Novice Documentation Form - Performance Entries

Kingdom of Trimaris

Novice Documentation Form

Performance Entry

ID #: __________________________ Name:________________________________________

Category: _____________________________ Division: _________________________________

Title of Entry : __________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________

Country or region item is from in period: ____________________________________________

Time period of item (within 50 years): _______________________________________________

Intended setting of item (i.e., court, nobility, merchant class, peasant, farmer, sailor, etc):____________________________________________________________________________

Source of Inspiration (Describe source of inspiration here and attach a photocopy, photograph,

computer printout or other appropriate format to this page.): ________________

________________________________________________________________________________

List the elements you used in the project: ____________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________

Briefly explain why you chose those elements:_____________ ___________________________

________________________________________________________________________________

List the tools or resources you used in creating this project: ____________________________

________________________________________________________________________________

Describe how you created this item: _________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________

List all the sources you consulted in creating this project (including books, journal or magazine

articles, class handouts, web sites, photographs, etc): __________________________

________________________________________________________________________________

Do you have any questions about this project or future, similar, projects that you would like the

panel of judges to answer for you? _______________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________

INSTRUCTIONS

For

Novice Documentation Form – Static Entry

**NOTE – if you run out of space for any answers on the Documentation Form you can continue the answer on the back of

the page or on an attached page. Be sure that you staple all your pages together when you are finished so that none of your

pages get lost!

ID #: This is the same ID # you use on your registration form.

Category & Division: Look through the list of Categories and Divisions. Divisions are the sub-groups within a

Category. Pick the closest appropriate Division for your entry. For example, a woman’s dress from the year

1150 CE falls in “Costuming: 1000 – 1300 CE”, so that is the Division. All of the Costuming Divisions fall under

the Category “Textile Arts”, so that is the Category. If you aren’t sure where to place your item, take your best

guess.

If you still aren’t sure, or there isn’t a Division that seems appropriate, contact the Kingdom Minister of

Arts and Sciences. S/he will either find the appropriate Division and Category for you, or a Division will be created

for you. The current list of Categories and Divisions isn’t meant to restrict the kinds of items that are made and

entered into Art/Sci. The current Categories and Divisions simply reflect the kinds of items entered in the past, not

what you are “allowed” to enter into Art/Sci.

Entries are assigned to Categories and Divisions in order to schedule judging times and to help ensure that all

entries have the panel of judges who are best qualified to evaluate the project.

Title of Entry: The purpose of the title is to guide your panel of judges as they prepare to evaluate your work. The

title doesn’t need to be anything fancy; just describe what your item is. If you are performing a portion of a play, a

musical composition, reciting a poem or doing any other type of performance based on a a written work intended for

performance, you title is the title (with author or composer) of the piece you are performing. For example: “Act II,

Scene V of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ by William Shakespeare”, “Kyrie from Missa O Rex gloriae by Giovanni Peirluigi da

Palestrina” “Sumer is icumen in attributed to John of Fornsete, c. 1226”, or “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love by

Christopher Marlowe and The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd by Sir Walter Raleigh”. If you have additional title

information available you can include that too – ““Kyrie from Missa O Rex gloriae by Giovanni Peirluigi da Palestrina;

originally published in Missarum liber duodecimus 74. Quatuor vocibus, pub. Venice 1601”.

If your performance is not something based directly on a written period source intended for performance, tell

us what you are doing and what your source is. For example, “Demonstration of 5 long sword techniques and their

use in combat as described by Hans Talhoffer in Zweiter Gotaher Codex, published in 1467”.

If you’ve written your own performance piece based on a period example, the title would be: “”Title of Your

Song/Poem/Play/Etc” written in the style of (state period example or author)”.

If your performance is created by following a set of period instructions or a modern adaptation of period

instructions, your title would be: “(Performance) from (source)”. For example, “’Il Bianco Fiore’ from Cesare Negri’s

Le Gratie d’Amore/Nuove Inventioni Di Balli published 1602/1604”.

