[SCA-AE] Re: Marching to AE songs (was: OT: SCA "Bad Song" Survey)

[Helene al-Zarqa]

A lot of the Æthelmearc songs are written in 3/4 and 6/8 (as Captain Thorpe
mentioned Æthelmearc being three syllables long with the stress on the first
syllable goes very well into beats of 3).

The downside to this is when it comes to marching and singing.  Anyone who's
been in marching band knows that generally when we keep beat and walk at the
same time, we put our feet down on the downbeats.  With 2 legs and 3 beats,
we "fudge" (as mentinoed below).  So for the Æthelmearc Song, we walk to put
our feet down at the start of each measure, and for Scarlet, we take one
step at the start of the measure, and take a second step at the midpoint of
the measure.

All of this is well and good if we walked into opening at an actual march
pace.  We don't.  We meander to opening ceremonies, so the intended pace of
the songs isn't what is sung, so the pace of songs can drag and start
sounding like a funeral procession to some ears.  If a song is written in a
march meter (2/2, 2/4, 4/4)

Also note that our Opening Ceremonies column is very long, and what is sung
up at the head of the column tends to get fainter and lower pitched as it
filters back to the rest of the kingdom.  Delftwood is only the
4th Barony in line, but I know we've had random discussions as to which song
is being sung at the head of the line as only snippets filter back.

There's always been the best of intention to have singers scattered
throughout the column who have drums or other noise making things to keep
tempo and keep everyone singing one song, but when the time comes up to
march up, it always seems to have singers concentrated at the front and no
one down the rest of the way.  Or if there are singers scattered down the
way, we don't know what is being sung at the front.  I don't know what sort
of solution there is, but those are some observations.

In Service,
Helene


On 1/21/07, Mike C. Baker <kihebard at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> Now, now, waltz is not that difficult to march to.
>
> Really.
>
> Four measures at a time, anyway (12 beats).
>
>
> > That's because, unlike Scarlet, the AEthelmearc song really
> > IS in 3/4.  More of a waltz than a march.
> >
> >   :-)
> >
> >   Arianna
>
>


-- 
Lady Helene al-Zarqá
Chronicler, Barony of Delftwood
Mischief in Mischief & Mayhem