SC - Period Recipes

[Sandra Davis]

Greetings unto Cariadoc.

I saw this post and intended to post a brief response, but my=20
reply somehow ended up being fairly long, and somewhat off-topic.
I'm sending it anyway, but won't be insulted if you choose to hit the
delete key now.

>I would like to comment on an attitude in the SCA
>that I think may possibly be reflected in the quote above.
>
>There seems to be a very common attitude in the SCA that=20
>authenticity is something you do for A&S contests, rather than =
>something you do because it is fun, interesting, and makes the=20
>Society a better place.

>The first example I remember striking me was a book on songs which =
>contained a couple of pages discussing which ones were from =
when-->prefaced by the remark that this information was intended for =
people=20
>who wanted to enter contests.

>The implication was that nobody who wasn't entering a contest=20
>wouldn't care whether the song he was singing was period.

That is one possible explanation, but I think there is another equally
plausible and valid explanation. =20

My personal experience in this area:
I am a Laurel (Bardic & Costume) from An Tir.  I have spent many years
trying to promote the bardic arts in this kingdom, particularly trying =
to
encourage people to at least *attempt* period pieces.

Over the years, I have judged all the major bardic competitions here, =
and
have been one of the influences in *revising* the judging forms so that
elements like *periodness* and *documentation* were part of the =
criteria.
We now have many more period entries, some including wonderful
documentation.=20

However, the other result has been that a lot of very talented =
performers=20
who have never attempted period performance have been *put off* by the
new standards.  This is not necessarily due to laziness or an =
unwillingness
to do research.  Sometimes they don't know how to research, or they
find learning a period piece too intimidating.  So they don't enter the=20
competitions, with the result that the competitions *appear* to many to
be composed of/intended for only a select few who are *into* period
performance.  Which can result in an Us vs. Them mentality.

If a book was available that made some period pieces easily accessible
to performers, and provided some date verification, I believe that more
performers would attempt period performance, and probably find out that
it is much more enjoyable/accessible than they had imagined. (I know =
this
has been the case with a couple of my apprentices, who used to do only
modern ballads, and now perform period pieces in foreign languages for=20
which they have compiled good documentation - and not just for =
contests!).

In my experience, it sometimes takes the impetus of a competition to
encourage people to *try* period performance. However, many of those =
individuals then go on to embrace period performance for its own sake.  =
Perhaps this is a case of the end justifying the means.


In service to An Tir-

Isolde