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Some holds bard
Nov. 15th, 2025 04:29 pmIf you're going to be a bard in the SCA, you need a repertoire, whether that's in your head or written down somewhere. While I do have a number of songs in my head, I still prefer to write them down for reference and as an insurance against blanking in the middle of a song, and also so that I can pitch them to suit my voice. I have a pitch pipe with which I establish a suitable starting note, and thence the key.
There are three main types of songs that are sung in the SCA. There's actual mediaeval repertoire, of which I have a reasonable amount thanks to d'Artagnan's recordings; I can do various lute songs and some Tudor stuff such as Fortune my foe (to which I shall return later). There are songs specifically written within and for the SCA, often to commemorate various events; I know none of these, but I hope eventually to write some myself. And, since most people don't actually have any mediaeval repertoire, there are folk songs. I know probably hundreds of those.
However, the fact that I know hundreds of them doesn't mean I'm going to want to sing anything like all of them. I've observed on several occasions in the past that Irish songs (which is what I know best) tend to fall into at least one of four categories: a) I am in love; b) I am in trouble; c) I am in the IRA; and d) I am inebriated. For obvious reasons I'm not singing any category C songs in the SCA, though they do tend to have some fine tunes, and therefore I'm recycling a few of them (I have already written a song about a lady with a very unfortunate choice of bridegroom to go to the tune of The Croppy Boy). I'm also avoiding category D, not because there aren't some good ones, but because I have totally the wrong voice for them. To pull off something like Carrickfergus or Seven Drunken Nights effectively, you really need to sound as though you've been pickling your larynx with poteen for at least the last thirty years; and I still sound like a choirboy alto, albeit a low one. Then there's Whiskey in the Jar, which is a great song and not as Category D as you'd think, but nonetheless it's too fast for me to do it proper justice.
Last night, as I was on my way to bed, it suddenly occurred to me that the old poem King John and the Abbot of Canterbury would work perfectly to the tune of another rebel song, General Monroe, which pleased me greatly on both counts. It's a long poem, but if anyone's in the mood for a ballad, that's the one to trot out. It also has the merit of being extremely funny.
I promised to revisit Fortune my foe. When I was looking for the words online, I found any number of different versions, and a few sources confidently attributed the tune to John Dowland; my immediate reaction was "no, not his style", and therefore I was not at all surprised to discover that there were versions of it dating from forty years before Dowland was born. The tune is certainly rather solemn, but it lacks the plangency one would normally associate with Dowland. What I did find, to my surprise, was that the tune was regularly used for other words - specifically an entire genre of song of which I'd previously never heard. Execution ballads, no less. It was quite common in the Middle Ages, when someone was executed, for someone else to compose a ballad (often a lengthy one) on their behalf, often in the first person, detailing their crimes in journalistic fashion and sometimes including a pious declaration of repentance. They were generally framed as a warning to others not to do likewise, but I can't help but feel that they were also designed to feed the public appetite for sensational news; they would explain, for instance, exactly how and why Mr X killed his unfortunate wife, who his accomplices were, and what happened to them.
I do not plan to sing any of these. Nonetheless, it was a fascinating little musical detour.
There are three main types of songs that are sung in the SCA. There's actual mediaeval repertoire, of which I have a reasonable amount thanks to d'Artagnan's recordings; I can do various lute songs and some Tudor stuff such as Fortune my foe (to which I shall return later). There are songs specifically written within and for the SCA, often to commemorate various events; I know none of these, but I hope eventually to write some myself. And, since most people don't actually have any mediaeval repertoire, there are folk songs. I know probably hundreds of those.
However, the fact that I know hundreds of them doesn't mean I'm going to want to sing anything like all of them. I've observed on several occasions in the past that Irish songs (which is what I know best) tend to fall into at least one of four categories: a) I am in love; b) I am in trouble; c) I am in the IRA; and d) I am inebriated. For obvious reasons I'm not singing any category C songs in the SCA, though they do tend to have some fine tunes, and therefore I'm recycling a few of them (I have already written a song about a lady with a very unfortunate choice of bridegroom to go to the tune of The Croppy Boy). I'm also avoiding category D, not because there aren't some good ones, but because I have totally the wrong voice for them. To pull off something like Carrickfergus or Seven Drunken Nights effectively, you really need to sound as though you've been pickling your larynx with poteen for at least the last thirty years; and I still sound like a choirboy alto, albeit a low one. Then there's Whiskey in the Jar, which is a great song and not as Category D as you'd think, but nonetheless it's too fast for me to do it proper justice.
Last night, as I was on my way to bed, it suddenly occurred to me that the old poem King John and the Abbot of Canterbury would work perfectly to the tune of another rebel song, General Monroe, which pleased me greatly on both counts. It's a long poem, but if anyone's in the mood for a ballad, that's the one to trot out. It also has the merit of being extremely funny.
I promised to revisit Fortune my foe. When I was looking for the words online, I found any number of different versions, and a few sources confidently attributed the tune to John Dowland; my immediate reaction was "no, not his style", and therefore I was not at all surprised to discover that there were versions of it dating from forty years before Dowland was born. The tune is certainly rather solemn, but it lacks the plangency one would normally associate with Dowland. What I did find, to my surprise, was that the tune was regularly used for other words - specifically an entire genre of song of which I'd previously never heard. Execution ballads, no less. It was quite common in the Middle Ages, when someone was executed, for someone else to compose a ballad (often a lengthy one) on their behalf, often in the first person, detailing their crimes in journalistic fashion and sometimes including a pious declaration of repentance. They were generally framed as a warning to others not to do likewise, but I can't help but feel that they were also designed to feed the public appetite for sensational news; they would explain, for instance, exactly how and why Mr X killed his unfortunate wife, who his accomplices were, and what happened to them.
I do not plan to sing any of these. Nonetheless, it was a fascinating little musical detour.
