With the help and instruction of the Caidan Circle of Bards, the Shire of Isles, the 'i' in Caid, is very happy to host a Bardic Collegium for the Kingdom, its poets, its musicians, its historians, and its performers. As you will see below, classes are planned on bardic source material (tales, myths, historical, and SCA), performance arts (vocal, theatrical, and instrumental), history, bardic & oral traditions, and composition. The official date for Class Proposals is past, but new classes may be accomodated as space permits; you can submit them by clicking here.
Following morning and afternoon classes, please stay for a simple feast (which will be included in the site fee) and Bardic Circle, to practice what you've learned, and make closer acquaintance with the other bards of the Kingdom. During dinner, we will also have a "State of the Art" discussion.
We are also planning a Song Exchange. If you would like to participate, print out (please try to keep the page count to a minimum) a song, story, or other piece, and bring it to Troll before lunch. Your contribution will need to be your own work, or something out of copyright; we're looking for lesser-known or long forgotten, but good stuff you'd like to put (back?) into circulation. We will collect these entries, have them copied over lunch, and hand out handsomely stapled copies for free to "song donors" in the afternoon. Additional copies will be made available for sale. Then, at the evening's bardic circle, we'd encourage you to perform your donation so we can all hear it done well before we try it ourselves.
Class Schedule Class Descriptions Site, Directions, and Fees Collegium Staff
| Classroom | Room 143 | Room 145/136 | Room 160B | Room 164B | Theater | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9:00AM-ish | (Site Opens) | |||||
| 10:00AM | (Registration Opens) | |||||
| 10:30AM-11:50AM | One-on-One Vocal Coaching | Making a Raunchy Ballad Bawdy, and a Love Song Sweet (145) | Pentathlon Prep for Bards | Introduction to Period Poetry | Sea Songs & Shanties | |
| 11:50AM-1:00PM | (Lunch Break) | Focus Group: Building Bardic Arts | ||||
| 1:00PM-2:20PM | Percussion for Accompaniment | Bardic Coaching & Networking (145) | Renaissance Vocal Ornamentation | Music Notation: Reading the Black Dots | Songs We Used to Sing | |
| 2:30PM-5:30PM | Additional One-on-One Vocal Coaching | Performance Workshop: Instrumental Jam (136) | Performance Workshop: Ballads & Songs | Performance Workshop: Instant Madrigals | Performance Workshop: Storytelling & Poetry | |
| 6:00PM-7:30PM | Dinner & Roundtable Discussion (GSA Lounge) | |||||
| 7:30PM-Late | Bard's Circle (GSA Lounge) | |||||
| Midnight | (Site Closes) |
| Class Title | Instructor | Class Description |
|---|---|---|
| Sea Songs & Shanties | Don Lot Ramirez | A boatload of nautical songs & traditions |
| Bardic Pentathlon Advice | Mistress Finella Harper | Advice on composition, performance, and documentation for bardic entries into the Arts Pentathlon |
| Making a Bawdy Song Raunchy, or a Love Song Sweet | THL Eilidh Swann | Presenting yourself and your voice to convey the emotions of the song to your audience |
| One-on-One Vocal Coaching | THL Beorn of the Northern Sea | This class is designed to assist the vocalist, regardless of level of experience, in creating a more polished vocal performance. The student is to work on repertoire selection, spoken and sung diction, foreign/ancient language acquisition and general posture for the most efficient production of sound. The main body of the class will be done as a group session, with the instruction, warm-ups, and general technique instruction done with all students concurrently. This will be followed by three "public" 1-on-1 coaching slots in the main class. Private coaching slots will be available in the afternoon sessions. Please sign up for a slot for public (with an audience) or private coaching, as you prefer. |
| Introduction to Period Poetry | Vicondesa Jimena Montoya | A survey of popular poetic forms through the medieval and early renaissance periods. We will cover rhyme & meter, common themes & devices, with examples and a brief history of each. |
| Class Title | Moderator | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Focus Group on Building Bardic Arts | Lord Thomas Whitehart | If you're keen to spend your lunch hour coming up with new and better ways to improve bardic arts in Caid, bring your lunch andjoin us for a focus group discussion. We'll have more time to discuss and improve ideas, then we'll report to the State of the Art roundtable in the evening. |
