On the last day of Pennsic I was retaining for Her (then) Highness Vukasin. I recall she was taking a moment to eat some breakfast and invited me to sit with her at the picnic bench. We chatted about this, that, and the other. She brought up a wish she had for a special court. She wanted to have an all musical court during the reign. I geeked out over the idea and thus a plan was born. Somewhat later I was contacted by Their Majesties asking if I was still interested in assisting with a musical court. They asked if I would be willing to handle running it at Christmas Tourney which would be held in the Barony of the Flame on December 2, 2017 (AS 52). I jumped at the opportunity!
What happened next was a whirlwind of planning, reaching out to individuals and groups, and messaging back and forth about expectations and desires. Their Majesties were amazing to work with. They made certain to have an approved court list ready for me by a certain date which allowed myself and others to write the scroll texts for each recipient. Once the names of the recipients were received I asked everyone involved to help me hunt down the individuals’ personas and info. Much snooping commenced. Thank goodness for Facebook! I wanted this court be musical for all award recipients and to be unique to the individual. The last thing I wanted was for this to be a boring experience for the assembled populace. So each award recipient was assigned to one of my performers to write the award text and come up with a period song that would fit that individual’s persona. I was not disappointed! The amazing creativity of the artisans in our Kingdom is astounding! Everyone involved took to the task with enthusiasm. I couldn’t be prouder of them all! I also had the distinct pleasure of working closely with the Dragon Signet Baroness Sorcha Fraser to make sure she had all of the scroll texts and the author’s names both SCA and mundane. She was quick to respond and always seemed to have an answer for my questions. Originally my goal was to become a warranted herald so we wouldn’t have to rely on someone maybe being there. Since the goal was for court to be musical, completely musical, we needed the herald to also be musical or at least chant. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to become warranted in time, though I appreciate the help from the Dragon Herald and others. Because of this I contacted THL Dmitrii Zhirov who, if you’ve never attended a court he has heralded, is amazing. Why didn’t I think of that before? No clue. But I was very happy knowing the populace would be able to clearly hear the names of the award recipients being called in and I also knew Dmitrii would add greatly to the overall project. A great many participants were spread throughout the Kingdom. There was a larger group in our local Barony that participated because I knew them, I knew they would be at the event, and I knew I could strong-arm…er…I mean…convince them to work on this project with me. We held multiple practices to go over the awards together.There was much music nerding that happened, let me tell ya’! As the date of the event drew nearer I grew equal parts excited and nauseated. What if everyone hated it? What if all of my performers came down with strep throat? What if, and this was the worst thought, Their Majesties hated what we came up with? What if we all died because everyone hated it so much? My brain loves to work overtime on this stuff. I was confident in all of my performers. I was less confident in my ability to assist them in whatever they needed to succeed. The week leading up to Christmas Tourney was fraught with a deep personal and emotional pain that caused concern I wouldn’t be able to participate. I had other obligations for that event as well and knew I needed to be there no matter what. The TL:DR version - I ended up needing surgery, but luckily the doctor was able to schedule it for the Monday following the event. Whew! Crisis averted! Finally it was the day of the event! Nausea reigned supreme over excitement for the first few hours and then excitement took over as I made contact with each performer and confirmed details. Finally, an hour and a half before court we all got together. I had a small meeting with the performers, Dmitrii and Their Majesties. We went over what was going to happen at court, what order the awards would be given out and we practiced them in order. We even had the benefit of an additional singer join in for the fun! Court itself turned out so well. I am incredibly proud of everyone who participated. Even the populace got in on the action and sang each Huzzah with us! I tried to video tape each award separately, hopefully it turned out. If so I will post them to this page so everyone can enjoy the performances! I want to also give a special thank you to Estelle de la Mar who begged a boon for Heather Hall. Estelle contacted me prior to the event and asked if we had an accompanist for her to sing the boon. Which, OF COURSE, I would make that happen! Baroness Ysadora von Drachenstein to the rescue! I really cannot thank everyone enough for the hard work they put into this project. To Their Majesties Cellach & Vukasin – Thank you for trusting me to run this project! To Dmitrii – I could not have done this without you, thank you for being our herald and making this so memorable! To my performers – Wow! Amazing! Brilliant! I’m in awe of your skills and creativity! THANK YOU! To the populace in attendance – I cannot fully express how happy it made me when you all go in on singing the Huzzah’s! You all made it just that much more amazing for me to be part of. I love our Kingdom! In service and love, THL Honor You can find the scroll text and recipient info here The List of all Performers and Scroll Text Authors is as follows: Baroness Eleanor of the Flame Award text author and performer Mistress Bianca Rosamund Performer Posadnitsa Ilyana Yosipovna Award text author and performer Masteritsa Anastasiia Kyrilovna Award text author and performer Baroness Ysadora von Drachenstein Award text author and performer Lady Dulon mer March Award text author and performer Madam Ursula Mortimer Award text author and performer Lady Isobel Inghean Alexander Performer Lady Fujiwara no Yuuko Performer THL Honor von Atzinger Award text author and performer
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