Re: Barrett's

[Wynn Klosky <klosky@meeker.UCAR.EDU>]

Poster: Wynn Klosky <klosky@meeker.UCAR.EDU>



The gracious and Honourable Lord Bryce de Byram wrote:

<snip><top of the page inserted below>

>    OR: In Ostrgard's encampment(New York City) several of the
> old-timers there knew Niall, thru his father, John Townley of the
> Ex-Seamen, who used to play in town regularly, and those folks
> would ask us each time we came there to perform non-period
> sea-chanties and folk songs. We obliged, of course, as they were
> our patrons, and because we do those songs anyway. Also tho,we
> performed our regular stuff(period,and Real-Close stuff). Which
> they enjoyed as well.But we couldn't really say to them,naw,
> we're gonna do just the stuff we want to hear.It is the Bards job
> to educate and sing period stuff, but it's also the Performer's
> job to be entertanting, and in the SCA, in Atlantia, often that
> includes stuff like Barretts.(which I would like to see people
> sing less simply because i'm tired of it... and I haven't really
> ever bothered to learn the words...someone else will sing it
> anyway, cos' it's usually requested....(see the top of the page
> :)...).
<top of the page sez:>
>      I'll tell you what, at some event in the future i'll start
> singing both and we'll see how many people join in on them.:)
> Your enivroment should always dictaite your performance(that goes

I disagree. It is the studious bard's duty to perform appropriate
music within the environment. This means a bard of any status,
who will be looked to as a source for appropriate music AND how
to behave, should NEVER launch into California Girls in the middle
of the event just because it is something everyone knows, or even
Barrett's Privateers.

Now, God knows Pennsic is a greased pig if you are trying to 
get a handle on where the "center" of the event is, and if nice
folks that you go to sing for IN THEIR OWN CAMP want you to sing Niall's
dad's group's sea chanties, by all means go for it, so long as you educate
them while you do it so they don't mistakenly think it is OOP.
I will plead guilty myself to singing a song to El Pinko to the
tune of Galway Bay in our camp one year (naturally, El Pinko was
NOT in our camp, you see, it was merely Guido, but in the dark you can
understand my confusion...)

My response to Alfredo conveys what I think is an important duty
of musicians: CREATING the atmosphere. If someone asks a bard to
sing Barrett's Privateers in the middle of the hall, s/he should
just say no. The audience is NOT always right -- this is NOT a gig,
this is an event. Expand your repertoire to include songs that 
convey similar mood. Tell the requestor that you'll be happy to
sing BP for them on the way home or at the post-revel (or at their
cabin or camp if it is a long camping event and you CAN get away --
I remember that camping events are not nearly as common in Atlantia
as crash-space events, is it still true?), but that you have Thus
and Such that you will be happy to sing instead.

You are correct that it is the performer's duty to entertain the
audience but NOT at the expense of compromising the fabric from
which an appropriate backdrop for the event can be made.

And please do not argue, "Why should I be the one being a hardnose
when down the way someone is singing 'Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring,
the Rock Musical'? And this lady here is wearing plastic shoes?"
My mother always told me, "Change begins with you." Know what?
She was right. She is STILL right. And what she was saying, that
applies here too, in most of the times she said that, is that I
was in a position of some esteem whereby I could lead BY EXAMPLE.
And that's all the weapon we can go armed with in the SCA, too.

Yes, research. Yes, teach. Yes, entertain. But leave Stan Rogers
back at camp in your dufflebag with your dungarees.

branwynn ottersby
=======================================================================
List Archives, FAQ, FTP:  http://sca.wayfarer.org/merryrose/
            Submissions:  atlantia@atlantia.sca.org
        Admin. requests:  majordomo@atlantia.sca.org