From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Hello Kathy, BRAVO!!!!! for your husband's wonderful pics. I can tell everyone was having a great time, perhaps if you will give me a date I will come down from PA., bring my armor , hurdy gurdy 's and join in the fun!!
This year the fair runs from May 17 to June 15, weekends and Memorial Day Monday, and if you come with armor and hurdy gurdies I can promise you will have fun, although if your armor includes weapons you will probably be asked to peace tie them so you can't accidentally behead one of the jousters' squires. The business manager would frown on that; it puts the insurance premiums through the roof.
I think at root, the controversy between the high end modern luthiers and those who are promoting a historical sound is at cross purposes, because both groups have legitimate aims. I understand, (and now better than previously, although I was not completely clueless before) what a marvel of skill a modern hurdy gurdy is. Yes, the music is much more pleasing to my modern ears than the clips and mp3s that have been forwarded.
But when an audience comes to a venue like a Renaissance Faire, what they are looking for is an encounter with the exotic. They want to be marvelled by the illusion that they have entered a time so different from their own that it's like going to another country. The performers pull this off with more or less skill, depending. I'll be frank -- the Virginia faire is young, staffed entirely by amateurs, volunteers, and professionals who are working for the hat plus merchandise sales plus exposure. (When I was told I should ask for more money -- due to a typo on my part it's even worse than you thought. The daily take is not $50 *plus* tips, it's tips and sales, and you make around $50 in an average day. But if the audience hates you you might make nothing!) Part of maintaining the illusion is getting the audience to believe that we, the villagers, are creating these unusual sounds, smells, and sights as part of our normal everyday lives. A musical instrument that sounds impossibly strange can add a lot to that kind of illusion.
And the bit about gurdies being outlawed has given me an idea for a great bit of schtick -- I hope John has it done by May.
Kathy Hutchins [EMAIL PROTECTED]
