fun with ceremony (Coronation)

[cellio]

This past weekend I had the chance to participate in something really spiffy -- a recreation of a historic coronation ceremony. Most SCA ceremony is fundamentally modern, dressed up in renaissance trappings; the chance to do more-serious recreation is pretty special.

Of course, there are some special considerations -- historically, ceremonies like this would have been Christian religious services (part of a mass, I think), which in addition to being problematic for some participants (ahem) also would be a violation of SCA rules. So some work needed to be done on that, but I'm impressed by how real it felt nonetheless.

baron_steffan wrote/adapted the ceremony based on the Coronation service of Maximilian I (1486). Music was a central part (rather than being incidental as is sometimes the case), and we had about 20 singers from across the kingdom (about half from the Debatable Choir), organized and led by ariannawyn. We sang four songs: "Te Regem Laudamus" (adapted from a "Te Deum"), Non Nobis Domine, the roll of kings and queens (more on that below), and "Da Pacem Domine", which we'll be using throughout the reign as processional music.

By ancient custom, the coronation ceremony includes the reading of the roll of all the past kings and queens. Usually this is read by a herald; we chanted it (adapting the Te Regem). One thing that was fun about this was that, to make it not clash, we sang Latinized versions of all the names (thanks Steffan!), and "collapsed" different rulers with the same names. So if you listen to the chant you'll hear Christophers 1 through 6, but that's really two different people each ruling three times. Some names underwent more transformation than others; I think the biggest change was "Rurik" to "Rodericus". I wonder how many of them were startled by hearing their names this time. :-)

dagonell has collected the ceremony, its documentation, the sheet music, and recordings (and other stuff from the event). Check it out! (The recordings here are of the music parts; I do hope somebody was recording the rest of the ceremony and that it'll make its way to that page.)

I don't go to a lot of SCA events any more, and almost never ones not in my local group, but this was totally worth the effort.

Comments

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

Oh, that sounds like FUN! I'm a music lover and a language geek, so WWOOWW!!

[kayre]

Coincidentally, I'm playing that setting of Non Nobis, Domine this Sunday.

[zhelana.livejournal.com]

sounds like fun! I once went to one in a medieval style chapel (obviously not medieval since it was in Colorado lol but it looked right), and they did a pretty danged good job of having music be central and stuff. It was pretty awesome. :)

[indigodove.livejournal.com]

That does sound lovely. I listened to some of the selections she put up on Facebook, and you all sounded beautiful!

[richardf8]

Not quite on topic, but possibly of interest to you - read in haaretz yesterday of the discovery in Britain of a recipe book from 1140CE. Prior to that the earliest medieval cookbook was dated to 1290. That's all I could get from the artiicle; Ha'aretz put up a paywall recently, and though I can get past it for a low introductory price of NIS 4.90 for the first month, I don't know what the price goes to after that.

Linky linky: http://www.haaretz.co.il/news/world/europe/.premium-1.2001046