Foreign rep translations and interpretations
Foreign rep translations and interpretations
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Patter Notes
1998 Edition
Kevin O’Brien
General
When at Festival, you need to be playing a part. We should, as a group, have a part as well. We are a troupe of singers whom their Majesties have directed to entertain their Majesties’ guests, so to speak. Tell the audience that we have been directed by the King (or Queen) to provide entertainment to their guests. You can embellish this even further by using the idea that the Court receives guests from all over Europe, and that the King (or Queen) has therefore commanded us to prepare music from the various countries so that all their guests may feel welcome. You might even ask if there are any guests from France before doing a French song, for instance, just to carry the illusion forward.
The official language of the Kingdom is, of course, English, and the Festival refers to itself as "The Shire of Hollygrove". Always welcome people to Hollygrove, and tell them that you hope they are enjoying themselves. Either it is a beautiful day, so you can talk about that, or it is raining/cold/etc., in which case you hope that our music will brighten the day for them. Make sure you know when the next set is before you start, so that you can mention it at the end. Prior to the last piece, thank everyone for coming, tell them when the next set is, and say that you hope to see them again.
Within the set
Try to create an "arc", as they say in the story business. If there is a theme to the set, by all means talk about it. Perhaps there are three songs that have animals in them. If there are children present, in particular, this can be a good opportunity to involve them by asking if they can hear the animals. If you have a sad song of unrequited love, followed by a drinking song, you might talk about how if you had that sad experience of unrequited love, the next thing you would do is drown your sorrows, and here is a song to do that with…
The idea is make the patter something that gives the songs some kind of context, so that they are not just a collection of pieces pulled out of a hat (even if in fact they were; sometimes you have to fake itJ ). You want them to feel that this set was programmed for a reason that will make sense to them. For example, many of our songs are love songs. Well, most songs are love songs if you think about it, so that is nothing surprising. So talk about it. Talk about the different aspects of love. You can go from the first flush of romance when boy-meets-girl (eg Fair Phyllis), to separation (Ach Elslein), to being rejected (April is in my mistress’ face), to married love (Il est bel et bon), and finally to the last parting of death (The silver swan).
The best way to prepare yourself, therefore, is to spend some time with the words (and in the case of the foreign language songs, the translations), so that you have a sense of what each one is about. With the foreign songs, I think it is a nice idea to give a capsule summary of what the song is about. Generally I would not give a complete translation, as that becomes boring, but a few sentences to give the audience some context for the song. Even English songs can sometimes benefit from this. For instance, The Silver Swan is more meaningful if you know it is about the death of a close friend. I usually say something about the myth that swans were mute until they died, then sang their one and only song, and sometimes remark that real swans are not at all like this. But you can point out that this is where the term "swan song" comes from, as a reference to a final act.
With foreign language songs, I like to play with the stereotypes a little. A lot of French songs seem to involve cuckolding, for instance, which I might "tastefully" discuss as "a wife who is doing something her husband does not know about". An offhand comment about "that’s the French for you" can be amusing here. Or with the German songs, the stereotype is quite opposite (drink beer and invade Poland), but if in fact I have a German drinking song, like So trinken wir alle, I will play to it. But with a beautiful German love song, I might say "you wouldn’t expect this from a German, perhaps, but there are a lot of Germans out there, so they must be doing something right." Or make a mention of Bach, who had 20 children (or 21, if you count PDQ Bach).
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last updated 6/27/01/stf