YOU Are An Inspiration!

Often, I know even I have issues with feeling like I barely make a difference in the SCA. I look at the large pond, like at Pennsic, and feel that there I am like many others. I have hopes, I have dreams, I have hobbies, I have enthusiasm. But, because of that, I don't stand out.

I also know that I have used, and heard others use, the term 'be the changes you want to see'. Tonight I was sitting down and really thinking about that. Be the change. How is being the change you want to see going to do much of anything?

Here is an example. My Commedia Troupe is hurting for attendance. We could really use more participants or, even as important, audience members. We aren't pushy. There is no hierarchy. We all just like to have fun and would like to have fun with more people. People are nervous about joining us, though. They feel like it would be awkward and, worse, 'what can one person do'. How can they support us, because they like what we are doing, without participating in the acting? How could they help us to raise our attendance so they can see more of what they enjoy?

Be the change you want to see.

Do you realize how influential you are? Do you realize how people look up to you? Do you realize what a difference YOU can make? YOU are an inspiration! Don't push it off on someone else. Don't think that someone else will do it and you can just sit back quietly. This isn't somebody else's problem. Go out there! Support the things you love!

Are you in this kind of situation? Do you find there is something in your Barony/Shire or even your Kingdom that seems to be lacking? Are you perhaps not so good at what it is (be it fighting, fencing, archery, calligraphy, etc), but you want to see it grow and prosper because you really do enjoy it, even if you can't do it? Be that change!

Sometimes all you need to do is go to the meetings. Take an hour or two, bring your crafts you are able to do with you, maybe, and go and just... be a support. It raises morale just to have new people. It refreshes the crew. I can't even begin to express how wonderful it has been to have A&S night on the same evening as Vocal Group in my area. The vocal group has an audience! Sometimes people hum along! It brightens everyone's mood to share their passions. There is no reason to agonize over 'I can't do that'.

People will notice. You will stand out. You will make a change for the better. Perhaps coming to the archery practice to watch people shoot will inspire you to song and the archers may be inspired to go to another practice in their area to learn, or even just watch. We are a community that our strength is in supporting one another.

So never think that you wont make a difference. Never believe that your voice wont be heard or that you are invisible. You are you, and because of that, you are incredible. You are an inspiration. You are a rockstar!

To read more about being a rock star, go here: ROCK STAR!!

To read more about responsibility in a volunteer organization, go here: Somebody Else's Problem

Wentlyanna's Silver Crescent

This particular scroll was a bit tricky as I have been told that the words for a Silver Crescent were different than the words for an AoA.

I ended up asking for particular moments to add from two specific people in order to make the scroll feel more personalized. These are the words I had come up with in the end, inspired by a letter from Hildebert of Lavardin (c. 1120?)

http://epistolae.ccnmtl.columbia.edu/letter/92.html:

"Brennan Augustus, Emperor Orientalis, and Caoilfhionn Augusta, Empress Orientalis, to Our subject Wentlyanna Bengrek, We send strength and perpetual joy. From what We hear about you Our spirits rejoice for We know that you have been led to the path of service and run unobstructed to the East Kingdom's call. We have seen that you are a most brilliant marshal surrounded by troops of fencers; that you provide what is necessary to the field, to assist the community or fight most willingly. We also attend your confessions of hospitality to highborn and lowborn, barons, knights, stewards alike, going as far as to provide a parade of fools with refreshment under the sun all in the name of Our Kingdom. Service is a great treasure and it needs great care. You, therefore, remember to embrace this, knowing that there is nothing by which to triumph more gloriously over stagnation. You could do little except the good to which you bound yourself in with wisdom and the smile you wear. This is indeed right and just, that you might receive the awaited reward, necessary to add to the others. If you don't know what this course is, it is best understood by these present letters. You hereby shall be and are inducted into the Order of the Silver Crescent, with all the rights and honors attendant thereon, and are hereby directed, assigned, and instructed to bear the insignia of said Order as a sign of your worth and Our favor. Sealed and inscribed by Our hand on the 5th of July, A.S. XLIX in Our Barony of Glenn Linn at Northern Region War Camp."

To try and keep with Wentlyanna'sWelsh persona, I had decided to use a page from the Ricemarch Psalter, and 11th century manuscript:

And here is the final result:

The Four Levels of the SCA

Recently, there was a Renaissance Faire in my neck of the woods. It was a first time affair, and months before it happened they had reached out to the SCA community for support and thoughts. The responses were... varied.

