[Bards] Filking

[T'Star]

Then you must consider that many modern songs are filk, the tunes are much
older than the songs.  Many common hymns, and protest songs are actually
filks (Even The Star Spangled Banner is technically a filk, Francis Scott
Key's words were set to the tune of "The Anacreontic
Song<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Anacreontic_Song>"
a popular drinking song.)  The song "Green Fields of France" (also called
"Flowers of the Forest") Which was a protest song is set to a traditional
Irish melody.  While I would not recomend filking the Anacreontic Song
unless you want to confuse your audience, the melody is only about 100 years
post period.  In my opinion, worry about the feel more than anything else.
What mood is being created?  What mood do you want to create?  Is the
audience going to throw things at you for performing THAT song (whatever
that song is) at a serious competition?  It's the same guiding principle as
governs any other peice, you likely wouldn't sing a dirge at a rolicking
party.   You likely wouldn't sing a crazily comedic song at a solemn
occasion.  Pick your pieces as suits your audience.  Filk according to your
own tastes and persona.  Write to your own tastes and persona.

Most of my own stories come out of Russian Mythology, though many of them
never were told the way I tell them.   We don't have records of every story
any culture told, but the Fox is a common figure in Spanish stories.  Baba
Yaga is a staple of Russian, so is Ivan the Fool, so it is possible to craft
a story that sounds like it MIGHT have been told in Russia of my time
period.  If I then set a tale to a Russian melody that happened to have been
composed in the 1800s but has the feel of what music I could find from my
period? (which is difficult since most of the traditional songs weren't
written down in Russia until after Peter the Great.)  I'm fine with that, it
is still believable.  I, personally, dislike blatantly modern tunes, but as
Saint-Saëns demonstraited in his "Carnival of Animals"  He took two spritely
tunes, transposed them down, slowed them down, and gave them to the double
basoon and called it "The Elephant"  The origional pieces are almost
unrecognizable so even a modern tune suitable re-worked might be made to be
appropriate, so the question is, at this point in time what are you
comfortable with?

~Svetlana Andrejevna Volkova
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