If your performance has been adapted for use in the SCA, state that in the title. There are a lot of adaptations

that we make for things we use in the SCA. Armor and weapons (for heavy weapons, light weapons, equestrian

activities, etc), for example, have to meet SCA safety rules. “Adaptation of long sword techniques from Hand

Talhoffer’s Zweiter Gotaher Codex for SCA legal Light/Heavy Weapons Combat” is a good title for an SCA sport

related entry.

Country or region item is from in period: Where in the world is your item from? What culture is it from? People

weren’t as well traveled in the middle ages and renaissance as they are now. Very few things from SCA period can

really be described accurately as “European”, “Asian” or “Middle Eastern”. Styles of poetry, music, dance, court

entertainment, plays and even combat differed from one country or culture to another. A poem written in 10^th century

style could be Norse, Anglo-Saxon, French, Persian, Chinese or any of a hundred or more cultural or regional styles.

Sometimes you’ll even find people in one country or culture making imitations of styles from other countries or cultures.

Quite often in the SCA we do things that are modeled on a lot of different examples that might not all be from

the same place. Again, be as specific as you are able to be. If you used Italian, French and Spanish dance steps to

create a new period style dance you can say “dance steps from Italy, France & Spain”. If you used examples from all

over Western Europe, you could list where all your examples came from or you could simply say “dance steps from

across Western Europe”.

Time period of item (within 50 years): When is your item from? If you’ve based your entry on a specific period

example, give the date attributed to that example (for example, 1492 CE). If you’ve based your entry on several

period examples or a particular period style you can give a more general range (for example, 1430-1450 CE or late

13^th century).

When referring to centuries, the years of the century are referred to by the following number. This is

commonly misunderstood. The years from the death of Christ (the year 0) to the year 100 are called the 1^st century.

The start date for the SCA is the year 600 AD (also called CE, or Common Era), so the century from 600-700 is the

7^th century. The years from 900-1000 CE are called the 10^th Century. The years from 1500-1600 are called the 16^th

century.

“Early” generally means the first 50 years of a century, so “early 16^th century” means 1501-1550. “Late”

generally means the last 50 years of a century, so “late 16^th century” means 1551-1600. You can be more specific

by referring to quarters: “first quarter of the 14^th century” means 1300-1325 CE, “second quarter of the 14^th century”

means 1325-1350 CE, “third quarter of the 14^th century” means 1350-1375 CE, and “fourth quarter of the 14^th century”

means 1375-1400 CE. Sometimes you will also find a reference to the first or last decade of a century. A “decade” is

10 years, so “the first decade of the 14^th century” is 1300-1310 CE and “the last decade of the 14^th century” is

1390-1400 CE.

Intended setting of item (i.e., court, nobility, merchant class, peasant, farmer, sailor, etc): Who would (or

will be) performing? Who would have been watching the performance in period? Who performed or watched the

period examples your performance is based on? In what context was it or will it be performed? Is this part of a mass

sung in church or a secular song sung to woo a lover? Is this a dance done by the nobles at court or peasants in the

village?

Source of Inspiration (Describe source of inspiration and attach a photocopy, photograph, computer

printout or other appropriate format to this page): What inspired you to create this performance? There is no

right or wrong answer for this question. Knowing what inspired you helps your panel of judges know what you were

aiming for with your project. It also helps them figure out what kind of information will be most useful to you for future

projects. It’s not always possible to provide a photocopy someone singing a beautiful song, but you could describe the

performance and provide a copy of the sheet music you learned the song from. If you are demonstrating combat

techniques or performing a dance, include photocopies of all the illustrations and/or instructions provided in your source.

For a play, provide a copy of the scene you are performing. All period examples should have show the date of the original.