I went to the event on the one weekend they were open and rather enjoyed myself, as well as saw quite a few SCAdians there.

I was asked my thoughts, asked who I saw, and I responded that it was nice hanging out with three very different sets of people there:

Some were aloof and just checking out the space.
Some had jumped in head first and was ready to show off what they could do.
The other was just happy to be there and be a support without needing to be a major support.

The ones we didn't see were the ones who were flat out against the idea of Renaissance Faires because they were not period and do not fit into the ideals of the SCA. Which I can understand. I have many times wandered a Ren Faire and had to bite my tongue to keep from playing the 'that is so not period' game.

Suddenly it dawned on me: There are four factions to the SCA. I'm going to talk about them in general terms as well as in terms of the new people joining the SCA in hopes that the insight will help us, as a group, to determine how to go about creating safe space or havens of creativity for all the types of new people that will be coming to the SCA just like how the SCA was asked to join the Renaissance Faire.

The first group are those people who are experts in their field. They feel they know best and they are rather knowledgeable. If they do not see things being done to their code, they will not take part. They want things to be a certain way. People may view them as snobs or elite when, in reality, they only see a point in doing the things that are done to their standards and don't find a reason to waste energy when they are not. These traits, when found in newbies, can cause a very hard sell on the SCA. There are always going to be modern laxities that will make the purists uncomfortable. And when they are new to the SCA, they wonder why they bother if it isn't strict enough.

The next group are those who are cautious, trying to decide what is in it for them. They want to see if they can bring a certain type of glory by using things as a tool to get what they need or want out of it. They will do things if it will be a benefit to them, but otherwise they would typically steer clear. They are more cautious and aloof, watching from the sidelines to see what they can get out of things. A lot of newbies can be seen in this genre. Inviting them in to learn or showing them what they can gain is typically the goal in these situations, but it can be difficult because of their stance.

Another group is happy to jump in and very enthusiastic. They love what they do and are happy to show it off anywhere, teaching and talking to everyone they come across. They are the people you will find at every event with their hands into everything, just wanting to do it and try it all. They want to be seen in the sense of showing what they know and learning what they don't. These are a fantastic type of people and finding newbies in the SCA that are like this is a great find! Unfortunately, because of the 'have to do it all' attitude, they can burn out quite easily. These are the SCAdians that want to make and do and have a hard time sitting still. They want to be teaching classes, learning things from everyone they meet, and volunteer for any role the instant that there is a need/desire for filling it.

The last group just wants to be of support to anyone and everyone they come across. They see something that excites them and they don't necessarily -need- to be a part of it, but they are going to support it in a big way. Sometimes this just means going to the event as support for the autocrat or even going to a class they have no interest in just because they want to support their friend that is teaching it. They want to see things flourish and grow, even if they are not the ones that are doing it. Sometimes just being one of the number counts in a big way towards helping things lean in one direction or the other. This is an aspect seen in newer members in the SCA that are not sure where they fit in. They would like to be of help, but they want it to be something small or something where they can show support but can still sit on the sidelines and smile and have a good time without having to be on the field and fighting. They can easily be urged into the service field of helping out at troll or maybe serving tables during feast. I have seen quite a few SCAdians start in this manner.

These are all just different ways to enjoy what we do. I know people who fit into each of the categories and am proud to call them all friends. I have noticed me flipping back and forth between two of the categories and find I am quite happy to be filling both of them. You don't have to be just one of these. Some people hold various different traits depending on what part of their passion you are talking to them about. Some people want to support the arts even though they may not know a thing about it, but they dive into the enthusiastic marshal activities and may be very strict when it comes to heraldry. There is nothing wrong with it at all.

This is merely just to point out that we are all different and suppose we should be looking at all these different things and discussing what the best tactics are for each of the four factions when it comes to demos and trying to recruit new members.

This is also not to say there are only four attitudes in the SCA. These are just the most prominent ones that I have seen.

AoA for Irmel von Lubeck at War of the Roses 2014

I was given the rare and amazing opportunity to create an AoA for someone I didn't think I knew! But, I knew the person who had recommended them and asked about the identity. I came to find out it was someone I have known for years! They just finally decided on a SCAdian name! I was so excited to work on something for someone I knew, so I had to make sure to work it well.

