[Bards] Storytelling - Performing Prose Resource

Magge Genie maggegene at gmail.com
Wed Aug 22 06:41:58 PDT 2012


WAY COOL!!! Thanks Finnacan!

Magge

On Aug 22, 2012, at 4:40 AM, "Scott Barrett" <barrett1 at cox.net> wrote:

> This particular subject has been a hobgoblin for many a performer in the
> SCA, especially those of us who are storytellers - was the performance of
> prose, the spoken word without poetics, verse or rigid memorization, a
> period practice?
> 
> Now common sense says yes, but that doesn't pass academic scrutiny, and it
> shouldn't.
> 
> 
> 
> So for years we have picked around for evidence, finding tiny references
> from the Tain and the Mabigoni to Chaucer and the Decameron, passable
> evidence, but hard to find and not very detailed at all. Most SCA performers
> understand that vocal stories were not described verbatim, and so we've
> settled for what scant mention in period literature we can locate, and while
> it does appear obvious that formal and informal storytelling were a regular
> part of medieval life, details are almost nonexistent.
> 
> The subject has been explored on the Bards list in the past, but I thought I
> might offer something for those looking to increase their libraries on this
> issue..
> 
> 
> 
> http://www.amazon.com/Performing-Medieval-Narrative-Evelyn-Birge/dp/18438403
> 91/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1345624832&sr=8-1&keywords=performing+medieval+nar
> rative
> 
> 
> 
> Now this thing is expensive, but I had a chance to look through a copy
> recently, and I will be buying it soon.
> 
> The topic has been largely ignored by academic circles until just recently,
> and the book is extremely comprehensive. It gives example after example of
> storytelling as an interpretive personal art enjoyed by all social classes,
> as well as showing how stories were not held to a standard of memorization
> like poetics, but were enjoyed as an individual performance and with praise
> given to a storyteller that could breathe new life into a well-worn tale, or
> who composed originals with style, structure and quality.
> 
> 
> 
> The book was the foundation of an NYU workshop that received serious
> participation and attention from historians, literary scholars and
> performers, and I'm beginning to think it may be as important to the SCA as
> Theophilus' "On Divers Artes" or Cennini's Craftsmans Handbook ("Il Libro
> dell Arte").
> 
> I can tell you from experience that documenting a story, including the
> performance, is a titanic task. I only attempted it once for a Kingdom A&S.
> This book may change the tide in a really positive way.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Just something to pass on to the vocal talent in your area.
> 
> 
> 
> ~Finnacan
> 
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