SC - contests, cooking, and music

[Stephen Bloch]

Isolde wrote:
> 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. 
> 
> However, the other result has been that a lot of very talented performers 
> 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 
> 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.

I agree entirely that this is an undesirable effect of grading A&S
contests based largely on documentation.  Another undesirable effect (at
least in some minds) is that the A&S contest itself becomes "not period":
obviously no medieval A&S contest would require the contestants to prove
that their entries were medieval!

One solution to this is to clearly distinguish between two different ways
we can study, and show off, A&S stuff.  In one model we are modern people
talking about how things were done in the Middle Ages, demonstrating how
we've put our interpretations into practice; in this model, documentation
and interpretation thereof should be the major considerations.  In the
other model we are medieval people showing off how well we can execute
a particular craft; in this model documentation doesn't belong at all
(if it isn't period by YOUR standards, you are on your honor not to enter
it in the first place), and craftsmanship is the main consideration.
Which kind of A&S contest do you want to run?

> 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 
> which they have compiled good documentation - and not just for contests!).

Fortunately, there are lots of widely available books containing
medieval and Renaissance music, reprinted in modern notation.  One
well-known example is McGee's _Medieval Dance Music_, which reprints ALL
the known dance pieces from before 1430.  Of course, that cutoff date is
just before the earliest dance manuals that give steps....

					mar-Joshua ibn-Eleazar ha-Shalib
                                                 Stephen Bloch
                                           sbloch at panther.adelphi.edu
					 http://www.adelphi.edu/~sbloch/
                                        Math/CS Dept, Adelphi University