Hi Jadzia-<div><br></div><div> Thank you for a well thought out and well written reply, it didn't sound defensive at all - I hope my initial question didn't come across as too aggressive! </div><div><br></div><div>
Given your reasoning, I think that an early period music event sounds like a reasonable event for Cynnabar to put on.</div><div><br></div><div>Regards,</div><div>-Gregoire.<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Aug 17, 2011 at 6:30 PM, Monique Rio <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:mrio@umich.edu">mrio@umich.edu</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">This is a very good question and one Aaron and I have thought quite a<br>
bit about. I hope this doesn't come off as overly defensive...<br>
<br>
1) The major reason for not just expanding Terp to include music is<br>
this: overlap between musicians and dancers is huge. In our Barony<br>
alone, the primary dancers are: Alina, Magda, Ermenrich, Kasha, Aaron,<br>
Arin, and myself. Only Alina and Ermenrich aren't in the choir. In the<br>
greater dance community it's a similar situation. Dancers are often<br>
musicians, musicians (even more likely) are often dancers. I know of<br>
several musician/dancers who I never see playing music because when<br>
they go to dance events they're there to dance. Period. Lots of<br>
dancers don't think that Aaron and I dance because they only see us<br>
playing music. Terpsichore is one of the few events where we aren't<br>
forced to choose between music and dancing, and it's really nice.<br>
<br>
2) Even if I could fill 3 tracks of music classes at Terpsichore, our<br>
site wouldn't be big enough.<br>
<br>
3) We would probably have to have a truly open pit for the Terpsichore<br>
ball***, and that would not be cool. One of the things Terp is known<br>
for is the quality of Ritornello. The reason the band is as good as it<br>
is is that we practice the music as a group for several months<br>
beforehand. If we were billing Terpsichore as a Dance /and/ Music<br>
event then the musicians that came for the music part of the workshop<br>
would understandably want to play music during the evening<br>
festivities. The reasonable thing to do would open the pit to the<br>
attendees. As the organizer, I'd feel pressured to do so in any case.<br>
<br>
Having been in many and directed a few open pits, the minute you open<br>
it up the quality goes down for perfectly understandable reasons. A<br>
few those reasons are: people's familiarity with music vary widely,<br>
people's ability to take cues from the director vary widely, and<br>
people's skill on their instrument vary widely. At Terpsichore this<br>
first is really important. A lot of new or not-well-known<br>
reconstructions of dances are done, so even for those of us who play a<br>
lot, there are a good number of new dances for us to learn every year.<br>
<br>
The other option would be to have separate things for the musicians to<br>
do--similar to the Hafla for the Middle Eastern Dancers--but then<br>
you're asking the members of Ritornello to choose between two great<br>
options, and I think in the end the overall quality of everything<br>
would be diminished: the band, the musician focused activities... and<br>
quite frankly even the ball itself.<br>
<br>
4) Dancers want their musicians to dance. The better the musicians<br>
know the dances they play the better they can play the music for the<br>
dancers. Tempting the musician/dancers away from dancing with shiny<br>
music classes and musical activities does not improve the standard of<br>
dance music playing in our Society.<br>
<br>
5) Branding: Right now Terp is known as a Dance event. Changing that<br>
image would take years. Plus, from experience with KWDMS, dance events<br>
have a hard time supporting more than one music track. I went to just<br>
about every music class at KWDMS this year. There were a lot of<br>
musicians at that event, but only a handful of classes drew them away<br>
from the many dance classes offered. More often than not<br>
dancer/musicians choose dance classes over music classes at dance<br>
events.<br>
<br>
6) There really ought to be a separate music event in this kingdom.<br>
The East has one. Once upon a time there was a Musicians Day in the<br>
Middle Kingdom. There are at least 2 major dance events in the kingdom<br>