Unfortunately, I wasn't given much more than 'German' for the persona, so when I began my words, I decided to work with the fact that the current King and Queen consider themselves Emperor and Empress. That made it easier. These were the words I came up with (with help from Alys to clean them up) based on A letter from Cunegund of Swabia, Queen of Bohemia (1238, February 22):

"Brennan Imperator Orientalis, and Caoilfhionn Imperatrix Orientalis, to all those to whom this current letter will come, Our favor and all good will and the witness of truth to this writing.

Since the dignity of Our nobility and royal mercy demands this, to benign and favorable assent to the just requests of all, so that anyone may enjoy the presence of Our mercy for their necessity and need, among all whom We support with such consolation of our protection and fostering comfort, We embrace them to the utmost with very wide arms, from whom We hope merit to increase the tranquility and governance of Our temporal realm.  

So heeding these demands, We, in the custom of the Empire, bring Irmel von Lubeck into Our presence.   We have received word in Our court and in Our presence establishing her loyalty and dedication to the Empire.  Service for service, she teaches, advises, and guides those who wish to learn her crafts of dance or fiber, as well as imbibes in the teachings of others. In dedication, she has offered service to Our events. Considering the sincere devotion to her craft she has thus far shared and her loyalty to the Empire, and wishing that she herself should immediately hold and also recognize always from Us and from the Empire great favor for all of the aforesaid things, we do therefore award Irmel von Lubeck the right to bear arms.  We do further establish and decree the aforesaid award by imperial edict, in order that no person high or lowborn, ecclesiastic or secular, no duke, marquis, count or viscount, should presume to challenge with audacious attempt the rights herein granted.

That all of this may have the force of stability, we have had the present page fortified by the authority of Our signs manual.  Enacted at Concordia of the Snows, Anno Societatis XLIX, in the month of May, day 24."

 

The font for the calligraphy as well as the illumination was based on the manuscript of the Gospels of Henry the Lion. I actually stared at the manuscript and searched out each letter and made myself a cheat sheet of the styles of lettering used.

AoA for Kataryn Mercer called Kit

On January 8th, 2014 I was given my first ever scroll assignment. It was an AoA due at King and Queen's Arts and Sciences competition for a women I didn't know at all. But I got to view a lot of her work through facebook photos and also got to know her through what was written about her. I also had the honor of sitting next to the quite amazing woman at the event as we were stationed beside each other.

I wasn't fully certain what I was doing, but I was given a time and place(she liked doing arts in late period Italian) and worked with that. I decided I would first start with the words since the words would help me work from there.

The words which were based on various resources from Period written works (with help editing and cleaning up by Alys):

Whenever our faithful subjects propose things that are in harmony with the motive of justice and pertain to the good weal of the Kingdom, not only should they not be denied with stubborn mind, but they should be granted laudably with ready heart and benevolent mind. Further, since the memory of men is fleeting, lest those just and harmonious acts urged upon us by our faithful subjects fall away in time, such acts are and ought to be secured by writings and witnesses.  Therefore, let it be known to all present and future that we, Kenric King and Avelina Queen, for the comfort and honor of the Barony of Dragonship Haven, call upon their subject Kataryn Mercer.  We have partaken of your great generosity of gifts contrived and entrusted to the Crown and Barony. As well We have heard of the establishing of classes and your service at Our events. Thus it is that we honor, recognize, and award  unto Kataryn Mercer, known as Kit, the right to bear the arms Per pale Or and argent, in chief in fess three pine trees couped sable, the said arms to be borne without let or hindrance from any person, and do further invest and endow the said Kataryn with all the rights and responsibilities attendant upon such an elevation to this rank from this day onward.   Sealed and signed by our hand at King’s and Queen’s Arts and Sciences Championship in Barony of Concordia of the Snows on  February 22, AS 48.

 

Next I decided on the choice of illumination as well as calligraphy option. I used the Hours of Lorenzo de' Medici as my manuscript inspiration. The calligraphy was a cadel first letter with a gothica littera bastarda font for the rest of the manuscript.

 

This was also the first time I ever read a scroll in court. It was kind of a trifecta of making someone's day for me.

 

Cuidoient li losengier Linguistics

Cuidoient Phonetic Interpretation

by Katrusha Skomorokh

In my most recent language project, I focused on a song in French called 'Cuidoient li losengier'. The song was written by Guillebert de Berneville in the 13^th Century and can be found in The Anthology of Music: Medieval Music, on page 73. The point of this project was to teach myself proper medieval French phonetics.

