Category: bardic

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bardic Competition

Baronial Bard of Concordia of the Snows

This past Saturday was the Bjorn’s Ceilidh event up in Concordia, and it was my family’s first SCA event together since Pennsic. Things were a bit subdued with everyone processing the results of the presidential election, but it was really good to get a day with so many of our friends once more.

The Baron and Baroness held a competition to select their new Bardic Champion, and I elected to compete. Last year I was keeping my powder dry while preparing for King’s and Queen’s, but that meant I had expanded my repertoire a bit, and had some pieces in my pocket that hadn’t been seen yet.

Continue reading “Baronial Bard of Concordia of the Snows”
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bardic

Hosting a bardic circle this weekend

This Sunday, we will be hosting a bardic circle once more at our home in Paramus, from 1-6 pm. (Note that this is an hour earlier than we had been doing them, to make it easier for people to get dinner afterward.) Modern dress, come to perform or come to listen. (Email or PM me if you need the address. I will be sending it by PM to everyone who indicates on the event that they are interested or planning to go.)

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bardic

Bardic Manifesto

This evening, in response to a series of discussion threads in the SCA Bardic Arts group on Facebook, I felt inspired to issue something of a bardic manifesto. It was well received, and I think it is worth sharing here in full:

I want to say, as a bard who is not a Laurel…there are bardic Laurels who will defend to the death your right to write your own original SCA-appropriate material (or learn such material that other bards have written), and to perform it at appropriate venues, and that the number of venues where such material is completely appropriate is quite large. There are Laurels and non-Laurels who want to hear more period work being performed in the SCA. Be aware that these include some of the self-same Laurels I mentioned above.

And know too that I am acquainted with at least one Laurel who writes in Old Norse, and can be as fierce a curmudgeon around periodicity as anyone, and that guy writes (and performs) some of the funniest damn filks of Disney songs you’ve ever heard.

It does not have to be either/or. And you are not obligated to do both/and, if that’s not your bag right now.

I will defend to the death your right to perform what pleases you, trusting that (a) you will find others who are pleased by it, (b) you will grow as an entertainer if you want to grow, (c) there will be plenty of folks who will encourage you in valuable new directions over time, and (d) regardless of what people suggest, and regardless of what you choose to do, the Known World will continue to turn on its axis and we will all be just fine.

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bardic concert Pennsic Uncategorized

Pennsic Performances You Should Know About

Pennsic 45 begins this weekend. Before I head out, I wanted to mention that there are some wonderful friends of mine being showcased this year in the Performing Arts tent who don’t (or haven’t) regularly performed there. You should definitely check these folks out, if you’re wondering how to be profoundly entertained at War:

  • Monday August 8, 8-9 pm: Mar Yaakov HaMizrachi, Tales from “The Book of Delight”
    Tah Sh’ma! Come and hear! Storyteller Mar Yaakov HaMizrachi in performance of his reconstruction of the period work “The Book of Delight” by Yosef ben Meir Ibn Zabara. Zabara wrote this classic work of folk tales in about the year 1200 in Toledo, Spain. Hear how a clever fox seeks to trick a foolish leopard to his doom! Only the leopard’s wise wife stands between our Well Meaning but Foolish Hero and his certain death! In this contest of wit between a loving wife and a cunning foe, whose cleverness shall prevail?
    I wanted to mention this performance first because it’s a late addition to the schedule, and thus may not end up listed in the printed book.

    Continue reading “Pennsic Performances You Should Know About”

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bardic Pennsic

Pennsic 45 Bardic Arts Exhibition

For those who yearn to get a broad sampling of the Bardic Arts in one place and time during the daytime, I invite you to check out the Bardic Arts Exhibition, which is returning to Pennsic for the fourth consecutive year. This year it will happen on Monday, August 8 (War Week) from 1 – 4 pm in the Performing Arts Tent.

