A first class on Meyer's rapier.
Sword terms: The sword has a point, a long edge (knuckle-side, the edge you do most of the hitting with), a short edge (the other edge, the one that faces you in stance) and a flat. Meyer uses all these surfaces to some extent.
I had an enjoyable week's fencing at Canterbury Faire. Don Emrys, Don William and I participated in the melees, which continued last year's theme of silliness with revivals of Zombie scenarios, and the addition of Space Invaders. Christine and I were both authorised in Cut and Thrust, which meant I could examine James in his Free Scholar's prize in longsword (which he easily passed), and we -- along with Emrys -- could play in the Cut and Thrust tourney. I played longsword throughout as it is my new toy.
Canterbury Faire in 2013 was outstanding for a great deal of part-singing, both in formal classes and casual singing in the campsite or around the fire.
Some of the pieces we sang were:
We had some visitors from outside Auckland today, which was lovely - thanks for joining in!
Ildhafn Council Meeting January 20th 2013
In attendance: Angela Wells (Seneschal), Shannon Wanty (Reeve), Patrick Bowman (Herald), Katherine Davies (Webwright), Chantelle Gerrard (A&S), Eleanor Hall (Marshal), Wendy Rowsell (Chatelaine), David Robb, Alasdair Muckart
Absent: No-one
Reports received online: All of them!
An excellent session, with last-minute sewing.
(See ildhafn.lochac.sca.org/music for details of each piece).
I've assembled those of our current songs that aren't covered in the Snogbook or Cantiones Secundae, and had them printed and bound, as "Ildhafn's extras". They're in my singing box, with copies of the songbooks above, and a plastic tenor recorder (for getting start-notes).
We had nearly our full complement of singers once again. Thanks for hosting it, Caterine.
A nice warm-up, as always. I'll get a pronunciation-guide together at some point.
It was nice to have all three parts represented again, in their customary octaves.
Found a few minutes to write something on these experiments on my blog. Trying to get an impression of what a medieval Englishman actually drank has turned out to be a great project.
While regular classes are on hiatas over the summer, we're not going to seed. Matt, David, Chantelle and I got together for some sparring practice on Wednesday, on the spacious lawn outside Chantelle's studio. We just played "King of the hill" for about 90 minutes, which worked out really well for the four of us: we cycled through quite quickly, so everyone got plenty of fencing, and the mix of abilities was such that everyone spent some time staying in.
We had nearly our full complement of singers once again. Thanks for hosting it, Caterine.
We've returned to singing it in C, with both men and women on each line, and women singing an octave higher than men. I've updated the sheet music and sound files. William de Cameron has switched to the top line, and Christine to the bottom line. William de Wyke and Emrys learned this for the first time.
We're continuing to vary who sings which verse.