My fall back for learning any language is to use IPA (the International Phonetic Alphabet). It is something my mind can fully understand and using the knowledge from the descriptions of various phonemes, I am able to create the necessary sounds needed to produce the language as it was hopefully produced in the time period of Guillebert de Berneville.

The difficulty with this project, as with any project that comes to language, is that you will always have regional variants and discrepancies. As stated in Singing Early Music, “Conon de Bethune was embarrassed by the mockery by court people (even by the queen) of his regionalized Artois or Picard speech, and he claims in a poem that it is uncourtly to make fun of someone else's pronunciation.” In other words, our most useful guide to pronunciation through the ages is by looking at written text. The earlier the text, the more probable that all letters that are seen were meant to be pronounced. This created the issue (or perhaps the pleasant knowledge) that as the centuries came and went, it was usually the uneducated that would would continue to reflect the evolution of pronunciation. Just as children have a tendency to spell based on the sound instead of the actual proper spelling, uneducated people in the middle ages gave us hints as to the pronunciations while the educated told us the correct spellings.

We can also see a lot of influences of French in Middle English or Middle High German and vice versa. This can also help us to figure out pronunciations as well. Taking everything into consideration with this song, from what education the man who wrote it may have had to the region where he was located and the time period of the piece all helped me begin to learn what could have been the pronunciation of 'Cuidoient li losengier'.

To begin this research, I decided to work backwards. It is much easier to see how things would be pronounced now and start working through the language in that manner. Being completely clueless as to what French even sounds like (it was not my language of choice during my school years), I found I was in need of some help.

The first verse of the song reads as such:

Coidoient li losengier

Por ce se il ont menti

Que je me doie eslongnier

D'amors et de mon ami

E non Dieu, je l'amerai

Et bone amor servirai

Nuit et jor

Sans fere folor

Et g'iere envoisie

Chantant et jolie

I asked for a phonetic interpretation. Here in lies one of the biggest difficulties in language. Studying it is really an activity where you need to actively be listening. Spellings, dialect differences, and personal preference can all create problems for someone trying to work out pronunciations.

This is the phonetic translation that I was given:

kwee-dwah-ehnt lee loh-sehn-zjer

pohr keh she eel ohnt mehn-tee

keh zjuh meh dwah ehs-lwahn-zjehr

dah-mohrs eht deh mohn ah-mee

ah nohn deeoo zjeh lahm-ehr-ay

eht bohn ah-mor sehr-vee-ray

nooeet eht zjohr

sahns feh-reh foh-lohr

eh zjeehr-eh ehn-vwah-zee

shahn-tahnt eht zjoh-lee

In IPA, in my opinion, that would be written like this:

kwidwaɛnt li losɛnʤiɛɹ

pɔɹ keɪ seɪ il oʊnt mɛnti

keɪ ʤʌ mɛ dwa ɛslwaŋʤiɛɹ

damɔɹs ɛt dɛ mɔn ami

ɛ nɔn diʊ ʤɛ lamɛreɪ

ɛt bɔnɛ amɔɹ sɛɹviɛreɪ

nʊit ɛt ʤɔɹ

sans fɛɹɛ foʊlɔɹ

ɛ ʤiɛɹɛ ɛnvwazi

ʃantant ɛt ʤoʊli

This was my experiment of reading it out loud to myself before properly hearing what it sounded like. The biggest flaws in my first dry run is not having the nasalized vowels [ã, ɛ̃, ɔ̃, and æ̃] or the voiced uvular fricative [ʁ] which is much different from our voiced alveolar approximant [ɹ]. I sat down and listened to the pronunciation of this verse again as well as taking my French dictionary that has the pronunciations written in IPA, I was able to create a new written idea of how this would be pronounced in modern French. Unfortunately, many words were not in the dictionary as this is a Medieval poem and a lot of changes have happened in language since then, so I had to trust my friend's thoughtful pronunciation.

kwidwaɛ̃t li lɔzɛ̃ʒiʁ

pɔʁ sə sə il mɛ̃ti

kə ʒə mə dwa ɛslwãʒiʁ

damuʁz e də mɔ̃ ami

ø nɔ̃ djø ʒə lamɛʁe

e bɔ̃ɛ amuʁ sɛʁviʁe

nɥi e ʒɔʁ

sã feʁe fɔloʁ

ø ʒiʁe ãvwazi

ʃãtã e ʒɔli

Of course, I then began to wonder what, exactly, the medieval pronunciation of this song would be. An alphabet has two rules when it is created. Those rules are:

1. Each symbol should represent a sound.

2. No spoken sound should be represented by more than one symbol.

In those regards, that means that as language evolves, we get the confusion of multiple letters together creating a new sound, or even letters becoming silent depending on the words. The only way to figure out how this song would have been pronounced would be to start at the beginning of language (as close as we are able to study) and slowly move forward to the time and place where this particular song was created.

