May. 7th, 2008

gurdymonkey: (Default)
What is filk? It's a misspelling of "folk" that got into an announcement at a science fiction convention and stuck. Go here if you don't believe me.

Most commonly, it is used to describe parody lyrics written to existing tunes. If you've ever heard any Weird Al Yankovic parodies, you'll know what this means.

Writing more than one set of lyrics to an existing tune is not new. If you go here, you'll see MS Harley 978 from the British Museum. In black is the Middle English paean, Sumer Is Icumen In. In red is Perspice Christicola, a hymn about the Resurrection. There. We have established that contrafait/contrafacta or whatever you want to call it is period for medieval Europe.

Another well known example in the United States is the song that is now our National Anthem. Francis Scott Key wrote "The Star Spangled Banner" after an engagement during the War of 1812. The tune is an English drinking song.

My problems with filk in the SCA are many and varied.

Firstly and foremost, when I have gone to the trouble to pitch my canvas tent and put on my linen and wool and light a fire at an SCA event, do I really want to be mentally yanked back to 8th grade by a pop tune that is inextricably linked to certain memories that have nothing to do with attempting to be medieval? No, thank you. You want to sing it in the car on the way to the event or at the diner or post-revel afterwards, OK. I have no problem with that. But please don't murder any chance of magic happening at the event itself. Here's a concept : find a period melody and write your song to that!

Secondly, there's an awful lot of Really Bad Filk being perpetrated by people who are not as clever, funny or talented as they would like to think they are. For parody to succeed, it had damn well better rhyme and scan without being forcibly shoe-horned around the tune they purport to go with, and it had damn well better be funny.

Finally, my dirty little secret. It's the path to hell. You see, I'm actually good at it. If I wanted to, I could be the Queen of Filkmonsters. I can make things you would not believe fit the tune "Men of Harlech" - and have.

I performed a filk to Patsy Cline's "I Fall To Pieces" at my second ever Kings and Queen's Bardic Champions. Everyone thought it was great - even though I had a horrible case of the shakes and was not proud of my performance. It rhymed, it scanned, it was funny - and it was the easy way out. 

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