[Bards] Regarding Documentation and the Recent Eisteddfod

[Brian & Pam Martin]

To All,
 
Okay, I required some documentation for the Eisteddfod and I knew that doing
so would upset some people and would simply turn others off. So be it; the
competition was mine to run and I ran it as I thought best. Following are my
reasons for requiring documentation and what I in fact required.
 
Why I required documentation:
 
It is my opinion that the performance arts in Ansteorra are lacking in
authenticity. Now I couldn't care less about the authenticity of
performances given at bardic circles. Bardic circles are for fun and don't
need to be strictly authentic, but I think that we could and should do a
better job of exploring authenticity in competitions, especially the
competition that determines the Premier Bard of the kingdom. As I've asked
before; you wouldn't expect to enter Kingdom A&S without documentation would
you? Would you submit an entry at the Kingdom A&S that you knew came from
the 18th century? I think not. Why then would you expect to be able to do so
at Kingdom Eisteddfod? We're supposed to be a medieval recreation group,
right? Shouldn't the things that we recreate be medieval? I've heard many
people use the excuse that the static and performance arts are different,
and I agree that they're different. But why should one be expected to be
authentic and the other one not? There is also the fact that performers must
be able to document their work if they ever want to represent Ansteorra and
compete at Gulf War and I wanted to give more people the opportunity
practice writing documentation. Finally, I wanted to challenge some people.
Let's face it; it's easy to get in a rut and do comfortable things, but
rarely do great things come from that. I hoped that by being required to
document some of their performances at Eisteddfod, some folks might discover
something new and cool and that they might actually have fun learning
something new. 
 
What I actually required:
 
Some of you who are reading these posts but weren't at the competition may
be under the impression that I required research paper length documentation.
Okay, I may be a laurel, but I don't have time to read that much
documentation. All that I required was that two pieces be documented. That's
it. I also posted a guideline for documenting (re-posted below) in which I
clearly stated that a person's documentation should cover the important
questions of Who, What, When, How and Why (when relevant). You should be
able to do that in less than a page. Never did I suggest that a great
dissertation was required or even wanted. I also encouraged people to write
to me if they had further questions about documentation, and some did. 
 
So there you have it; I required some documentation at the competition to
choose the Crown's bard. I guess that makes me an evil laurel authenticity
Nazi. But you know what? I've been magically transported to wonderful places
many a time in the SCA, and it was always when someone was doing something
wonderfully period (or in a period style) and very well done. Whether it was
Thomas doing The Song of Roland or Ragnar performing skaldic poetry, those
are the types of performances that tend to live in memory through the ages
of the society. (Shoot, we even got people to sit through an entire two hour
Shakespearean play!) And you know what else? You might try researching and
performing authentic pieces and find out that it can be fun. And finally, I
want to stress again that I'm only talking about competitions. Who cares if
a bardic circle is authentic as long as its fun?
 
You may agree or disagree with me but I should hope that differing views can
be tolerated in our society and at the very least we can agree to disagree. 
 
Yours,
Pendaran
 
 
A guide to documenting performance (reprinted from 12/1/03 from the Bards
list)
 
  I.      Is verbal documentation okay? 

 

Verbal documentation is, in my opinion, largely useless. Giving verbal
documentation may tell your judges and audience what you're performing, and
possibly who wrote it and when, but that is the absolute bare bones of
documentation and it doesn't provide sources from which you can verify the
accuracy of the documentation. Documentation should give more than the
basics, it should dig more into the details of what you're performing, but
there will be more on that later. There are also no sources available when
presenting verbal documentation and it does little to spread your knowledge
of the work that you are performing. 

 

 

             II.      What should go into your documentation?

 

In general judges want to know that you know what you're talking about. If
you can answer the important questions of Who, What, When, Where, How and
sometimes even Why, then you have successfully documented your performance
piece. For example, if you can document what the piece is (example, a 12th
century chanson or a 16th century sonnet), who wrote the piece that you're
performing (if known), when it was written, where is was written (different
cultures had different styles of the same types of poetry and it can be
important to explain the differences), how is important, (as in the meter,
rhyme scheme and so forth). Sometimes even the question of why the piece was
written can be important, or at least interesting, information to include in
your documentation - especially if the piece was written for a particular
reason or for a particular person. 