As questions began to arise, I began working side by side by side with the modern French dictionary, my text book from the International Phonetic Association, and a wonderful book called Singing Early Music that specifically looks at the changes of language using the International Phonetic Alphabet.

Where to start? Well, there are important things to look at. First, I searched for a visual of the actual manuscript, as there is a lot you can learn from looking at the actual piece. I also wanted to do some research on the author of the piece as well as the area he was from and any other little tidbits that would help me to learn more about how things would be pronounced.

I began by scrutinizing the manuscript while looking back and forth with the recent publication in a more modern musical notation. There is so much that can plausibly be lost in translation, so I wanted to make sure that I was able to view the actual source instead of just someone else's interpretation of the source. I am glad I did. There are various things I learned, all were were important, from viewing the manuscript.

-Space was, for some reason, limited, even though the song was laid out where new lines would just start wherever the word would fit. There is an interesting mix of omitting whole words (in the slight chorus-like refrain that is seen in 4 of the 5 verses), omitting letters (also in that chorus-like refrain), and squishing extra letters above the word in question to finish the word. It seems, often, like poor planning.

-The scribing, for that time period, was sloppy without proper kerning or straight lines for the letters.

-The authors signature was in the middle of the page between song lyrics. This could mean that this was a book passed around by various authors, perhaps even a book of the Puy d'Arras (which I will talk about later).

-I find it odd that the repeated section (that only differs, alone, in the second verse) starts, written in the music, as "et siere (it honestly looks like an s, not a g like all the others) envoisie. chantant et jolie." The second verse states "sen sui renvoisie chãtãt." which makes it look familiar to the modern IPA for the song. It then stops there with no symbol to mean 'continue the phrase' or anything. The third says "et giere envoisie." (fixed from the first ending) again ending with no further symbol. The fourth, "et giere." and then the last, "et giere envoisie chantant et jolie." returning us back to the original full phrasing.

-It is impossible, by viewing the manuscript by an amateur like me, to be able to tell rhyme scheme or meter of the piece. But I know that trouveres were very big on rhyme and meter, so the only way I was going to learn more about that was through IPA and looking at the Oxford Anthology printed edition of the song.

It was now time to begin looking at the difference between modern French and Medieval French. The biggest changes, of course, are between the alphabet actually being used to its full extent in Early French (remember the rules for an alphabet?) and certain phonemes either no longer being used or having been simplified by the time we get to modern French.

So, for example, let's look at the early French IPA translation possibility for the song (for, as Conon would say, there are regional varieties and we shouldn't make fun. But according to Singing Early Music, these rules were traditionally used through most of France) next to the Modern. The early French will be on the left, modern on the right.

kɥidɔjãnt li lɔsãnʤjɛr̥            kwidwaɛ̃t li lɔzɛ̃ʒiʁ

pɔr̥ ʦə sə il õnt mãnti            pɔʁ sə sə il ɔ̃ mɛ̃ti

kə ʤə mə dɔjɛslɔjɲjɛr̥             kə ʒə mə dwaslwãʒiʁ

dãmɔr̥s ɛt də mõn ãmi           damuʁz e də mɔ̃ ami

ɛ nõn djɛw ʤə lãmər̥ɛ            ø nɔ̃ djø ʒə lamɛʁe

ɛt bõnãmɔr̥ sɛr̥vir̥ɛ                e bɔ̃amuʁ sɛʁviʁe

nɥit ɛt ʤɔr̥                            nɥi e ʒɔʁ

sãns fɛr̥ɛ fɔlɔr̥                       sã feʁe fɔloʁ

ɛt ʤjɛrãnvɔjsiə                      ø ʒiʁãvwazi

ʧãntãnt ɛt ʤɔliə                  ʃãtãt e ʒɔli

What we are seeing here is that in early French, all letters were pronounced, unlike in modern French. There is also a difference in the [r̥] and the [ʁ]. The first is a voiceless alveolar tap or flap, much like the modern r's in Spanish. The later, a voiced uvular fricative, was not even introduced into French speech until the mid-sixteenth century, and even then it wasn't accepted into cultured speech (poetry, music, etc) until the end of the seventeenth century (Singing Early Music, pg 73). Most of the sounds are seen in both the early and modern French, though. It is in the vowels that the most changes happen through time.

