Drake OranwoodI started this post back on Monday of War Week, but Pennsic kept happening, and on our return home, mundane life (particularly my job) pulled me right back in. Much as I wanted to do a detailed diary of Pennsic, and/or a lengthy gratitude list, I’m going to resist the impulse because:
I will post about my experiences at Pennsic when I get home. I will note that I did get several requests for lyrics and/or music to songs I performed during the war. (Bardic squee.)
As of now, all of my original pieces performed during Pennsic 42 have their lyrics posted, including “Lady of the Rose”. I will attempt to put up recordings or videos of performances the songs as soon as I can, for any who wish to perform them.
No one needs to ask my permission to perform one of my songs–there is no higher compliment a songwriter can be given. Please credit me as the author (as Drake Oranwood if you’re in the SCA)…and if you dropped me a note after you performed one for the first time, I would be delighted to hear about it (though that isn’t required).
So, I finally found the WordPress iPhone app. Given that I do most of my writing these days on my iPhone, that’s very cool.
I’ve been trying to manage my writing process better since I committed myself to bardic just about a year ago (a few months before I set up this site and the Facebook group). By “better”, I mean “make it more convenient to write, easier to find my stuff, easier to share my stuff, and less likely to lose my stuff”. And since I first got an iPhone in my hands last year, that has meant (as so many of you have probably already found) doing it on my iPhone.
I know–I don’t write, I don’t call… What have I been up to?
So I haven’t posted since December. Bad bard. Bad, bad bard. Well, busy bard. Which is good. (And it’s not like the handful of you out there aren’t catching all of this on Facebook anyway.)
Still, what’s the point of a “blog” about my “bardic career” if I don’t take the time to post about said “career” when I’m actually “doing things” in it? Probably because I have the grace to be at least uncomfortable with the implicit narcissism involved, but if I can deal with it, I trust you can too (or you’ll stop reading, and we’ll all just have to find a way to cope).
I’ve been playing with GarageBand a bit today, with a bit better understanding of how to get vocals mixed, and with the advantage of a USB microphone (thanks, love, for getting me “Beatles Rock Band” two years ago!). In addition to some actual Bardic work (to be shared when the time is right), I finally tackled the vocals for my hitherto-unrecorded epic rock song “House of Dancers”.
Now you can finally hear the song Spiny Norman was never ready to bring onstage, as best I can record it on my own.
Edit (2/3): Re-uploaded the file I’d apparently deleted when I was trying to improve the mix. Don’t think I succeeded, but at least the s0ng is back on the site, and I corrected the links.
So I’ve cranked out another new song this week (“Changeling”), and hope to record an a version of it so that I can share it in the “Works in Progress” section within the next few days (still finalizing the tune). It’s exciting to feel the rust coming off the hinges, as I’m starting to be able to compose new pieces in shorter order without having to be at an event like Pennsic to get the wind in my sails (O, the mixed metaphors!). More are on the way.
An intriguing thought strikes me, as I near the completion of the first draft of a new song. To the extent that form follows content (yes, Mr. Sondheim, to the best of my ability), it feels right now as if process follows form. My recollection of getting my handful of Bardic songs to date on the page, the process of working through each one feels as if it mirrored the nature of the song. “The Bastard’s Tale” came out quickly, rushing to the page, hot, angry, and urgent, impatient to get to the point. “My Thirst” lurched drunkenly to and fro during the writing, staggering for a day through the wrong tune, which had to be rewritten, shortening every line by a couple of syllables–this had the effect of tightening the jokes and making the song easier to sing as if inebriated, but at the time the rework was a touch like a hangover. “Call Me Will”, whose concept had eluded me for over a year, was coy and required stalking for a few weeks even after it took shape. It took patience and guile to lure it into place, but once I had it pinned, I was surprised at how little rewriting it actually required–it more or less sank right into the page in the end.
