[Bards] Circle categorization: A rather long and tawdry attemp to delineate circles into ovals and strange attractors (was: Situations That Ruin Bardic Circles)

Mon Apr 30 06:22:57 PDT 2007

Actually, I have several show-starters up my sleeve.  It's one of my charms.

I'll take this opportunity to make a shameless plug for King's College,
where Mistress Saundra will give a class on bardic circles and their general
maintenance (my description, not hers, hers is much more eloquent) as well
as other classes on the art of performing.  June 8th - 10th in Stargate at
Camp Camwood.  

I think we, as a group, need to understand that there are 5 basic types of
bardic circles (and having come up with a finite number, I'm certain that
there are those of you out there who are going to add your addendums,
widgets, and protocols.  It's okay. I'm used to it ;-)):

The First-Timer's Circle - give talent a chance to spring forth - I like to
think of this as a very relaxed circle, where everyone knows each other,
there are a few listeners, and new performers are encouraged to chime in.
It is a coarser circle, sometimes more coaxing and cajoling than others, but
rewarding when people finish and listen to huzzahs and applause for what
they've done for the first time.  

The Performance Circle - this is the talent show - where everyone's come to
listen to bards bring forth their best.  The bards have gathered to
entertain and maybe find something they can steal/borrow/use.

The Sing-Along Circle - the community circle - where we've all come together
to talk about the day's events on the outer circle(s), while there's
entertainment and a sprinkling of songs with choruses that are easy to learn
in the inner circle.  You can call it a bardic circle, and it often goes by
that name, but the feeling is more relaxed, the ale flows a bit more (and
amazingly, is drunk a bit more), and some of the singers, bolstered by the
liquid courage, are of rawer talent.  As long as you recognize you've
stepped into something of this nature and can go with it, a bard will do
fine.  These tend to be bigger circles, overall, so there's less chance of
multiple performances, but they're good to have.

The Drummer Circle - an endless cycle of "Tum-de-dum-dum" - very little in
the way of bardic gets through this, but if you have the knack (and lack of
shame), you can rouse the drummers with a good song or instrumental piece
that happens to match whatever rhythmic tattoo they're trying to coordinate.
Sea shanties will work well with this, and may surprise the drummers out of
their percussive stupor.

Le Cercle Grande - a big hooey of a circle - Usually at wars, usually 30
plus, and usually populated with bards of different kingdoms.  This is a
larger version of the Performance Circle, but the dynamic is thrown off by
the number of performers.  In my scruffy little brain cell the LCG requires
an emcee; someone who is willing to act as if they're running the show.
Pass the candel doesn't really work as well on this scale.  I've had the job
a couple of times, and what it comes down to is that the emcee needs to be
less concerned about performing and more concerned about bringing out the
talent that they know is there.  The emcee, if they've done their homework,
will have other people helping them to make sure they didn't miss anyone
that wants to perform as well as make sure that they call on those who can
perform but usually feel lost/unworthy in the starlit presence of those
other bards that have far more pieces.  Wow.  That was a long sentence!   If
it's my job, I'm interested in keeping the crowd that's gathered
entertained, as well as trying to get as many people of talent performing as
possible.  Sing-alongs are dotted in this just to keep the crowd connected.
It's not a popular job, but it needs to be done.  I've been fortunate in
that I have friends in other kingdoms who help to point out talent that I
knew nothing of, as well as friends in-kingdom who remind me of those I
might have missed.  

Still, there will be those who don't get to perform, especially if the crowd
gets bigger.  I think that numbers above 30 are no longer circles but
throngs, and get lost in their own biomass.

I think, to answer Kenneth's un-asked question, that we are the makers of
our own nightmare.  As performers, we tend to migrate toward those places
where other performers are; to listen, to learn, to share, as well as
general cameraderie.  More bards show up, more noise is made, and more
people come, and .... well, it's a cycle, and it eventually ends when the
last bard no longer has a voice or everyone else is asleep.  Again, your
mileage may vary .....  

