pennsicdance: Comments from a Musician

[OctavioEarthlink]

Dear Friends,

As best I can tell, the musicians had a great time and enjoyed playing for
the dances at Pennsic this year.

Here are some of my highlights and comments.  Sorry for their random nature,
but I have barely begun to recover from the long war.

Congratulations again to Mistress Katriona.

There were enough good band leaders and the responsibilities were shared
informally to bandmaster each night.  I haven't heard any complaints. (I do
still wonder if assigning a particular band leader to each night in advance
would take some of the worry about whether a leader and band will be there
on time.)

Wolgemut presents an opportunity for the musicians to take a "night off" to
catch up on needed rest or to participate in some dancing ourselves, so I
think it's a good tradition that ought to be continued.  Similarly, the
night Ruffina and the group played for the "Real" Caroso.

We had some new, good musicians.  The outreach program during the year is a
good idea and sending out the Pennsic Pile in advance helps.  By the way, in
the future it might even work if we sent out the previous year's pile, since
the changes are usually less than 10%.  New musicians would still be able to
become familiar with the organization of the pile and most of the pieces.

One of our new musicians is blind, so I sent him a CD with a dozen or so
common dances.  He brought his hurdy-gurdy, and I think everyone enjoyed the
variety.

The orientation classes we offered brought in only about ten "students," but
those who came seemed appreciative and a couple of them became regulars on
the music dais, so we should probably continue that effort as well.

We are starting to take the dance tent and floor for granted.  We know it's
a lot of work, but it sure makes a difference--not only is it easier on the
feet, it gives a day and night feeling of being "Pennsic Dance Central."  I
especially liked the bulletin board outside, listing the day's dance
activities.

Musicians seemed to enjoy playing in both the tent and the barn.  I didn't
notice any problem being heard in either venue (maybe the tent is a little
better), but I remember the band shell in the tent in previous years did
make it easier to project.  If I remember, it was just a plywood backing at
the corner of the music area.

We ended up missing some of the "old measures" (English Revel) in the
Pennsic Pile, plus one or two other dances that were taught (Rostiboli
Spagnuolo, etc.) and one or two dances that were done or requested more than
once (Quen Quer Que).  I will work with Elsbeth and Sol to try to make sure
they are included in next year's pile.  We took some additional notes for
improvements on the pile next year.  We should start coordinating changes to
the pile now, before we forget some of the issues: (Repeat structure for
every dance, guitar chords, suggested tempo, fixes to Whirligig and Picking
of Sticks).

This year we sent out 25 copies of the Pennsic Pile in advance and had 30
more in stock at the beginning of the war.  We don't need quite as many.  If
we send 25 - 30 current piles in advance, we can probably get by with only
15 more at the war.

My hat is off to the dance teachers and leaders that gave of themselves to
help everyone else have a great time.  I especially noticed Lyev almost
every time I came into the dance tent.

Thanks to Judith and Gwommy for helping Queen Elena and me on the
Villanella!  We may not have gotten it exactly right, but we had a great
time with it and now have a new dance in the Trimaris repertoire.

Finally, thanks to Greg for all the organizational work that goes into the
dance activities.  I remarked to my wife as we left, sadly, to wait another
whole year for Pennsic XXXIII:  Of all people in the SCA, dancers and
aspiring musicians get their money's worth when they come to Pennsic.

Yours in Service,

Octavio de Flores