ANST - Documenting Original Performance Art

[Gunnora Hallakarva]

Karl Muller <apophysis at hotmail.com> asked:
> question. how do you document when your song, story or
> poem is your own composition?
> km

If an original song, story, or poem is appropriate in any way for performance within the SCA, then it should be documentable.

You should be able to document some (ideally all) of the following at least:

(1) period form (i.e., ballad, sonnet, oral delivery of Norse alliterative poetry, rondelay, virelay, etc., etc. ad infinitum)

(2) period performance technique (i.e., no vibrato, opening a Saxon poem with a loud and resounding "Hwaet!", specific period dance
steps, period harmonic technique, period instrument technique etc. etc. ad infinitum)

(3) period content (i.e., topic and content of the piece is similar to actual medieval poems, songs, dnace etc.)

If you are not using at least one of these three items, then your piece probably doesn't belong in an SCA venue.

DOCUMENTING PERIOD FORM
To document period form, generally you have to pick out the form BEFORE you compose the piece -- probably the most pathetic
documentation I've ever seen (and I mean pathetic in the sense of I really felt sorry for the poor artisan, as opposed to the
documentation just being sorry) has been for people who wrote a poem out of the blue with no regard for form or previous research, and
are after the fact trying to find a period poetic form that is similar enough to what they wrote to use as documentation.

In cases where you wrote the piece, and then find that you cannot locate a period form that is in anyway similar, seriously consider
adapting your work for an actual period form.  I had a bunch of "heroic fantasy" poetry that I wrote before I became interested in the
SCA.  Once I discovered the SCA, I found that a lot of this poetry had similar content and themes as Norse, Old English, and Finnish
poetry, so I actually sat down and re-wrote almost all of that early poetry, following the proper forms.  It was fun to do.  For one
thing, I was much more mature when I undertook to rework the poetry, so aspects which were very juvenile could be happily discarded.
Plus, being forced to hammer the loose original verses into a specific form forced me to be more precise in my word choice, and I
think made for much better poetry in the end.  I am not a wordsmith -- I admit it, I'm a hack -- but I aspire to being a wordsmith of
the caliber of Thomas of Tenby or Mari ferch Rathyen.  And while wordsmithing requires discipline, I found it was also rewarding and
best of all, fun.

And before anyone starts tearing their hair and shrieking that there ARE no period forms that they like, there are SO many different
forms available out there, ANYONE can find at least one period form that they like and work well in.  WHY limit oneself to writing
that darned Hallmark Greeting Card doggerel of four lines to a verse, end-rhymed ABAB, CDCD, EFEF and so on?  There are so many
exciting forms out there that can be used to great dramatic effect in a performance!

PERIOD PERFORMANCE TECHNIQUE
I've heard people state with great conviction that there is no way to document period performance technique.  My answer is "Pshaw!"
Actually, you might be VERY surprised at what can be documented in the way of period performance technique.  I found a really
fantastic paper a while back in a journal called "Literature in Performance" by a man named Dwight Conquergood on Anglo-Saxon poetic
boasting as a performance art, which used Beowulf and The Battle of Maldon to illustrate some common performance techniques that can
be used to very good advantage when performing ANY early Norse or German or Anglo-Saxon boast, poem, story, song, etc.  And there's
lots more interesting literature about early period Old English performance (buried in scholarly discussions about music and meter).
And the same "Literature in Performance" journal no doubt has many other equally useful articles for other cultures and periods.

I'd be interested in hearing from performers what other documentation they have found for period performance technique.

PERIOD CONTENT
As a note, it's probably not enough that your piece have dragons and knights in it to *really* be able to say that you're using period
content.  For example, if you had a poem about some knight feeling sorry for a poor dying dragon and they become fast friends until
the dragon dies etc., you're probably going to have a VERY hard time finding a similar story in any form during the period -- this is
a fairly modern fantasy type of idea.

The best way to make sure that your original pieces have period content is to actually read poetry and literature from the period.
That will give you a feel for typical poem and story themes that you can then use for your own works.  The Catalog of Folklore Motifs
is a great place to find plots for performance pieces as well.

If you want your performance works to "ring true" you have to capture the essence of actual works of the period, even in totally
original works.  For instance, those who are familiar with Master Ragnar Ulfgarsson's work, "Dragon's Gold"
(http://lonestar.texas.net/~rferrell/rsdraggo.html) will quickly recognize that the original tale does not use an actual period form,
yet the content uses themes which are very period, and would be recognized as familiar by many medieval audiences.  Ragnar captured
the flavor of Norse and Anglo-Saxon poetry by using elements of speech and image actually used in the sagas and Eddas.  Furthermore,
though there are no Norse tales told first person from the dragon's point of view, anyone in Northern Europe would have been familiar
with the story of Fafnir, a man become dragon. (see http://lonestar.texas.net/~rferrell/rstoc.html for the complete texts of Ragnar's
poetry)

The moral of the story...

The moral of all of this documentation information is that it is best to read a little *before* you compose your original work -- it
not only makes it easier to document your work, but it also makes your work better by allowing you to incorporate more period
techniques, themes, and forms.

None the less, even if you *didn't* do any research before composing your piece, it may very well be possible to document it anyway --
it's just a little harder.

This should get you started.

::GUNNORA::

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