But was this an early French song, teetering in the 13^th century when a lot of changes happen in language? It is now time to answer some further questions. Early French is stated to go from 1100-1250, while middle French is stated to go from 1250-1450, so being in the century that sees a lot of change (which, of course, didn't happen in a year, but we can at least lean towards one graduation or the other based on spellings, life of the author, and where/what was going on at that time/place), it was time to broaden my research to more than just the linguistics of a single song.

As is stated in the book Singing Early Music, “...all were increasingly dominated from the end of the twelfth century by Francien, the language used by the royal court...” This helps us in being able to believe that troubadours of France who were seen in courts would, most likely, according to this and the words of Conon, be speaking the same dialect as the courts spoke. So although there is a possibility of dialect differences, we can feel fairly certain that this will not be a huge discrepancy for our troubadour in question.

Gillebert de Berneville is stated to have flourished between 1250-1280. He was a French trouvere that, in his time, was appreciated and popular. Despite this, his songs are only seen in a handful of chansonniers. Gillebert had contact with the a lot of prominent men around the area of Arras, close to his home of Berneville. He worked with many poets in the region and even competed (and had one poem crowned) in the Puy d'Arras.

The Puy d'Arras was a medieval poetical society in Arras that held competitions between trouveres in courtly love lyrics. The president, annually elected, presided over the competitions. Its favored style of poetry was the jeu parti, composed when one troubadour would present a questions and take it up in debate with another, each taking different sides.

The region of Arras was a huge culture center in France, especially for trouveres. Between the culture, the society of Puy d'Arras, and the important figures seen in Gillebert's life, he was certainly educated well enough that he would most likely be in the trending of where language was at that time, leaving us with the decision to use middle French. In fact, as in 1180 Arras became an important location for banking and trade, wool being of great importance since the 4th century, the entire area would be following language trends, for certain.

But the manuscript was not helping me learn a date. Gillebert flourished for 30 years, but that doesn't even mean that this was written during his years of flourishing The Oxford Anthology, though, has a bibliography under the musical bars. It says:

R 1287; Paris; Biblioteque de l'Arsenal, MS 5198, p. 145.

Whether this means the song was written in 1287 or the book was finished in 1287, I do not know. But we can work on the middle French and then view the differences between the two and use that to determine which we should be using. Once again, we will look at early French on the left and middle French on the right.

kɥidɔjãnt li lɔsãnʤjɛr̥             kɥidwɛãn li lɔzãnʒjɛr̥

pɔr̥ ʦə sə il õnt mãnti             pɔ sə sə i õn mãnti

kə ʤə mə dɔjɛslɔjɲjɛr̥              kə ʒə mə dwɛlwɛɲjɛr̥

dãmɔr̥s ɛt də mõn ãmi           dãmɔr̥ ɛ də mõ ãmi

ɛ nõn djɛw ʤə lãmər̥ɛ             ɛ nõ djø ʒə lãmər̥ɛ

ɛt bõnãmɔr̥ sɛr̥vir̥ɛ                  ɛ bõnãmɔr̥ sɛr̥vir̥ɛ

nɥit ɛt ʤɔr̥                             nɥi ɛ ʒɔr̥

sãns fɛr̥ɛ fɔlɔr̥                         sãn fɛr̥ɛ fɔlɔr̥

ɛt ʤjɛrãnvɔjsiə                        ɛ ʒjɛrãnvwɛsiə

ʧãntãnt ɛt ʤɔliə                    ʃãntãn ɛ ʤɔliə

So, how do we decide which is more likely? I go back to the original manuscript. That one small discrepancy that I spoke of where letters/words were omitted. The second verse states "sen sui renvoisie chãtãt”. It is obviously a quick handed manner of making sure people can still read the word. It could be that the symbols that look like ~'s above the a's could be tiny n's. But the one thing they are not able to get rid of are the t's. Perhaps because, in that time period, not all the t's would be pronounced which means, if you didn't write them, people would think it was a different word. Look at the English word 'sign'. If someone left out the 'g' because you can't hear it in there (as an uneducated person may), we have the word 'sin'. Completely different words with completely different meanings. This makes me lean towards the middle English for phonetic transcription.