Should we have, from time to time, bardic inviationals; a meeting of invited
bards, hosted for the intent of show-casing the talent in the performer's
circle?  Others can come to watch, but they won't be invited to perform.
And how do you handle the surprise guest you didn't expect but would really
like to get a chance to hear/see?  Would it be considered bard snobbery by
the rest of the populous, or a welcome relief to "Oh God!  The candle's come
to me!"?  

In service to the dream with a song in my heart, I am,
HL Gerald of Leesville
A bard of Stargate 

  _____  

From: bards-bounces at lists.ansteorra.org
[mailto:bards-bounces at lists.ansteorra.org] On Behalf Of Esther
Sent: Monday, April 30, 2007 1:37 AM
To: Ansteorran Bardic list
Subject: Re: [Bards] Situations That Ruin Bardic Circles

Like I said, it's about skill. It's also about interest, courtesy, and
knowing your audience, matching the piece to the situation and mood of the
crowd.

So, it's down to good bards and bad bards, and at the end of the day -- how
do you deal with that? Any length of story badly told is deadly, as deadly
as me trying to sing would be.

And I agree with you, someone reading badly is a killer. BUT, reading aloud
is as period a  bardic skill as any, and when done by someone who is skilled
at it, and who has practiced, is damned entertaining.

Bad bards and an uninterested audience will kill any bardic circle, no
matter HOW well organized. It's really, really hard to pick up an audience
who has just endured a bad performance, and almost impossible to do so after
two in a row. So unless you have a known show-starter up your sleeve....

Yeah, I have a headache, I am being unduly pessimistic and old arthritis
auntie misery by the fire.

Esther

Gerald Norris <jerryn at houston.rr.com> wrote:

See my reply before your reply, Esther.

It oft depends upon the skill of the teller or poet.  Finnagen had us
enthralled with his story of the guardian of the keep.  There is a merchant
who does a wonderfully entertaining job of telling of a time he taught latin
to foreign troops.  Both of these were at least ten minutes long.  Thomas
and Cedric's piece was almost a half hour, but it flew by due to the setting
and the weather, which really made you feel as if you were in a long hut,
and the skald spoke with the tongue of the elders.

Longer pieces are period, but if their recited as one would hear from a
grade-schooler with Mary Had a Little Lamb, it's painful to watch.  Master
Kief has no trouble with keeping an audience for a long story, but he is
masterful in his telling of a tale, and his use of voice and words to draw
his audience in.  I have seen the opposite, where someone drags a book and
reads by halting firelight for fifteen minutes, and ready to go another
fifteen to the end of the pages if not for a quick interjection.  These I
would avoid at all cost, and have only occasionally had to interrupt one
fellow and request that he finish his tale on the next round.  He wasn't
happy, and left, but the energy level of the group was quick to rise back to
a level of cameradery rather than comisseration.

In service to the dream with a song in my heart, I am,
HL Gerald of Leesville
A bard of Stargate 

  _____  

From: bards-bounces at lists.ansteorra.org
[mailto:bards-bounces at lists.ansteorra.org] On Behalf Of Esther
Sent: Sunday, April 29, 2007 11:30 PM
To: Ansteorran Bardic list
Subject: Re: [Bards] Situations That Ruin Bardic Circles

You know, I'm a story teller, not a singer or a musician. Most of my stories
run over ten minutes. 

So I guess bardic circles are out for me. See you at the Hafla!

Might I suggest, it's not the length of the story, it's the skill of the
story teller. Perhaps short pieces are better for bardic circles, but I ask
you, when are the long pieces "acceptable"? The long pieces are more period
for most of us, after all. A bard/skald/minstrel was supposed to be able to
hold the attention of his audience for longer than ten minutes, a feat
stand-up comics and story tellers seem to have no problem with in the modern
world.

Well, what the heck. To each their own, better to have short pieces and a
popular bardic than a dead bardic. They can always go to the movies to see
Beowulf.

Esther

> 2. Problem: Stories that are 20+ minutes long!!!! Reason: Hogging airtime.
> Solution: If you have a 20 minute story, serialize it into 10-minute
> increments and do one increment per turn. Circle leader must state a
> 10-minute (or some other agreed-upon time) rule up front, and periodically
> thereafter. 
> 
anything over 10 minutes will kill an audience. If they don't get up 
now, they likley just wont even come back next time.

  _____  

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