If you print out an enlarged photo from a website that does not include the date, also print out the main page with the date

of the item. Some examples of possible answers are below:

Example: “I was inspired by a recording I heard of a 15^th century choral piece that was used in a tv show (state

name of show!). I went to the show’s website and learned that the piece was “Ave Maria… virgo serena” by Josquin des

Prez (c.1440-1521). I looked online and found several .pdf files of the sheet music for this piece. I printed out music from

the site provided by (site author and url to the site). I got some friends together and we learned the piece.” [w/copy of the

sheet music attached]

List the elements you used in the project: What are all the elements or components of the performance? For a

performance of vocal music you might list your sheet music, professional recording to listen to (give the title of the album/CD

and performer), and all the voice parts and who is singing each part. If you looked in any books for information about the

piece you are performing or how music was performed at the time this piece was written you would mention that here as

well. Are you using any props, instruments or weapons?

Briefly explain why you chose those elements: Are you using an SCA legal heavy weapons long sword to demonstrate

long sword techniques instead of the real long sword shown in the drawings? Are you using plastic recorders instead of hand

crafted wooden ones? Are you using a guitar instead of a lute? Are you soprano singers adult women instead of young boys?

Did you learn your piece from modern sheet music? Why? It’s okay to say that you wanted to be able to apply what you

learned to your SCA combat, that you can’t afford an expensive recorder, don’t know how to play the lute, don’t have a choir

of boy sopranos available to you or don’t know how to read period music notation. Just tell us why you chose the elements

you used.

List any new techniques you learned in creating this performance: Did you have to learn several new dance steps?

Did you have to learn to sing without vibrato? Did you have to learn how to keep in tune with other singers or instrumentalists?

Did you learn how to play a new instrument? How did you learn these new techniques?

Describe how you created this item: What did you do? List all the steps you went through. For example, if you learned

a period song you might say: “First I found listened to several recording of medieval music and found a song I really loved.

Then I used the liner notes from the CD to help me figure out what time and place it was from, who wrote the song, and some

other basic information about it. With that information I was able to do research in the library and on the internet about the

composer, the song, the manuscript it was found in, and what music was like at the time it was written. I found a copy of some

modern sheet music for the song, as well as a copy of the original music, even though I can't read it. I also found some other

recordings and tried to match what I heard to the things I read about music from that time. Then I practiced singing the song

using as much of what I learned as I could.“ Telling the panel of judges how you made your entry allows them to see what

steps you might have missed that would improve your project, what steps or methods didn’t work well, and how you got your

finished result. This means that they can suggest steps and/or methods that might work better, or give you tips on how to

make some steps easier or more accurate.

List all the sources you consulted in creating this project (including books, journal or magazine articles, class

handouts, web sites, photographs, etc): Where did you get your information for this project? If some of your information

came from talking to someone you consider knowledgeable you should list them (i.e., “conversations with Master So-and-so”).

If some of your information came from emails exchanged with someone you consider knowledgeable you should list those as

well (i.e., “emails exchanged with Mistress Whosit”). List all the sources you consulted for inspiration or for information or

advice on making the item. This allows your panel of judges to know what sources you have seen and what sources you haven’t

seen. It’s very likely that there are a lot of very good sources available that you haven’t found yet. It’s possible that some of the

sources you looked at aren’t considered “good” sources – your panel of judges can tell you which sources aren’t “good” and why,

as well as which ones are “good”. If there’s an expert in your art or craft in the kingdom that you haven’t talked to your judges

can get you into contact with them.

Do you have any questions about this project or future, similar, projects that you would like the panel of judges to

answer for you?: This is your opportunity to ask specific questions and make sure those questions are answered. Even if you

are present for the judging of your item, it’s not uncommon for entrants in Art/Sci to get nervous or caught up in moment and

forget to ask the questions that they really wanted to have answered. The judges may answer your questions in the process of

evaluating your item, but they might not. Writing down your questions ensures that your Art/Sci experience is as informative and

useful as it can be.

You may have noticed that all of the questions on the Documentation Form help guide your panel of judges to give you

the best feedback that they can. You aren’t asked to provide these answers in your documentation because the judges

are nosy, or because they are looking for reasons to criticize you or your work. Good documentation, at every level of

entry, lets the judges know what you know about your art or craft, what you do well, and what help and advice might be

most useful to you.