Also, it is said in Singing Early Music that in early French, any time two vowels were next to each other, they were each pronounced separately. Many were starting to blend in middle French. Because of this, the only way for the song to have a measured meter is if it were in middle French.

I also took the opportunity to view other trouvere songs of the time period, both the examples in the book as well as a book of women troubadours of France. They also had similar spellings for words that earlier (and, of course, later period) did not concur with. This confirmed two things for me. One, that Gillebert was educated. And two, that Arras was strongly influenced, because of its culture and activity, by the changing languages making them well seated in middle French at that time.

Most of the changes were in silencing of letters or in the vowels. There wasn't much change in the actual consonants. There were certainly rules seen for middle French as far as how to pronounce words. Here is a quick notation on them, taken from the easily more explained versions in Singing Early Music:

-spellings do not reflect pronunciation

-simplified affricatives: [s], [ʃ], [ʒ]

-silent [s] seen before consonants and in final position

-loss of many final consonants

-c before an a, o, or u is pronounced [k]; before an e or i is pronounced [s]

-ch is pronounced [ʃ]

-g before an a, o, or u is pronounced [ɡ]; before an e or i is pronounced [ʒ]

-j is pronounced [ʒ]

-l at the beginning of a word or syllable is pronounced [l]; if followed by a consonant, even if in the next word, is pronounced [w]; if il or ill, pronounced [ʎ]

-n and m both are still pronounced after their nasalized vowels

-[ɲ] is pronounced much like the Spanish ñ and usually spelled gn or ign

-q or qu is pronounced [k]

-r is pronounced [r̥] much like in modern Spanish or Italian

-rr is pronounced as [r̥] with a single tap only in speech, having not been accepted in song as such until mid 17th C.

-all final consonants disappeared in popular language, but in literary (song and poetry), the situation was complex. Inside a line of verse, s was only pronounced if the following word began with a vowel and it was voiced: [z]. At a pause or end of the line a final s was fully pronounced [s]. Inside a word s was always silent even though it remained in spellings until 18th C. Before disappearing, s was pronounced in an aspirated form [x] before transforming into a lengthening of vowel form. (To me, I am hearing... s is forever and always silent when followed by a consonant unless it ended a word or began a word. It certainly confuses me quite a bit, that's for certain.)

-x was used commonly for -us which was usually pronounced as [ws]
-z is pronounced [s]

There are also many rules for the vowels because, as I mentioned, they were starting to muddle and flow together at that point. I recommend picking up the book to learn more in that aspect as it is much too much to describe here.

It wasn't until after I had finished all the IPA for the song that I learned two incredibly important things that will help in learning the music and singing the piece.

-The rhyme scheme is a/b/a/b/c/c/d/d/e/e

-The meter scheme is 7/7/7/7/7/7/3/5/6/6

With that new knowledge, I was able to use IPA to finish the rest of the song.

(Please click on pictures to make them larger.)

Here I have rewritten the manuscript in IPA and it wasn't until I placed the musical notes on the staff did the music finally make sense to me. It is because in IPA I am able to see and know where the syllable breaks are that, looking at the actual language, I have no idea. For example, I always know the fourth syllable gets a three trilled note on one of the lines while all the other syllables in that line only get a single note. It does not mean that they are all whole notes or half notes. Just that each syllable is a mono - tone instead of a poly - tone. Being able to visualize all the breaks in the words is very helpful as I have, many times, tried to sing songs before where you can never figure out where syllables are to be placed according to the notes or even how many syllables a word has to be able to place them to the notes.

Here is the consonant chart along with the diagram of sound creation within the head. This chart shows all the consonant sounds that will be seen and used in Middle French. Of course, we can't say for certain that this is true without a doubt as we do now know that people made fun of accents of those in the same country. You will notice that all the consonants stay within the mouth, especially closer to the front. The closer we get towards modern French, the more we see a lot of the sounds moving uvular, more towards the back of the throat.

Here on the vowel chart, we can see the triangle formed by the various vowels in the mouth. The diagram at the top shows us the frontal closed sound of [i] which is pronounced like the sound in 'bee'. In the upper back of the mouth, still closed, we have the sound [u] like in the word 'too'. Our palate then rises as out tongue drops, mouth opening, and we find ourself with the more open [a] sound pronounced like 'baa'. All the vowels we will find, with the exception of those that have the [~] mark which makes them nasalized, all our vowels are going to be voiced within this small triangle formed in the mouth. Where you see the [e] next to the [y] sound, the only difference is that when we say [e], our lips are usually spread wide. If we round our lips into a more circular shape, we produce the sound [y]. You may not hear it right away, but that is because we are not always able to hear or pronounce phonemes that we do not use growing up: they leave our vocabulary, so to speak. Typically when two symbols are beside each other, though, you can experiment with the sound that on the left is more open and wide, and on the right is more rounded and tight.

