[SCA-AE] Music in AEthelmearc (long, sorry)

[Diana Slivinska]

Her Excellency, Caryl wrote:

> I pretty much don't sing unless invited anymore.  One thing that is no
> fun
> Is being at a table in the middle of a conversation, and having a  
> bardic
>
> Performance thrust upon you when you were in the middle of something
> delicate - like negotiating for a new apprentice, or broaching a
> difficult subject...

I very much like the idea of table-by-table roving bards.  Another  
thing to consider:  unless one's voice is Very Big and Loud (ahem),  
it can be really hard to be heard in a Large Feast Hall...sorta like  
trying to be heard crying Ice Dragon court.  Then those folks at the  
back who can't hear the bard anyway really don't like being shushed,  
not to mention those who are trying to converse.

For those of you who want to learn a new song, my little tune from  
Pennsic is in this month's AEstel (thanks, Teresa!).  It's a  
patriotic song, even.  And in 4, so it should be easy to march to!   
It does sound a tad Slavic, who'd have guessed? :)

Teresa put a bit of its history in the AEstel, but I've been asked  
often enough, so here's the whole story (if you don't want to know,  
delete now!):

I found out that Their Majesties, Christopher and Maurya had chosen  
me to be the next Silver Buccle Herald at Ice Dragon some 3.5 years  
ago.  As such, it was necessary for me to replace myself as Sycamore  
Herald (chief deputy for field, court & tournament).  For me, the  
choice was obvious--only Baron Fridrikr would do!  So I asked him,  
and after a few hours' thinking, he accepted.  Then a strange thing  
happened:  he started calling me "boss."  Oh dear.

For those of you who don't know, Baron Fridrikr has been a herald  
probably since before I was in the SCA. Having him call me "boss" was  
peculiar.  And wonderful.  And a little uncomfortable-making.  And  
very hard to get used to.  I confessed all of the above to Fridrikr,  
who advised me to a) get used to it; and b) to think of a shield boss  
and what it does, and hear the term in that light.  Now that, I could  
do!  So Fridrikr continued to call me "boss," and I called him  
"Number One."  :)

Fast forward to the week before this past Pennsic.  Again, for those  
of you who don't know, I am a huge fan of tambura music (that's a  
type of Balkan folk music, chiefly from Serbia, Croatia, and  
Macedonia).  I am also a groupie for a band called Sviraj, the  
fellows who played so wonderfully for my elevation.  They have  
adopted me, a north Slav, and my non-Slavic-but Slavophile husband  
practically as family, so of course I couldn't be elevated without  
them!  But I digress...

Anyway, the week before Pennsic, I found out that my guys were  
playing in Harrisburg, PA on the Friday night before landgrab.  What  
to do, what to do?  We are the landagents for our block and had to be  
at landgrab, but I really needed a fix!  So my husband said he'd stay  
home and sleep so I could go.  So on the Friday night before  
landgrab, I drove the 3.5 hours over to Harrisburg to hear them.   
They finished at 1 a.m., whereupon I drove the 3.5 hours back home to  
be on time for landgrab (which was very surreal this year!).  But I  
needed something to keep me awake in the car for the trip home...

The first 2 verses and the chorus of my little song wrote themselves  
on the drive home from hearing Sviraj (which accounts for the  
decidedly Balkan sound of the tune).  I had had a truly horrible  
mundane spring and summer (especially job-wise), and the SCA and this  
Kingdom were some of the few good things I felt like I had in my  
life.  And I was thinking about the Kingdom, and its wonderful  
people, and looking forward to Pennsic (even though it meant 2 weeks  
without pay),knowing it would be my last Pennsic as Silver Buccle  
Herald, and thinking about what Fridrikr said about the shield boss,  
and reflecting on some comments I'd heard about our Kingdom's lack of  
a totem animal, and thinking that really, we're all the shield boss  
that makes our Kingdom strong and great...and out of that stew came  
the song.  Since I couldn't write and drive, I sang it over and over  
all the way home so it would be committed to memory.  And I got home,  
safe and sound, but not necessarily sane.  :)

The final two verses wrote themselves, as well.  It was the Wednesday  
night of landgrab week, and I awoke in the middle of the night  
needing to find the euphemism.  As I stumbled out of the tent, I was  
blinded by a light source, which upon turning around I discovered was  
the moon!  A big, fat, round, low-hanging full moon!  It was a  
beautiful night, and I found myself no longer sleepy, so I sat out in  
our camp to just enjoy the night and look at the moon, and two more  
verses happened.  Not wanting to wake up my husband digging around  
for paper, I again had to sing the verses quietly over and over so I  
wouldn't forget them.

I had written filks and parodies before, but never a real song, not  
really.  I had no idea whether it was any good, so I went and sang it  
for Her Majesty, Tessa, who liked it.  She suggested I sing it at Sir  
Haakon's bardic.  Oh dear, oh my--that's quite the Big Deal Bardic  
Event, and I am so *not* a bard!  But I had said I would, so that's  
where I "officially" debuted the song.  I was quite nervous, as there  
was a good deal of very exalted company present!  Then one of the  
biggest thrills of my Pennsic came when I looked over and saw His  
Excellency, Haakon singing along with the chorus!  Oh my.  I will  
remember that forever!  :)

I am so happy that people seem to like my little tune.  It really  
belongs to this Kingdom, and it embodies how I feel about it, and  
it's a marriage of two of the things I love best--this Kingdom, and  
Balkan music.  I hope that you will have as much fun learning and  
singing it as I did bringing it about!  There are guitar chords  
included--since I don't play the guitar, I hope they're not too  
hard.  They are, however, quite typically south Slav.  :)

And yeah, I'm told it's an earworm.  :)

In service,

--Giulietta, aka SWINAB (She Who Is Not A Bard, thanks, Brion!)  :)