A Class out of Whole Cloth

Sometimes a class is altogether too easy.  Since the Shire is planning a trip to a fabric store, I brought a variety of different fabrics to our regular A&S Night so people could see and feel some different kinds of fabric. The dreadful polyester from 1970 threw people off a bit, and some were glad for very limited exposure to wool. A few cottons were pretty good substitutes for period fabrics.  But linen was the big hit.  The local fabric store doesn't sell linen, so we may have a field trip to the Twin Cities in our future.

Replay, Reuse, Recycle

The class on "Medieval Music You Already Know" inspired me to do a class on contrafacta in period. I'd done classes in "filk" - which is a more lighthearted word for the same thing. But this was about filk in period - from fourth century Arian adaptations of popular music, through troubadours borrowing church music for their love songs, to composers using folk tunes as the basis for polyphonic masses.

We looked at borrowings as many as four deep, as a twelfth-century "Ave Regina" chant may have been used for a twelfth century troubadour's love song, which was borrowed for a thirteenth-century pilgrim song, and a thirteenth century song in praise of gluttony.

Anyone who thinks of the middle ages as insular or restrictive might be surprised at the international trade in music. A tune that's still popular today can be found in Italian, Bohemian, Gallican, and German manuscripts of the tenth to fifteenth centuries.

Those who prize originality might be surprised to learn that troubadour instruction manuals prefer that older tunes be used for some types of song.

This was a study that was too much for an hour's class. It could easily fill a dissertation (actually, several of them). I recommend the Musical Borrowing Bibliography as a resource. Though many of its 1800+ citations cover modern music, there's plenty on medieval/renaissance works as well.

Shakespeare made fun of the contrafacting of Greensleeves by Mistress Ford's comment about Falstaff:, whose words, "do no more adhere and keep place together than the Hundredth Psalm to the tune of Green Sleeves." (Merry Wives of Windsor II.i.62) She may not approve, but contrafact was a way of life for musicians in period.

Medieval Music You Already Know

In preparation for Rokeclif hosting Bardic Madness, I led a class on period music. Many of the songs we sang during the wintertime celebrations have their roots in the middle ages. A few examples:

The tune used for "Good King Wenceslas" was published in a sixteenth-century collection with the words, "Tempus adest Floridum", a carol for spring. These words appear in Carmina Burana, a thirteenth-century collection.

The tune of Greensleeves was used in 1642 as a New Year's carol before it became "What Child is This?"

"Good Christian Folk Rejoice" was sung by a circle of dancing angels in the fourteenth century with the words, "In dulci Jubilo"

The "March of the Three Kings" that Bizet used in L'Arlesienne was a mid-thirteenth century crusaders' hymn.

"Of Parental Love Begotten" may have the oldest pedigree. Its tune is a plainsong melody found in manuscripts as early as the tenth century. The words, "Corde Natus ex Parentis", are from a poem by Prudentius, written in the fourth century.

Food - it's what's for dinner

Rokeclif's A&S Night met at Java Vino, where we discussed which in a list of foods were early period, late period, and modern. By request, I posted a short bibliography of food books on Rokeclif's facebook page.

Herball with a Twist

Kudrun is still working on her herbal, but this time she did a total herbal immersion at Rokeclif's A&S Night. We saw herbs from period herbals and from Kudrun's gardens, and we felt and tasted them as well.  Nature provided oregano and dandelion, mullien and sage. Kudrun cooked up sage-filled pork, thyme-filled meatballs, and a rosemary-infused dipping oil. Sammy liked the mint sample best. Of course, dill seeds were provided to aid digestion.

Novices, Neophytes and Knaves

As the title would suggest, this event, hosted by Turm an dem See on October 1, was intended as an introduction to the SCA. Special accommodations were made for first-timers, such as court with a play-by-play description of what was going on, and a relaxation of the rule for garb.

Kudrun's "Alphabeticall Bestiary" and "So you Want to Buy a Psalter" were my offerings, both taught from my 13th-century perspective.

The awe-full thing -- I was a site token (along with three other folks). What an honor!

Vexillology

How many shires can boast a 5-year-old who knows about vexillology. Sammy can tell you all about flags, though he'd rather tell you about Iron Man. The Shire of Rokeclif was thinking about banners and flags, so I prepared an overview of such things in period (and 1000 years before). My research may be skewed, but the gonfanon (commonly called a 'banner' today) wasn't used much in period. I still think I should make one.