[Bards] tbtl bardic

Melody Soice melodysoice at hotmail.com
Thu Oct 4 12:56:16 PDT 2007



I have to second both Gerald's remarks and, by extension, Robin's.  

Quite frankly, I would be far and away MOST impressed by a performer who stayed within their persona and performed contrasting pieces (which any good performer should do ANYWAY) such as a ballad in one round and a war song in another.  I firmly believe that true excellence in a single area is MORE than enough to strive for and, quite frankly, more that most of us could hope to achieve in the limited lifetime we have to hone our skills.  I think that, for most of us, to believe that we can truly master Viking poetry and Renaissance lute is ludicrous.  Yet, we persist in trying to push the bardic community into equally absurd aspirations.  

I understand that we all constantly learning and that we must, therefore, be occasionally willing to listen to performances that are not exactly awe-inspiring.  My problem lies in our willingness to SEEK mediocrity in 'diverse' forms as a end goal, rather than focusing on one area (or related areas) and working to become a master of that area.  I would much rather listen to 10 performers who are masters or near-masters in their chosen area than to a single well-rounded bard (ok, fine, take that as a pun if you must since in that sense I AM the most well-rounded bard).

Sorry folks, you have hit upon the single thing which has most bothered me about bardic in our Society.  Don't get me wrong, I see notable exceptions whom I greatly admire BUT the whole let's-be-sort-of-bad-at- everything-because-it-shows-how-diverse-we-are mentality that seems to be the accepted NORM is something that I find INCREDIBLY frustrating.  Personally, I think most of use need to pick one thing, one area, and work on it until it's great (or at least pretty darn good) before we're willing to trot it out for everyone.  

See, I told you I should have kept my mouth shut.

Melody
From: gerald.of.leesville at gmail.com
To: bards at lists.ansteorra.org
Date: Thu, 4 Oct 2007 06:01:36 -0500
Subject: Re: [Bards] tbtl bardic








Good 
question, Gwen, and great follow-ups all.
 
I 
believe that titled bards should be able to show diversity, but after having 
ready Robin's treatise ;-), I'm inclined to agree that we, as a community, have 
come to rely on the standard story/song/poem as an expression of different 
styles.
 
Robin's examples have given me a lot to think on (as tends to be the case 
when Robin expounds).  Perhaps we should, as a community, rethink our 
"different styles" approach to include a broader 
interpretation.
 

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

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