When we look at modern French, we find more of our vowels becoming nasalized and pushing more towards the back of the throat, forcing the triangle seen here to change shape and location in the mouth.

With all this knowledge one can more confidently be able to pronounce words as they may have been pronounced in the past, being able to create the music with more of a period feel than we often can with our more modern learning.

I know that my research here really forces people to have a deeper knowledge of IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) than many possibly may already have, so I would like to refer people to my starter course on IPA that I created, trying to keep the information in layman's terms in hopes that reading that will help teach someone enough that they can begin to understand more of what I am doing with my language research. Please view that handout here.

Bibliography

McGee, Timothy J., A. G. Rigg and David N. Klausner, eds. Singing Early Music: The Pronunciation of European Languages in the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1996.

Berneville, Guillebert de. “Cuidoient li losengier.” The Oxford Anthology of Music: Medieval Music. Ed. W Thomas Marrocco and Nicholas Sandon. Oxford: University Press. 1977. 73.

Handbook of International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet. Cambridge: University Press. 1999. 78-81.

Bogin, Meg. The Women Troubadours. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. 1976.

Barron's French – English Dictionary. United States: Barron's Educational Series, Inc. 2006.

Theodore Karp. "Gillebert de Berneville" Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press, accessed 8 January 2013.

Puy d'Arras http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puy_d%27Arras accessed 14 February, 2014.

Desserts for East Kingdom 12th Night (recipes)

I was asked to make the dessert course for East Kingdom 12th Night. For those of you who had stayed and were able to enjoy the feast and end your evening with the dessert, here are the recipes for each part.

Honey Mousse
Makes about 4-5 cups of mousse

1 1/4 cup honey
4 eggs

Separate all eggs. Gradually beat the yolks and the honey together. Once blended, cook over a slow fire, stirring constantly, until they are thick. Put yolks aside. Beat egg whites until they are stiff, but not dry. Gently and gradually fold the whites into the yolk mixture a little at a time until fully blended. Chill until firm.


Pyramid Cakes (From the El Cid cookbook and documented to: Gran, Mark. Roman Cookery. London: Serif Cookery, 1999. 43. Print.)
Makes about 40 small pyramids

1 cup water
1 cup honey
2 cups semolina flour
3 sticks of butter - room temperature
1 tablespoon coriander

In a small pot, bring the honey and water to a slow boil. Once boiling, remove from heat and set aside. Put semolina flour in a large skillet over medium heat and toast it, stirring often, until it changes color. Add the butter and continue stirring, sautéing the semolina until it is golden brown in color. Add the syrup to the semolina and stir until well mixed (you can use a food processor if necessary). Heat everything over medium heat until it sets up and becomes like a firm cookie dough. Remove from heat and press into molds. Chill and remove. Freezes excellently. Serve at room temperature.


Apple Kisses (Toomre, Joyce. Classic Russian Cooking: Elena Molokhovets' A Gift to Young Housewives. Indiana University Press, Bloomington & Indianapolis: page 393.)
Makes about 40 cookies

5 apples
3/4lbs of sugar
1 egg white

Bake apples until they are no longer firm and press them through a fine sieve. Add to the strained apples the sugar and egg white. Mix in a bowl surrounded by ice or snow, stirring for 2 hours until thick and a spoon stands up straight in it (I used my kitchen aide with a whip attachment and the volumes I was working with took about 20 minutes). Spoon heaps onto paper and bake in a low oven (200 degrees for 3 hours, until fully dry).


Honey Apples (Savelli, Mary. Tastes of Anglo-Saxon England. Anglo Saxon Books, Norfolk, England: 2002. page 52.)
Serves 9

6 slices wheat bread
1 cup milk
1/2 cup apple cider
1/2 tsp clove
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup honey
1 cup raisins
1 medium apple

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cube the bread and then let it soak in the milk and cider for about 15 minutes. Peel, core, and chop apple and mix that, and all remaining ingredients together. Add the apples to the bread and mix. Place everything into a pan set inside a larger pan with an inch of water in it. Bake for 45 minutes.