| Class Title | Instructor | Class Description |
|---|---|---|
| Percussion for Accompaniment | THL Beathog nic Dhonnchaidh & THL Domhnall | Apply and learn drumming skills to accompanying stories, and songs, and learn to perform with percussive accompaniment |
| Songs We Used to Sing | Mistress Selene Colfox | A trip down memory lane, students should bring a recording device. Several older songs from SCA ages past will be presented. |
| Renaissance Vocal Ornamentation | Señora Elizaveta Arievna Lebedevna | An introduction and history of vocal ornamentation developed in the renaissance, with aple opportunity to practice several techniques. |
| Reading the Black Dots | THL Belasset de Casal Drogo | A practical introduction to reading music for the aspiring musician |
| Bardic Coaching and Networking | Lord Thomas Whitehart | Wouldn't it be great if we had a chance to tweak our bardic skills as often as fighter practice? This is a workshop to help you find and work with partners to help you develop your skills and get feedback. Knowing how to find coaching resources, how to give the right feedback, at the right time, is crucial for performers. We will work on active listening, creating a good coaching environment, and learning how to interpret that feedback. If you have a partner you want to work with, please bring them. We will also work on networking, and looking at the life cycle of a performance piece. This will be a high energy class, and involve sharing the creative process (which can be personal). So what is shared in class, stays in class. We will learn coaching, and then do some coaching. |
| Class Title | Moderator | Class Description |
|---|---|---|
| Performance Workshop: Ballads & Songs | THL Beathog nic Dhonnchaidh & THL Domhnall | Bring or borrow a pre-1700 or original ballad or song, and perform it for the group. This will be part bardic circle, part feedback, part discussion of sources, and part song exchange. Feel free to drop in and out as desired |
| Performance Workshop: Storytelling | Lord Thomas Whitehart | This workshop will be about storytelling and performing at SCA events. This is an active participation workshop, and we will share stories and perform them for each other. We will share storytelling/performing techniques, the tradition and history of bards and of storytelling. Resources, ideas and techniques will be shared, fun exercises, and it will be motivated by what the class wants to do. Come and go as you please, but if you come, please jump in and have fun! |
| Performance Workshop: Instrumental Jam | Belasset del Cassal Drogo | Bring or borrow your instrument and multiple copies of period or original sheet music . This will be part jam session, part orchestra, part discussion of sources, and part music exchange. Feel free to drop in and out as desired |
| Performance Workshop: Instant Madrigals | Lady Cecilia | Join us to become part of the evening's impromptu madrigals consort. If you're not familiar with singing in a group, plan to attend for the first hour or so (which will cover technique and general issues). You can stay for the whole time, or drop in and out between songs. |
| Additional Vocal Coaching | THL Beorn of the Northern Sea (and perhaps others) | Please sign up for 20-minute slots in the class log. These are intended to be private coaching slots, rather than a group activity. |
| Class Title | Instructor | Class Description |
|---|---|---|
| Roundtable discussion on Bardic Arts | A chance to get together and discuss the state of the Art, as it were |
Our site will be the College of Creative Studies at UC Santa Barbara, on UCen Rd, shown as Bldg. 494, in grid square F4 of this campus map. The site fee is $10 for members, $13 for non-members, and $5 for all children. Please note that this includes dinner, and the Song Exchange book if you make a donation. A $3 discount will be given to all instructors and volunteers who give up a class session to do so; make checks payable to SCA Inc./Shire of the Isles.
Those of you who have attended before know that parking is a major headache at UCSB. We will have a parking director (look for garb) starting at 9:30 to help you find a space nearby and unload. On-campus weekend parking costs $2; pay the machine and put the permit in your car. Please avoid spaces marked "24 hrs Mon-Sun"; service and vendor spots ARE legal on weekends.
From the East:Steward: Lady Mora Ottavia Spadera, mo@mrows.org; (805) 571-6264.
Regent: THL Todde mac Donnell, beans@mrows.org; (805) 571-6264.
Feastocrat: Lord Randwulf Caedes, discoking7@yahoo.com
Site-o-crat: Bebhinn, sirenidae@gmail.com