Drake OranwoodSo, I got to return to the SCA and my kingdom with both feet yesterday at Bjorn’s Ceilidh up at our second home, Concordia of the Snows. I probably need to explain how it is that this happened, since it was not in anyone’s plans at the start of the day…
So let’s rewind. (Lyrics to the filk here.)
I wish to share in this space that, as of this summer, I have made a permanent change to the lyrics of “Lady of the Rose”, and added a footnote to the page explaining the change. The lines that said “Open your petals to fullest display” now read “Bloom in the sunlight to fullest display”. Someone I care about shared with me that the original lines carried sexual undertones that made her uncomfortable hearing the song, though she knew that was not the intent. Whatever else one may feel about the piece, that sort of discomfort has no place in it, so I have made this change accordingly. This is the only version of the lyric I will perform going forward, and I invite anyone else who enjoys the song to adopt this change as well.
[EDIT: I have also updated the song notes at the bottom of the page to reflect that, while it is overwhelmingly composed of women, the Order of the Rose is in fact gender neutral.]
I’ve added the song page for “Plant Your Feet” to the site. More to come.
This morning, I finished adding closed captions to the other performances from this year’s concert and published them. [EDIT: Rather than display the individual videos, here’s a link to the complete concert, in set list order.]
This is a new piece first performed at Pennsic. Lady Angela Mori won a commission from me in a fundraising auction last fall, and asked me to write a song of praise for her daughter Thora, who is brilliant, sweet, loving, and neurodivergent (very much like my son Spencer). I was honored by the opportunity to compose this piece, and consider it a rare privilege. The song page will be forthcoming in the next few days.
I’ve put up the first few videos from my Pennsic concert. I wanted to get the newer pieces out first (although the lute pieces came out really well, so I made sure to get those up also.) Enjoy!
Hi everyone! We just got home from Pennsic yesterday, and to my surprise, as we began packing out, I felt a song coming on, and I went with it. So, as my way of thanking all of you for being part of my SCA experience, I’m breaking all my normal “rules” and sharing it with you right now. This is a quick a Capella vocal cut of the song, and it captures my experience of Pennsic this year, which involved my stretching a bit and doing more things that weren’t necessarily Bardic. (No, I still didn’t actually drink, but since the vast majority of adults I hung out with did, it’s still an indelible part of my experience of the War.)
I will set up a standard song page for this later (along with the other new songs I brought to the war, and class notes, and video from the concert–I promise I’ll get to it). But for now…enjoy!
The Oranwood clan will be on the road to Pennsic this evening. Some of the places you can find me this War:
As for music:
Hope to see you at War!
So there’s a little last-minute project that came up, and I wanted to share. Someone asked on Facebook how they could get a songbook that has all the Sing for the East songs on it. (Most of the songs on the album were written after the publication of the 2004 songbook, which we now refer to as “Volume 1”. Volume 2 is in the works, and will include the rest of the songs, but it will also include a good deal of other music, and is still many months away from completion.)
The East Kingdom’s 50 Year celebration is this week, from Thursday to Sunday. I am looking forward to it, and want to mention a few things if you’re going to be be there:
Click here for the EK 50 site map. (The Stage is next to the A&S Classrooms, but you’ll probably need to zoom in to see it.)
Hope to see you there!
Drake Oranwood