Master Efenwealt Wystle who founded the original Bardic Arts Exhibition at Pennsic in years gone by, has taken over organizer responsibilities from The Honorable Lady Lorelei Skye, and my intention is to continue to assist in helping bring this about in whatever capacity I may. So for starters, here’s a reminder that we  want performers to sign up for the event. Efenwealt’s signup form is a little simpler than what we’ve used in the last few years, so please take a few minutes to sign up.

 

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bardic SCA

Lyrics Sheet: “We Are the East”

Quick added item: In keeping with Duchess Caoilfhionn’s request to me to get the song out there, I printed out lyrics sheets for “We Are the East” at yesterday’s bardic circle, and we sang the song together. Everyone there knows that the song is intended to be shared with any who wish to learn it, as a people’s anthem for the kingdom.

One of the participants asked today online if there was a downloadable version. Yes. I’ve uploaded it now, and added a link to the song page. Please share freely. You can check out the YouTube video to learn the tune (I will upload a version to Soundcloud when I have the opportunity).

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bardic

Another Successful Bardic Circle!

We had over a dozen folks together for yesterday’s bardic circle in Paramus, sharing some of the oldest and newest songs in the SCA tradition, along side pieces from the period we study and some from slightly later. Wonderful performances, great conversation and camaraderie, bards stretching themselves, and focused and constructive feedback and encouragement where it was requested. I’m really enjoying seeing the bards of the EK Southern Region starting to put down roots and establish something together.

Over on the Facebook group we’re starting a discussion about where and when we will meet during the summer months. I hope to see some of you at those circles.

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bardic SCA

What’s Coming in May

A couple of notes for May:

  1. We will be hosting the next EK Southern Region bardic circle at our home on Sunday, May 15, from 2 to 7 pm. To get our street address, either email me at ericnjb at gmail dot com, or go to the Facebook event page and check off that you’re interested or planning to go. (I’ll send a group private message with the details a few days before the circle.)
  2. We’ll be at the Wars of the Roses (Concordia) Memorial Day weekend. I’ll be teaching a new class on how Elizabethan written works reflected attitudes about women (inspired by my reflections from back in March), and [see below] performing in the Roses bardic competition (the theme is “bawdy”–I’m working on a piece).

Hope to bump into some of you at one or both of these events.

[UPDATE: Preparing the class above is taking longer than I’d hoped, so I’m withdrawing it from Roses. I do still plan on teaching it at Pennsic.]

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bardic concert Pennsic period studies teaching

Updates for April

Last month was a whirl of activity (and posts), so I thought I’d quiet things down for a while. There are some things worth updating you about:

  • I am developing a couple of new classes to teach this summer. The first one is based on my research into the way men wrote about women in the Elizabethan period. I will be teaching it at the Wars of the Roses and Pennsic.
  • The second is called “The New Bard’s Road Map”, and I’ll be teaching it at Pennsic.
  • I am learning four new Elizabethan lute pieces, and hope to have one of them ready by Roses, and most of the others by Pennsic.
  • I have signed up for an hour-long concert at Pennsic, which will hopefully be at a new night and time. I am in touch with a few cool friends I hope to have performing with me, because it’s so much more fun that way. More details as we get closer.
  • Master Arden was kind enough to provide me with pretty much all the sheet music he wrote for Hidden Gold in its recorded and live-performed incarnations, and I have added these instrumental arrangements to my bardic work page as well as the individual song pages. (Note that, even if his arrangements don’t have it noted, I do have copyrights registered for all the songs.)

There are other developments, but it’s too soon to share them just yet. Stay tuned.

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bardic period studies poetry SCA

Reflection: Women, Power, and Period

I have learned that, in posting my poetry exercises, some readers took my response to the “Women in Power” topic as an indication of my personal attitudes about women in authority. I’m deeply saddened to hear that, and hope they accept my apologies for any offense. I have updated the post to better explain my intention, which was to write the piece from an Elizabethan perspective.

Of course, I fell far short in that. For any skill I may possess, I don’t imagine I could, in the space of one hastily-written sonnet, capture the complex feelings Elizabethans–men in particular–held about women in power. They lived, of course, at a time when women were expected to be subservient–everywhere except on the throne.

Continue reading “Reflection: Women, Power, and Period”