Pennsic: the music & classes parts, mostly
Oh, Pennsic. :)
So... yes. Oppressively hot in that horrible muggy way that wilts you completely. Also full of logistical complications verging on outright failures, including one disappointment that resulted in actual tears on my part (I mention this only because I believe a couple of people saw me melt down a little, and I don't want anyone to think it was anything personal). BUT, all that aside, we had a pretty spectacularly awesome time.
I left Wednesday evening of land grab week after a long delay mostly due to my own obliviousness (why, yes, those instruments I was waiting for were actually sitting on my front porch! Durrr!) and pulled into Cooper's Lake somewhere around 12:45 am. Much to my and the sprout's delight, not to mention the amusement of the good people working Gate, the L.C. marched the barony out to meet us -- banner and all! *Excellent* kickoff to a vacation, I have to say!
I can't promise subsequent thoughts will all be in accurate chronological order; I've lost track of stuff, and don't have the Pennsic book in front of me to check the calendar...
Thursday morning I happily rolled along with some of our crew who were attending the Adhemar & Angus road show (a.k.a. their class on portraying a 100 Years' War persona) -- a very funny presentation and also full of quite useful information. And hey, I made it to a class! That night we celebrated my birthday (tasty chocolate cake, mmmm), and I *think* the L.C. and I went to the Wine & Alchemy concert, although that might have been Friday night. I like Wine & Alchemy a lot, although I do wish they wouldn't use amps in the marketplace; their Middle Eastern-inflected combo of "C'est la fin" and "Ai vis lo lop" was brilliant and I think my band might... um... kinda swipe that wholesale except not so much with all the funky M.E. instrumentation. :)
Friday I ran my Listening Survey of Troubadour & Trouvere Repertoire class. People seemed to appreciate the setlist, especially where different productions of the same piece varied widely; I still need to work on my intro and particularly on segueing smoothly from one topic to the next. Also, I must go back to all the CD liner notes and record what instruments are being used on every track, because it kept coming up as a question. Also also, the ampitheatre is pretty much definitively not the place to run something like that, what with not having any chairs (THANK YOU, ubiq31 and klynn330 for carrying chairs!) and the Middle Eastern drum classes being loudly drummy right up the hill. Still, though, it was really fun watching people's faces when we took the same song from Catherine Bott and her stripped-down straightforward renditions to Ensemble Unicorn and full-on Moorish-inflected bands. Heh.
I didn't make it to any other classes (Master Avatar taught the day after I left, damn it!) except Loud Band, which was totally worth pushing my departure time back for. I started out having some trouble keeping my intonation up to par for the polyphonic pieces until Master C loaned me a different 'pfeife, which blended much better with the ensemble. Have I mentioned lately how much I love being loud and buzzy?
I ran into Paul from Unto Ashes but didn't get to jam with him. Ditto with Avatar, and Erlan. I did get to play a round or two of "Palestinaelied" on crumhorn for a battlefield knighting ceremony (should've gone a little differently, but see previously mentioned logistical difficulties), and then did some recorder work with siobhan1214 and Sol for EK court. There was another band also booked for court that night, and I hope you all will forgive me if I'm childishly horrible enough to note that we got applause for one of our pieces and they didn't get any. I have insecure musician ego, I need strokes, so sue me. ;)
I also got to hang out for a bit at the Troubadour meeting with Erlan, antoniseb (who came to visit and show me the Queen's spectacular blue tyger mask!), and a bunch of far northern musicians I was thrilled to meet. Then some of us trouped over to scaharp's EK teaching bardic... SO MUCH FUN. Seriously, even if you think you can't sing, all of you (well, all of you who happen to be Easterners) should come to this next year! It's such a pleasure getting a whole big group together to go to town on our shared kingdom songs. I love minstrlmummr's piece, and was delighted by several other new-to-me songs. And then the other thing... hoo boy, talk about strokes, you guys. The circle sang my song (my contrafact to "In taberna") and... wow. There were *drones* happening underneath, and harmonies up top, and descants going on, and... oh, I can't even tell you how thrilling that was to hear all those people singing my song. One of my most favorite Pennsic moments ever. I dunno why half of those cool talented new acquaintances have to live in Maine, though... sheesh.
I believe this year's Court of Love came off pretty well, although I lost my voice the day before it happened (raaaaar!). I was pleased with the general ambiance -- we booked Avatar, who brought a friend and played beautiful intro/background music; and ubiq31, redshinma, and loosecanon put together a very attractive, tasty spread of nibbles and drinks. t_bard presented the two pieces he was charged last year with writing: one song (in French!), and the first ten stanzas of an epic poem to be continued on an annual basis. suba_al_hadid led our madrigal singers in "Bhakail Tiens," her Bhakaili contrafact on "Belle qui tiens ma vie" -- Avatar backed them up on lute, and it was *gorgeous*. I'm so delighted by that song, and I think everyone else who hears it is too! fianaclare and Mistress A were excellent judges, providing lots of interesting insights. The complaints and rhetorical questions were generally intriguing and well argued; if you weren't there I don't think I can successfully recap the Case of the Bower of Opulence or the Case of the Pas d'Arme-us Interruptus (thank you for the name, minstrlmummr, and thank you for the case, lady_guenievre!). You'll just have to come see for yourself next year, and enjoy thinking with your medieval mind in a lighthearted yet challenging setting. :)
Right, this got long already. Social bits and food bits and other stuff coming next entry up... including (duh duh DUH!) the Pinata of DOOOOOOOOOOM. Stay tuned.
