The Fyne and Nice Workes of Aneleda Falconbridge
This song was written for swordfighters, particularly the duelist who challenge each other to single tournament combat with schlagers and fencing foils. It was inspired by a conversation in which the evocative words, “It’s for the love of the blade,” were uttered. I’ve been carrying that thought for weeks now, and am glad to finally give it its due. Dedicated to Duelist Devillin MacPherson.
Continue reading “The Duelist”I think this might have been my very first commission – from Lady Bryn, at the Bare Blade Tavern Brawl. I believe I was paid in chocolate (and laughter.) This all works best with a merry “ompah” kind of choral underpinning. Gwillem provided the oompah running bassline and Constancia provided harmony.
Northguard!
They’re big and they’re mean!
Northguard!
With rapiers keen
Northguard
If you’ve seen what I’ve seen
You’d run away screaming
A lot.
Mercs all working for pay
Good scotch* or pennies a day
(Cheaper if the hit is on Vey)
The mercenary Northguard.
Chorus
Decades they’ve been around
Slaying and taking new ground
Slaughter, betrayal abound
In the mercenary Northguard.
Chorus
Swarming like bees from the hive
They leave no witness alive
Unless they’ve somehow connived
The mercenary Northguard.
Chorus
*Alt lyric: chocolate or pennies a day
“This song is one about my dear friend and merry minstrel partner-in-crime, Jean.”
http://www.mbouchard.com/misc/death-holds-a-rapier.mp3
If you are a rogue, a cad, a knave
I do not envy you
who would malign his captain
or insult his lady true
For I see your doom approaching
if that is who you are
in on hand death holds a rapier
in the other a guitar
If you are a rogue, a cad, a knave
then wary should you be
for there is a man among us
who fights with grand esprit
Honor does become him
know when you say “au rivoir”
in one hand death holds a rapier
in the other a guitar
If you are a rogue, a cad, a knave
who he has come to slay
you may hear a distant singing
that quickly comes your way
it is to give you warning
final thoughts for your memoir
in one hand death holds a rapier
in the other a guitar
If you are a rogue, a cad, a knave
polite while cavalier
if you honor king and lady then
you have nothing to fear
you may earn a throbbing headache
if you challenge him to spar
in one hand death holds a pint mug
in the other a guitar
you may earn a throbbing headache
if you challenge him to spar
for you’ll fill many a pint glass
as he plays on his guitar
“This is a special song for my favored a-muse, Ane du Vey. Note that in “amuse” there’s always a muse! There are extra lyrics in case Vey isn’t there to kil…er…honor. It was written at the Bare Blade Tavern Brawl in 2004. This is one of those songs that should be a warning to all those who would cross the bards…or try to carry them off with the cashbox…”
http://www.mbouchard.com/misc/bareblade.mp3
Wo ho hey
We’ll drink and fight today
We’ll vie for gold
And wealth untold
But only if we kill Vey*!
For `tis the Bare Blade Brawl
So come hither one and all
Leap through the din
Go rushing in
We’ll carry ya if ya can’t crawl!
Chorus * * * *
The bribes fly near and far
The dying are lit’ring the bar
The fallen run
Right out they come
To return with a rabid “yar!”
Chorus * * * *
We’ll play our games of chance
And bet on the fencer’s dance
The clink of swords
From brutal hordes
Lamenting their broken pants
Chorus * * * *
The tavern’s full of cheer,
Paranoid men, and beer! (BEER!)
The blades hit high
The wounded cry
“Oh bring me my last one here!”
Wo ho hey
We’ll drink and fight today
We’ll vie for gold
And wealth untold
But only if we kill Vey!
Wo ho hey
We’ll drink and fight today
We’ll vie for gold
And wealth untold
But only if we kill Vey!
Kill Vey – But only if we kill Vey.
HEY!
* * * * * * *
*Alternate choruses, to be sung if Vey isn’t there.
Wo ho hey
We’ll drink and fight today
We’ll vie for gold
And wealth untold
and pillage our friends where they lay OR For we’re fencers merry and gay!
Words and Music ©2003 by Monique M Bouchard,
Sir Edward Grey of Lochleven
wreathed with greatest honor is revealed,
and with the most esteem, picked from the field.
Forbearance and Honor noted our queen,
Beloved lady of bliss, Aikaterine.
The rapier swift has its song to sing
And dances as swallows dance in spring
Through the field’s rite,
Bright glinting light
This blade did supply
You being near
We shall not fear,
Though Death stand by.
With you the swords take edge, the heart grows bold;
From you in fee their lives your liegemen hold.
Our lady Queen smiles on this one’s goodwill
Thus now the Champion’s role thou must fulfill.
Bless then the hour
That gives the power
In which you may,
At bed and board,
Embrace your sword
Both night and day.
From Bergental through all the East ring true
Thus mark we January twenty-two
Anno Societis forty-five
When the Queen’s Rapier Champion did arrive
Bless then the one
Whose duty done
With skill and grace,
and courtesy
we honor thee,
Signed in this place…
Honor, great honor, from our noble queen,
Beloved lady of bliss, Aikaterine.
This poem is based on The Forest’s Queen by Philip Massinger, <span>originally published in The Guardian in 1633. Below is the original, from which the central part of the poem is hugely based (because it was sooooo perfect!) The scan works better on paper than out loud in parts because our lovely Queen of Love and Beauty is sounds the “e” at the end of </span>Aikaterine (Aikaterine-ah.) I didn’t want to mar the beautiful look of the piece’s symmetry with the original by mucking about too much, so I decided to live with it even though it’s an extra syllable here and there. Consider it a bonus!
THE ORIGINAL WORK: THE FOREST’S QUEEN by: Philip Massinger
Welcome, thrice welcome to this shady green,
Our long-wished Cynthia, the forest’s queen!
The trees begin to bud, the glad birds sing
In winter, changed by her into the spring.
We know no night,
Perpetual light
Dawns from your eye:
You being near,
We cannot fear,
Though death stood by.
From you our swords take edge, our hearts grow bold;
From you in fee their lives your liegemen hold.
These groves your kingdom, and our laws your will;
Smile, and we spare; but if you frown, we kill.
Bless then the hour
That gives the power
In which you may,
At bed and board,
Embrace your lord
Both night and day.
Welcome, thrice welcome to this shady green,
Our long-wished Cynthia, the forest’s queen!