Arts and Sciences Competition

[Steve Hendricks]

Maire writes:
>Sorry, but the decision about the performance competition was made by the
>Kingdom A+S minister and  NOT the autocrat for Kingdom A+S, I think you
>owe an apology
>
> you may want to email the person responsible directly:
>        Master Thomas of Tenby: SERE55A at prodigy.com

I must ask forgiveness of the Kingdom A&S autocrat.  I do not mean to 
disparage them in any way (actually I do not mean to disparage anybody in 
any way).  I do not think the idea of having the musicians judged by the 
Crown is a terrible idea, I merely think that music should be judged 
similarly to the other A&S.  Now, I believe a conscientious Crown will get 
advisors (as per Sir Kein and Master Cynric) to aid them in their decisions. 
 So perhaps the point is moot.  Just have all the competitions judged by the 
Crown and all will be fair again (or at least equal).

A couple of people mentioned that music *should* be judged by popular 
opinion.  I submit to you that this is blatantly unfair.  If I want to win 
purely on the popularity of performance, I would play a lot of 18th century 
Celtic ballads.  These seem to be very popular in the SCA (and at 
Renaissance festivals - sorry, pet peave) and would certainly go a long way 
toward pleasing a lot of people.

And, sorry, I did not mention in my last posting that a "boring" but 
technically difficult piece would lose to a lively, wonderful piece. 
 "Boring" is a very subjective word.  I have heard many pieces that may have 
seemed a bit lackluster at first hearing them (example - The Bothy Band's 
"The Death of Queen Jane") that now bring tears to my eyes.  Music is very 
susceptible to one's mood.  If you are in a party mood, "Louie, Louie" would 
probably excite you more than *any* period song, especially any love song or 
pious ballad.  But I'm still not going to play it for you.  I hope you 
understand.  After all, I still don't know the words.

Now, a certain person also responded to my mentioning that we would be doing 
some carols at the next Bryn Gwlad Music Guild in preparation for our Yule 
Revel.    He objected to Christian music in rather strong terms.

Well, considering that most music was written down in the middle ages by 
monks, it is somewhat more difficult to find music worshipping pagan gods. 
 I keep looking for druid songs carved into trees, but they seem to have not 
survived.  Fortunately, some of the monks were into sex, drugs and 
rock'n'roll, so we have some secular songs that survived from them.  Also we 
have the troubadors and trouveres, but they were, by and large, Christians 
also.  So we have secular songs, but not many non-Christian sacred songs. 
 Besides, if they are performed in middle or old English, French, Latin, 
German, Spanish, etc, how do you know they are not about the Norse gods?  As 
long as we are pretending to be in the Middle Ages, you can pretend that, 
too.  Perhaps we could even wear those funny viking hats with horns when we 
sing.

As a non-Christian, I have learned to take the overflow of Christmas music 
from Halloween on with a pillar of salt.  But, as a dedicated musician, I 
plan to distribute period music that many will never have heard.  And, of 
course, some that people have heard and did not know were that old.  I still 
cannot decide about "Good King Wenceslas," which was a medieval Spring song 
"Adeste floridum" or something like that.

Of course, I will not be playing to the popular taste by omitting all those 
Victorian carols that some will want to hear.  Thank goodness we will not be 
in a popular competition.

Darned if you do and darned if you don't, eh?

Still yours in musical service,
Samuel
steveh at austin.wayne.com