Puy

In the High Middle Ages and Renaissance, bards would gather in Le Puy (“pwee”), France during Lent and perform amongst themselves. Historically done as a competition, I have decided to adapt this concept in the spirit of Northshield’s cooperative nature in the hope that this will encourage us to lift each other up as performers. My dream is that participants will help other participants meet these challenges and that the bardic community and kingdom overall will benefit as a result.

Therefore, for those Bardic Madness participants looking for an advanced additional challenge to further hone and enhance your skills, I am adding a Bardic Puy overlaid on top of Bardic Madness. As an example of our community supporting each other in this endeavor, consider taking or teaching a class at another event that addresses one or more of the Puy challenges.

Looking to the heavens for inspiration, I found it in the stars. The Lyra constellation represents the lyre of Orpheus, a musician and poet in Greek mythology. Lyra is home to six formally named stars: Aladfar, Sheliak, Sulafat, Vega, Xihe, and Chasoň. With this as my foundation, the Bardic Puy includes six challenges overlapping a total of three performances.

The challenges are as follows:

1. Tell a story (4-7 minutes)

2. Recite a poem

3. Make music (vocal and/or instrumental)

4. All three performances must be polished

5. One performance must be documentably period

6. One performance must tie to that year’s Puy theme (which will not necessarily be the same as the Bardic Madness theme)

When you sign up for the regular challenges at Bardic Madness, you can indicate that you are also using that performance as part of your Puy. These challenges are open to everyone, but you must participate in all six to be considered for the Puy. There will be a prize for the highest score in each category and a prize for participants who succeed in meeting all six challenges.

There will be a rubric against which all Puy participants will be evaluated by the other Puy participants. The rubric is there to provide a standard against which we can all strive to raise our personal bars.

Northshield Bardic Puy Rubric 2024