Bards - Competitions

[jonwillowpel at juno.com]

Hi this is Willow
I am a Laurel so I am supposed to state that documentation of
style/material is the most important thing but I don't agree with that.
In my personal opinion prowess in performance come first and then comes
the spirit of the SCA and then comes documentation of style/material.
Prowess is the first of the knightly virtues because with prowess comes
success and the opportunity to show Largess and Mercy. Prowess in bard
craft comes first because with it comes the ability to open windows and
allow people to understand the past and feel the magic of our kingdom. It
allows people to enjoy period work. The old Queen's Bard had a sliding
scale. Being entertaining was very important and doing performances in
the spirit / period was important too. Ideally the best bard was one who
was totally entertaining and totally historical correct but we understood
that this ideal was hard to achieve so we balanced our performances as
best we could. I will say the striving created some wonderful evenings. 

Different competitions serve different purposes. All competitions are
suppose to promote the arts but the competition at an A&S is for the
purpose of promoting historical proper arts while a title bard
competition is for finding a performer who will keep the dreams of the 
kingdom and area alive. Some competitions are simply there to promote
entertainment for the populous. The structure of the competition must
match the purpose of the competition. To use one format in all situations
is to fail over half of the time. Sometimes the purpose is best filled by
no competition. 

I would ask you why are you having these competitions?

Living is performing 
Willow de Wisp
> personal
On Wed, 12 Jan 2000 18:17:42 -0600 Marlin Stout <ldcharls at swbell.net>
writes:
> I'm curious about what the bards of this Kingdom think about
> competitions. 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. 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?
> 
> Ld Charles MacKinnon
> Bryn Gwlad
>
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