[Bards] Differing Styles

[Melody Soice]

I really should not reply to this because Master Robin has given a beautiful and wonderfully correct answer.

I have to admit, however, that despite his wonderful case, I personally HATE the artificial nature of these command performance competitions.  Yes, Robin is right but I feel (feelings here folks) that a performance should entertain in a way that is neither offensive nor breaks away from the atmosphere that we try to create in our Society, with extra points given for original work done in a period manner, period pieces, or excellent documentation.  .  That was 'period' -- really, stop right there.  That IS enough.

Selfish fool that I am, I WANT TO BE ENTERTAINED!  I would far rather see someone perform 3 pieces in the same manner if it plays to their strength, rather than hear a single story teller singing off-pitch.  That is torture, not entertainment.

Someone tell me again, why we have to be diverse for the sake of diversity?  Why can we simply not do what we do well, what others enjoy hearing us do, and strive to constantly better the areas we CAN master instead of being forced into areas we will never be even decent in.

<Sigh> I know.  I should have kept my mouth shut.

Melody
(who is going back to lurking now)

From: rudin at ev1.net
To: bards at lists.ansteorra.org
Date: Wed, 3 Oct 2007 15:53:51 -0500
Subject: Re: [Bards] Differing Styles










Brian asked:
 
> Gwen's question about "differing styles" leads 
me to ask:  What
> are your opinions on requiring differing 
styles?  I personally like
> it because it shows diversity, but your 
take on the matter may vary.
 
Speaking as a performer who might be entering a 
competition, I am neither for or against.  People can set up any 
competition they want, and if they want us to compose original haiku while 
standing on a chair on one leg with a finger in our left ear, that's their 
business.  We will then each decide if we wish to enter.
 
But as a way to "show diversity", it is no more 
successful than most diversity programs, and for the same reasons.  It 
assumes that diversity is a binary function, and cannot exist within these 
classes.  Song is different from poem, but one poem is not different from 
another poem.
 
Consider two performers: one sings a sappy 
Provencal tragic love song, recites a sappy Provencal tragic love poem, and 
tells a sappy Provencal tragic love story.  Another recites stirring 
battles scenes from Beowulf in Saxon alliterative verse, followed by 
a comic bawdy verse of his own devising in ballad measure, and then his own 
translation of a Petrarchan love sonnet in a correct iambic 
pentameter.
 
Which one has displayed the greater 
diversity?  More importantly, which one shows the greater ability to 
perform for any audience in any mood?
 
Finally, as a judge, I am well aware that when 
competitions require multiple styles, we spend more time listening to 
poorly-paced stories, off-key songs, and droning poems.
 
Besides, there are a lot of unused ways to 
encourage actual diversity:
 
1. First piece judged by the ladies pavilion, 
second piece judged by the fighters, third piece judged by the populace at the 
late night drunken party.  (A truly subtle bard might perform a great war 
piece for the ladies, a comic piece for the fighters, and a stirring 
praise of Ansteorra for the party)
 
2. War, love and honor
 
3. Pre-medieval, medieval, Renaissance
 
4. Period work, original work, work by a different 
Ansteorran bard.
 
5. Tragedy, comedy, adventure
 
6. "Three pieces that show the breadth of your 
abilities".  (No set rules.  Let the bards decide what the breadth of 
their abilities really means.)
 
7. Your best piece, your personal favorite piece, 
and your first good piece.  (Mine would be three poems, bu they would be 
very different.)
 
8. Individual performer, group performance, 
audience participation piece
 
9. (This one was used for a kingdom Eisteddfodd in 
the late 1990s)  Must do pieces for three of the Muses:
Calliope: heroic saga
Clio: history
Euterpe: song
Erato: erotic or love song or verse
Melpomene: tragedy
Polyhymnia: sacred writings
Tepsichore: narrative dance
Thalia: bucolic or comic verse
Urania (astronomy): tales of the Black Star 
(stories about Ansteorrans)
 
One of the advantages of many of these is that they 
leave open the possibility of an unexpected and creative approach to the 
rules.  When the muse format was used for kingdom Eisteddfod, HL Kat 
impressed me most with her innovative approach.  She opened with a piece 
for Euterpe -- no surprise, since her forte is singing.  But the piece 
turned out to be a *poem* written in praise of the muse of 
song.
 
In short, once we have accepted diversity 
as a goal, having diverse forms of competition clearly shows more diversity than 
just the continued use of the story / song / poem trichotomy
 
Robin of Gilwell / Jay 
Rudin

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