Iron Bard, anyone?

[kniteracy]

Edit: this round is now CLOSED.

Well, OK. It may be jumping on a bandwagon, since cadhla started this and vixyish (and I'm really sorry I got this name wrong originally) has done it with her special talent as well, and just recently peteralway did it too-- but you know what? I haven't written a song in over a year now, and I'm starting to feel a little bit uncreative.

So, in the spirit of those three luminaries named above, and with help from khaosworks who helped me choose a name for this silliness-with-a-purpose, and folkmew who vetted the rules and gave me moral support-- I invite you to challenge me to...

Iron Bard

What's the Objective?

For each person who comments before the round is closed, I will write a complete song, which may or may not be award- or record- worthy, but which will be a song with a melody and words and which I will have the ability to sing at least once. I reserve the right to choose which songs I sing more than once. ;)

Rules:

1. You must leave a comment to participate.
   
2. In your comment, you may give me any or all of the following things:
   
   1. Subject matter, as little as an idea and as much as a complete story-- the single word 'love' probably won't give me much to go on;
      
   2. Should it be a story song (like Song of Fey Cross or Barbara Allen) or a more abstract song (like Love Song For a Friend or Imagine)?
      
   3. Metre-- 2/4, 4/4, 3/4, 6/8 (only these regular metres, please; I think songs work best in simple metres, and you aren't going to change my mind by submitting a more complex one);
      
   4. A format to follow, like verse, chorus, verse, bridge, chorus, verse-- if you're interested in that sort of thing. You can also tell me if it's important to you that the song have a singable refrain or chorus here. Note that I really think songs end up as long as they need to be, but if you have a strong opinion about length, you can note it here. I'm not planning on writing any 26-verse ballads here, but you never know....
      
   5. Would you like the song to have a major feel, a minor feel, or a modal feel, and if modal, which one? (dorian and mixolydian are the two modes most frequently employed in folk music, although you'll see others-- I'm discounting ionian and aeolian modes here because most people think of those as 'major' and 'minor'. lydian and phyrigian are quite rare, and I'd rather not work in lochrian, because it's difficult to handle melodies that don't resolve the way my ears want to resolve them.)
      
   6. Specific words, settings, names, places, or other things that you would like me to include in 'your' song.
      
   7. When and if this song is completed to performance standard, would you like it to be performed: a) a capella; b) with the harp; or c) with the lap dulcimer?
   
   
3. I appreciate the process of collaboration, but this experiment is intended to force me to write songs and d individual songwriting work. While some of the entries may inspire you, please don't helpfully answer challenges. I get to be the bard in my journal.
   
4. No anonymous (unsigned) submissions will be taken, although people not on my friends list (whose replies will at first be screened) will be considered. If you do not have a LJ account, it is fine for you to post an anonymous reply (which will be screened) with your request, but you must sign your submission with a name that can be verified and tell me where you heard about Iron Bard from. An email address (so I can get your song back to you) would also be helpful. :)
   
5. I will decide when the round closes, or if indeed there will be another round.
   
6. And a late amendment, which will be added in to the rules more gracefully at a later time: despite being part of the filk community, I almost never write about books, tv shows, or films, although I do write about myths, fairytales, and ballads. I'm not sure why that is, but remember that I'm not much for TV and unless the characters are real live archetypes, I tend to make them up as I go along. ;)
   
7. Late amendment the second-- for those of you who don't know, I tend not to set other people's words to music (though the one poem that's been suggested already is one I really like, so I'm considering it anyway).

I do not promise results, but I sure hope I get some. I'll do my best, and that is a promise. I'll tear another leaf from cadhla's book and post responses as comments here, then post reminders to people on the journal as to where completed songs can be found. I do not promise that mp3s will be posted, but I will do my best to get that capability eventually, and if I see you in person, I'll do my best to play 'your' song for you. I do not promise that 'your' song will be about you, but it will of course be inspired by the suggestions you gave me in this happy game of Iron Bard. Obviously, in the end this'll be my work and my song and blah-ti-blah author blah-ti-blah copyright, blah-ti-blah carniverous millipedes, etc.

Let the games begin.

Comments

Hi, this is actually Ayesha

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

Writing from her other account, because it has the icon I want to use on this.

I listen to you sing every day, you know. It never fails to improve my day.

Anyway. I would love a Minoan song about bull-leapers. Which needs to have absolutely no resemblance to Ancient or current Greek music. I'd just love a song about the way bull=leapers live, their flash and dazzle, their unarmed courage, their choice of glory over length of days. It can be a particular bull-leaper's story from joining the temple to their death, or a general song about Poseidon's little birds. (Common words/phrases of the bull=leapers' lives would be Bull-court, leaping, tumbling, dancing, spiral, song, Goddess, priestess, Mother, death, shine, gold, bulls, tossing, horns. These are just suggestions/ideas, not a list of requirements.)

I'd like for the song to have a refrain, or if not, a repeating phrase at the end of each verse. Aside of that, I leave musical structure up to you, as you know aproxximately a million times more about it than I do. And I'd love to hear you perform this with the harp.

And I think you are incredible.

So, I hope this song proposal strikes your fancy.

*hugs you tight*

Love, Browngirl.