 

Something that most people don't know is that judges love it when they learn
something when reading documentation. Remember that many times the person
who is judging your performance is not a performer, or not primarily a
performer, themselves. Even if your judge is a performer, they may not
specialize in your type of performance. Therefore the judge may not know
much about the piece that you're performing or about your art form in
general. If you can educate your judge on your subject, you will very likely
get a good score on your documentation. 

 

            III.      How long should it be?

 

The proper length of documentation has been widely debated amongst the
laurels in the kingdom for some time. This is not to say that everyone needs
to try to become a laurel or that if you want to become a laurel that you
need to necessarily worry about the length of documentation. Rather, it's
merely recognition of the fact that you are most likely to be judged by a
laurel and of the fact that the laurels generally set the standards for arts
in the SCA. 

 

Some people think that documentation should be kept to a minimum - even to
keeping it to 3x5 cards. Others want to see several pages of documentation
while still others prefer the happy medium of two or so pages. Some people
play it safe and provide both long and short versions of their
documentation. In the end, the documentation is yours and it's up to you how
long you make it. The length of the documentation is also largely determined
by the subject. If you're writing about sonnets, you will have a wealth of
information that can be found and conveyed in your documentation, but if
you're performing something more obscure, there may be less information on
the subject. In the end, it's more important to be sure that your
documentation is factual and explains your work to your judges. 

 

         IV.      Is the internet a good source?

 

As time goes by, the internet is becoming a more reliable source for
research, but you should steer clear of using it as your only source. The
reason for suspicion regarding the internet is simply because you can't
truly count on the reliability of many of the sites. However, if you stick
to collegiate sites you're safe. Still, you can't beat the reliability of
good books and authoritative authors. I strongly recommend that you include
books and journal articles in your research in addition to the internet. 

 

 

 

           V.      Get feedback from the judges

 

While this isn't actually about writing documentation, being sure to get
feedback from your judges can greatly help you improve your documentation. A
judge's job should be more than determining a person's score, it should be
helping the person to improve their performance and their documentation. So
be sure to get commentary from your judges. If there is insufficient
commentary on your score sheet, call, and talk to or email your judges and
ask for commentary and suggestions. If the judge is insightful and
knowledgeable about A&S, they can give you great tips for how to improve
your documentation. If however, you disagree with the comments that you get,
just smile, say thanks and forget about it - especially if you asked for the
comments. Most of the time, however, if you have an experienced judge,
you're likely to get good commentary that will help you to improve your
documentation. 

 

         VI.      Explain things even if you think its obvious

 

There will undoubtedly be aspects of your performance that you will think
are well known or obvious and that don't need to be explained, but remember
that your judge may not know anything about your art form. A perfect example
comes from the first time I wrote documentation for a sonnet. I stated that
English sonnets were written in Iambic Pentameter and figured that everyone
knew what iambic pentameter was. In their commentary on my score sheet, the
judges asked me to explain iambic pentameter. Sure they remembered learning
something about iambic in high school, but they didn't remember exactly what
it was and they wanted to know. So every time you use a poetic or musical
term - even if you think that they term is common place - you should define
it and site your source. Terms such as foot, measure and alliteration are
perfect examples. Remember, you have the chance to teach the judge something
and that's something that judges love.  

 

        VII.      Explain variances 

 

One good general rule when writing documentation be it for performance or
other wise, is to explain any variances in what you're doing. By that, I
mean that if you do something different from the way it was done in period,
you should state in your documentation that you've done so and explain why.
If you're performing a song as a spoken piece rather than singing it because
you (like I), can't sing, then just say so in your documentation. It also
helps if you can prove in your documentation that what you are doing was
done in period. 

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