St. Cecilia at the Tower (Part 1)
Yesterday was the first event I autocrated.
OK, that’s technically not true. aelkiss and I autocratted Wassail 2010, but Wassail and Terpsichore the Musical St. Cecilia at the Tower are several orders of magnitude different in scope. I did not need to advertise for Wassail...
Dreams and Cookies
Some background on the event. For several years I’ve wanted there to be an event like Terpsichore for musicians. I wanted there to be a place where enough musicians to gather so we could have deeper classes than ye, “let’s sing rounds class”. I know some people say there aren’t enough dance events in the Region, but I can still count 7 events I can go to almost every year: Step Spritely, Terpsichore, Saltatoris Swinging Soiree, KWDMS, Crystal Ball, Pennsic, Red Dragon. For music there has been KWDMS, and that’s primarily a dance event.
So I’ve wanted a music event for a while, but it never seemed like the right time to make it happen. And on the surface of it, this year wasn’t a really good time to do it either since we’re running the music track at KWDMS and we’re going to Europe in the Fall and going to Pennsic. Also, when would I put the event? Most of the musicians I know and invited are dance musicians, so they’d be involved at KWDMS or Terpsichore. Did I really want to put a music event in the middle of all of that?
But at the same time, I knew people wanted it, and like with starting a family there’s never really a perfect time to do it. And next year, barring unforeseen problems we are planning to start a family, so while this year is busy, next year will almost certainly be worse.
And there were some political reasons too. Aaron got his Willow two years ago, and while I know he’s been in the SCA a year longer than me, I also know I’m not vastly behind him in musical knowledge. With the full understanding that one is never supposed to expect to get awards, I’d hoped/expected to get mine about a year ago. When I didn’t I decided something was probably wrong, and it was probably with me. Aaron was taking on visible leadership roles (leading the Pennsic Band, and KWDMS bands, teaching more classes, and now working on the Pennsic Pile), and I think I may have been lost in his shadow. Sure I direct the Cynnabar Singers, but truthfully that’s not a very visible role. We only perform locally. Also, recorder players are often unmemorable. It’s the nature of the instrument. :P
I needed to do something to show that I am not just Aaron’s lady. I’m a formidable musician in my own right. I’m actively doing things to make Early Music in the SCA better. Organizing music classes for KWDMS has been part of making myself more visible, and organizing St. Cecilia at the Tower has been another part.
I’m mentioning all this because I’m amused that not getting “the cookie” made me a better musician and a better leader. :P (Btw, I did receive a Willow at Terpsichore. Yay!)
So event itself. Where to start...
Classes
When I first conceived of the event, I’d been thinking we’d have one track of classes on some theme. That would be easy to organize, focused, and finding a site would be trivial. Start small and simple right?
Then I talked to people at last year’s KWDMS and emailed musicians I knew and thought about the event some more and realized that there are a lot of singers who don’t play instruments and a lot of instrumentalists who don’t sing. Granted, there’s also a lot of crossover, but if I had only one theme I’d be cutting out some musicians.
So, two tracks seems reasonable. One for instrumentalists and one for singers. I can handle two tracks.
Then I talked to my Laurel, Robyyan, (official as of yesterday. :-D) and he said we needed to have a lecture track for classes like the ones on temperament and theory. I was dubious, especially since at the site I’d been looking at, each extra track would have meant another classroom I’d have to rent. But then we switched sites to the same one we use for Terp, so extra rooms were no longer a problem.
Then I started scheduling classes, and found I had too many lecture classes and that I could pretty easily have a second lecture track.
So in the end my event had 4 tracks of classes, with 5 classes in each track. Cecilia in its first year had as many classes as European dance has at Terp. All of the classes had attendees too. Crazy!
To be continued tomorrow...
OK, that’s technically not true. aelkiss and I autocratted Wassail 2010, but Wassail and Terpsichore the Musical St. Cecilia at the Tower are several orders of magnitude different in scope. I did not need to advertise for Wassail...
Dreams and Cookies
Some background on the event. For several years I’ve wanted there to be an event like Terpsichore for musicians. I wanted there to be a place where enough musicians to gather so we could have deeper classes than ye, “let’s sing rounds class”. I know some people say there aren’t enough dance events in the Region, but I can still count 7 events I can go to almost every year: Step Spritely, Terpsichore, Saltatoris Swinging Soiree, KWDMS, Crystal Ball, Pennsic, Red Dragon. For music there has been KWDMS, and that’s primarily a dance event.
So I’ve wanted a music event for a while, but it never seemed like the right time to make it happen. And on the surface of it, this year wasn’t a really good time to do it either since we’re running the music track at KWDMS and we’re going to Europe in the Fall and going to Pennsic. Also, when would I put the event? Most of the musicians I know and invited are dance musicians, so they’d be involved at KWDMS or Terpsichore. Did I really want to put a music event in the middle of all of that?
But at the same time, I knew people wanted it, and like with starting a family there’s never really a perfect time to do it. And next year, barring unforeseen problems we are planning to start a family, so while this year is busy, next year will almost certainly be worse.
And there were some political reasons too. Aaron got his Willow two years ago, and while I know he’s been in the SCA a year longer than me, I also know I’m not vastly behind him in musical knowledge. With the full understanding that one is never supposed to expect to get awards, I’d hoped/expected to get mine about a year ago. When I didn’t I decided something was probably wrong, and it was probably with me. Aaron was taking on visible leadership roles (leading the Pennsic Band, and KWDMS bands, teaching more classes, and now working on the Pennsic Pile), and I think I may have been lost in his shadow. Sure I direct the Cynnabar Singers, but truthfully that’s not a very visible role. We only perform locally. Also, recorder players are often unmemorable. It’s the nature of the instrument. :P
I needed to do something to show that I am not just Aaron’s lady. I’m a formidable musician in my own right. I’m actively doing things to make Early Music in the SCA better. Organizing music classes for KWDMS has been part of making myself more visible, and organizing St. Cecilia at the Tower has been another part.
I’m mentioning all this because I’m amused that not getting “the cookie” made me a better musician and a better leader. :P (Btw, I did receive a Willow at Terpsichore. Yay!)
So event itself. Where to start...
Classes
When I first conceived of the event, I’d been thinking we’d have one track of classes on some theme. That would be easy to organize, focused, and finding a site would be trivial. Start small and simple right?
Then I talked to people at last year’s KWDMS and emailed musicians I knew and thought about the event some more and realized that there are a lot of singers who don’t play instruments and a lot of instrumentalists who don’t sing. Granted, there’s also a lot of crossover, but if I had only one theme I’d be cutting out some musicians.
So, two tracks seems reasonable. One for instrumentalists and one for singers. I can handle two tracks.
Then I talked to my Laurel, Robyyan, (official as of yesterday. :-D) and he said we needed to have a lecture track for classes like the ones on temperament and theory. I was dubious, especially since at the site I’d been looking at, each extra track would have meant another classroom I’d have to rent. But then we switched sites to the same one we use for Terp, so extra rooms were no longer a problem.
Then I started scheduling classes, and found I had too many lecture classes and that I could pretty easily have a second lecture track.
So in the end my event had 4 tracks of classes, with 5 classes in each track. Cecilia in its first year had as many classes as European dance has at Terp. All of the classes had attendees too. Crazy!
To be continued tomorrow...