minstrel: Re: minstrel digest, Vol 1 #156 - 11 msgs

[Corrie Bergeron]

I'll echo the "just do it" ethos with the caveat to avoid like a 
flea-bitten rat the "shut-up-and-listen-this-is-entertainment" venue.  I 
LOVE the notion of having a "rehearsal" (nudge-nudge-wink-wink) tent!

Don't knock Irish drinking songs - I know a person who was given a Laurel 
for his facility with them.  (No, I will not name names.  I might get 
injured, as all parties involved are still living.  Let's just say the 
phrase, "My bud, the King" applies.)  Seriously, you can use them as the 
lip of a slippery slope toward real period works.  Learn - and teach - 
The Cruiscuin Lan, which has a rousing, pronouncable, and SHORT chorus in 
Gaelic.  A bonus is that the song is not blatantly OOP.

("Gra mo-chree ma kroosh-kin, Slaw-tche gal ma-voor-neen, Gra mo-chree ma 
kroosh-kin lawn, lawn, lawn, Gra mo-chree ma kroosh-kin lawn.")

Now you have them singing in another language.  Move on to The Boar's Head 
Carol, which has English verses and a Latin chorus, PLUS, adds a melody 
with decidedly non-modern phrasing.  Turn up the heat a little at a time, 
and they'll hardly notice. Finally, pass out broadsides of "Pastime With 
Good Company" and "Deo Gracias Anglia" (in large print for dim-light 
viewing) and you're in business.   

Brendan O Corraidhe (LYLYW)
corrie at itasca.net
www.itasca.net/~corrie
www.itasca.net/~corrie/scahome.htm