a new book called Saxon Songs, which is a compilation of information on Anglo-Saxons, their harps and their poetry.  She's got a PhD in Medieval Literature, apparently, and is also the person behind the Chaucer Songbook, which I have heard praised to the skies but never purchased (my interest in 14th cen music not being all that strong). 

While I am fairly sure I have read all or most of the primary sources for Anglo-Saxon harp information, I am still eager to see what another scholar has made of it.  The book also includes her settings for some of the poems, and again, I'd like to see what conclusions she's drawn and how they compare to what I do.