and a variety of smaller events but not even one get together for<br>
period musicians (There are some bardic events but these are not<br>
primarily focused on period music.) In the mundane world of Early<br>
Music and Dance there's a thriving series of Early Music Workshops<br>
where no dancing is done at all, and people pay 100s of dollars to go<br>
there. Granted the caliber of teachers we'd have compared to those<br>
workshops aren't the same, but my point is, it's not a crazy or new<br>
idea to have an event dedicated to Early Music. They exist elsewhere.<br>
People attend and they even pay lots of money to do it.<br>
<br>
7) I personally have no interest in building a music component at<br>
Terpsichore. While I'm definitely more of a musician than a dancer, I<br>
like that we have an event where I can take and teach dance classes<br>
knowing I'm not missing out on any music classes. Also, until I knew<br>
there was a strong core of people attending all the music classes, I'd<br>
feel I'd have to sit in on every music class. Meaning I wouldn't teach<br>
any dance classes and I wouldn't go to any dance classes. If we had<br>
separate musician activities so we could keep Ritornello mostly<br>
closed, I would hate to have to choose between the two. Also, I'd<br>
also have a hard time encouraging people to go to Terpsichore for the<br>
music over the dancing. So adding an Early Music component to<br>
Terpsichore is simply something I do not want to do.<br>
<br>
***Truthfully, the pit now isn't actually closed... it's more of if<br>
Aaron and I know who you are or you come well recommended we will<br>
probably let you play with us.<br>
<div class="im"><br>
Hope that clarifies things-<br>
-Jadzia<br>
<br>
</div><div><div></div><div class="h5">On Wed, Aug 17, 2011 at 4:20 PM, Greg Less <<a href="mailto:greg.less@gmail.com">greg.less@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
> Hi Monique-<br>
> Thanks for the info! Would it perhaps make sense to expand the scope of<br>
> Terp to include a musical teaching/workshop aspect instead of adding another<br>
> event to the calendar?<br>
> Thanks,<br>
> -Gregoire.<br>
><br>
> On Wed, Aug 17, 2011 at 2:46 PM, Monique Rio <<a href="mailto:mrio@umich.edu">mrio@umich.edu</a>> wrote:<br>
>><br>
>> Hi all,<br>
>><br>
>> I've attached a copy of the Proposal I handed out at the meeting on<br>
>> Monday, but to answer the question...<br>
>><br>
>> Ceclia at the Tower is a workshop event for musicians. Specifically<br>
>> for musicians who play European Medieval and Renaissance music. Right<br>
>> now in the Middle Kingdom there are no events like this. (Although,<br>
>> apparently many years ago such events existed.)<br>
>><br>
>> At the last Knowne World Dance and Music Symposium there was a music<br>
>> class track that was really successful. After the event a number of<br>
>> people mentioned they'd love to have a full event for just music. I've<br>
>> been thinking about hosting a music focused event for a while, and it<br>
>> seems like now is the right time to do it. Aaron and I know a lot of<br>
>> the musicians in the kingdom already, we've been helping plan workshop<br>
>> type events for several years, and there's already some interest.<br>
>><br>
>> So... it's like Terpsichore, but for musicians instead of dancers.<br>
>><br>
>> Hope that clarifies things-<br>
>> -Jadzia<br>
>><br>
>> ----------<br>
>> <a href="http://www.blowthyhorn.com" target="_blank">http://www.blowthyhorn.com</a> ~ Choir Directing & Early Music<br>
>><br>
>><br>
>><br>
>> On Wed, Aug 17, 2011 at 2:13 PM, Greg Less <<a href="mailto:greg.less@gmail.com">greg.less@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
>> > HI All-<br>
>> > Could we get a deeper explanation of this event and how it is going<br>
>> > to be<br>
>> > differentiated from Terpsichore at the Tower?<br>
>> > Thanks,<br>
>> > -Gregoire.<br>
>> > _______________________________________________<br>
>> > Barony mailing list<br>
>> > <a href="mailto:Barony@cynnabar.org">Barony@cynnabar.org</a><br>
>> > <a href="http://lists.cynnabar.org/listinfo/barony" target="_blank">http://lists.cynnabar.org/listinfo/barony</a><br>
>> ><br>
>> ><br>
><br>
><br>
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><br>
><br>
</div></div></blockquote></div><br></div>