[Bards] Differing Styles

Jay Rudin rudin at ev1.net
Thu Oct 4 15:21:35 PDT 2007


Paedric wrote:

> Wow! I was expecting some flame for this:

> Finally, this may be my personal bias as a non-singer, but
> it seems to me that in  best piece or any style competitions,
> a great singer will usually, if not always, beat a great
> storyteller or poet, all other things being equal.

No flame; I just disagree.  My experience is that a great singer has an easier time getting to the final round, but a power poem or story is at least as good once you get there.  This isn't theory, by the way, but observation.  I have lost Kingdom Eisteddfod in the semi-final round many times.  I have won both final rounds I've been in, and both times against great singers (HL Kat and HL Desiree).  I met HL Kat in the first round of one Eisteddfod, and her song beat my third best poem decisively.  But she and I met again in the finals, and my "Chaplain's Tale" beat her final round song. 

Now here's the theory: I suspect that's because a beautiful voice is worth listening to even if the words make no sense.  Even songs in foreign languages can score well.  Truly can get applause just singing scales.  

Consider this: 

List of Ansteorran bards from the Houston area alone you would enjoy listening to singing scales:
Truly
Kat
Sieglinde
Sigmund
Gerald
and probably several more

List of people in the *world* you would enjoy hearing read from the phone book:
James Earl Jones
Sean Connery
but probably nobody else in the entire world

So, yes, the singer with a great voice has an advantage with lesser material.  But in the final rounds, when we all use our best, there is no observed advantage for any one style.

Robin of Gilwell / Jay Rudin
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