So... yes. Oppressively hot in that horrible muggy way that wilts you completely. Also full of logistical complications verging on outright failures, including one disappointment that resulted in actual tears on my part (I mention this only because I believe a couple of people saw me melt down a little, and I don't want anyone to think it was anything personal). BUT, all that aside, we had a pretty spectacularly awesome time.
I left Wednesday evening of land grab week after a long delay mostly due to my own obliviousness (why, yes, those instruments I was waiting for were actually sitting on my front porch! Durrr!) and pulled into Cooper's Lake somewhere around 12:45 am. Much to my and the sprout's delight, not to mention the amusement of the good people working Gate, the L.C. marched the barony out to meet us -- banner and all! *Excellent* kickoff to a vacation, I have to say!
I can't promise subsequent thoughts will all be in accurate chronological order; I've lost track of stuff, and don't have the Pennsic book in front of me to check the calendar...
Thursday morning I happily rolled along with some of our crew who were attending the Adhemar & Angus road show (a.k.a. their class on portraying a 100 Years' War persona) -- a very funny presentation and also full of quite useful information. And hey, I made it to a class! That night we celebrated my birthday (tasty chocolate cake, mmmm), and I *think* the L.C. and I went to the Wine & Alchemy concert, although that might have been Friday night. I like Wine & Alchemy a lot, although I do wish they wouldn't use amps in the marketplace; their Middle Eastern-inflected combo of "C'est la fin" and "Ai vis lo lop" was brilliant and I think my band might... um... kinda swipe that wholesale except not so much with all the funky M.E. instrumentation. :)
Friday I ran my Listening Survey of Troubadour & Trouvere Repertoire class. People seemed to appreciate the setlist, especially where different productions of the same piece varied widely; I still need to work on my intro and particularly on segueing smoothly from one topic to the next. Also, I must go back to all the CD liner notes and record what instruments are being used on every track, because it kept coming up as a question. Also also, the ampitheatre is pretty much definitively not the place to run something like that, what with not having any chairs (THANK YOU, ubiq31 and klynn330 for carrying chairs!) and the Middle Eastern drum classes being loudly drummy right up the hill. Still, though, it was really fun watching people's faces when we took the same song from Catherine Bott and her stripped-down straightforward renditions to Ensemble Unicorn and full-on Moorish-inflected bands. Heh.
I didn't make it to any other classes (Master Avatar taught the day after I left, damn it!) except Loud Band, which was totally worth pushing my departure time back for. I started out having some trouble keeping my intonation up to par for the polyphonic pieces until Master C loaned me a different 'pfeife, which blended much better with the ensemble. Have I mentioned lately how much I love being loud and buzzy?
I ran into Paul from Unto Ashes but didn't get to jam with him. Ditto with Avatar, and Erlan. I did get to play a round or two of "Palestinaelied" on crumhorn for a battlefield knighting ceremony (should've gone a little differently, but see previously mentioned logistical difficulties), and then did some recorder work with siobhan1214 and Sol for EK court. There was another band also booked for court that night, and I hope you all will forgive me if I'm childishly horrible enough to note that we got applause for one of our pieces and they didn't get any. I have insecure musician ego, I need strokes, so sue me. ;)
I also got to hang out for a bit at the Troubadour meeting with Erlan, antoniseb (who came to visit and show me the Queen's spectacular blue tyger mask!), and a bunch of far northern musicians I was thrilled to meet. Then some of us trouped over to scaharp's EK teaching bardic... SO MUCH FUN. Seriously, even if you think you can't sing, all of you (well, all of you who happen to be Easterners) should come to this next year! It's such a pleasure getting a whole big group together to go to town on our shared kingdom songs. I love minstrlmummr's piece, and was delighted by several other new-to-me songs. And then the other thing... hoo boy, talk about strokes, you guys. The circle sang my song (my contrafact to "In taberna") and... wow. There were *drones* happening underneath, and harmonies up top, and descants going on, and... oh, I can't even tell you how thrilling that was to hear all those people singing my song. One of my most favorite Pennsic moments ever. I dunno why half of those cool talented new acquaintances have to live in Maine, though... sheesh.
I believe this year's Court of Love came off pretty well, although I lost my voice the day before it happened (raaaaar!). I was pleased with the general ambiance -- we booked Avatar, who brought a friend and played beautiful intro/background music; and ubiq31, redshinma, and loosecanon put together a very attractive, tasty spread of nibbles and drinks. t_bard presented the two pieces he was charged last year with writing: one song (in French!), and the first ten stanzas of an epic poem to be continued on an annual basis. suba_al_hadid led our madrigal singers in "Bhakail Tiens," her Bhakaili contrafact on "Belle qui tiens ma vie" -- Avatar backed them up on lute, and it was *gorgeous*. I'm so delighted by that song, and I think everyone else who hears it is too! fianaclare and Mistress A were excellent judges, providing lots of interesting insights. The complaints and rhetorical questions were generally intriguing and well argued; if you weren't there I don't think I can successfully recap the Case of the Bower of Opulence or the Case of the Pas d'Arme-us Interruptus (thank you for the name, minstrlmummr, and thank you for the case, lady_guenievre!). You'll just have to come see for yourself next year, and enjoy thinking with your medieval mind in a lighthearted yet challenging setting. :)
Right, this got long already. Social bits and food bits and other stuff coming next entry up... including (duh duh DUH!) the Pinata of DOOOOOOOOOOM. Stay tuned.