Bards - Competitions

[Larry E. Bishop]

Thank you, Lord Charles for your inquiry.  Master Lucais sends greetings to
the Lyst.

I'm on my way out of town, so I'm only giving a brief response to your post.
However, it's one I didn't want to let pass.

> I'm curious about what the bards of this Kingdom think about
> competitions.

Although our style of competitions is totally out of period, I really love
them.  Perhaps it is the adrenalin that sharpens my skills.  But I do better
when the competition spirit is at it's highest.  My best venues are the
toughest ones...competitions and feast halls.  However, I seldom compete
anymore for personal titles.

> I have recently been asked to put on two competitions, and
> wonder what other bards think should be the main consideration in a
> competition, performance or documentation of style/material.

As a judge, I look for both, weighing each about equally.  As a performer I
do both.  Always our pieces should be documentable to period or in
documentable period style.  We are after all, a historical re-enactment
group.  However, we do not have to sacrifice performance for authenticity.
I built quite a reputation performing documentably period bawdy tavern
peices.  Crowds love them (when performed in appropriate situations) and
they are period.  Like figure skating, bardcraft should tax both our
technical and artistic skills.

Sometimes the nature of the competition will dictate certain protocols.  For
example a competition to title a baronial bard should rely heavily on period
research and documentation.

> My personal opinion is that the focus should be on performance, since the
main aim
> of bardic is to entertain. What does everyone else think?

In early Europe, the main responsibility of the Druidic/Welch bard was to
record and tell the history, not necessarily to entertain. Only after the
great slaughter of the bards in the 10th century did the focus dramatically
change to pure entertainment.  As historians, some of the bards became too
political and used their influence too carelessly, writing good history
about the folks they liked and telling bad stories about the ones they
disliked.  One of the bad guys rounded them up and slaughtered them.
Performance then became a passtime of the aristocracy, the purpose was to
impress, not necessarily to entertain, and certainly not around a campfire.
The purpose of the 12-13th century troubador or the minstrel was to
entertain, and to avoid any topics political, much of their work revolved
around unrequited love and other "less risky" topics.

Whenever I am judging I look for period work and expect good performance.
That is thorough entertainment.  Filk, like foul language and spitting on
the ground, should never be done in public!  But that's another topic.

Lucais

Baron Lucais du Belier, OL
mka Larry E. Bishop
1119 SW 66th Street
Oklahoma City, OK  73139-1505
(405) 631-2301
LucaisduBelier at worldnet.att.net



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