Review: The Knowne World Bardcast Features the Music of Calontir

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Unknown Artist. Minstrels with a Rebec & a Lute.
13th c. Manasseh Codex. El Escorial, Madrid. Public domain in the US

The Knowne World Bardcast is a podcast of bardic performances from across the Society. The typical format is familiar to listeners of radio and podcasts for generation; a playlist of recordings gathered from bards who have recorded their songs and made them available. The production levels of the recordings are spotty, of course, but Lord Gideon ap Stephen does a good job of editing the program and making it interesting. It is a pleasant way to be introduced to the music of other kingdoms, and a good way to pass the time on road trips to foreign wars. Please consider subscribing on your favorite podcatcher.

Lord Gideon is on a quest to publish episodes that showcase each particular Kingdom. His goal is to have episodes for all 20 Kingdoms, and he has done several of them so far. At the time of this article, he had recently posted an episode for Calontir and, for the first time, had to split the episode into two parts.

The Calontir Episode, Part One:  In the Key of Army

“Part One: In the Key of Army” is a documentary-style episode recorded at Gulf Wars. Gideon recorded Calontir singing as a kingdom at the Calontir Party. Standards such as the Battle of Maldon, Benevento, In Praise of a New Knighthood, and many other Calon favorites. Will make any Calontiri heart skip a beat, and long to join the chorus at the earliest opportunity.

The Calontir Episode, Part Two:  The Heart, The Land

This is a more typical episode of The Knowne World Bardcast. After being impressed by Calontir’s group singing, Gideon received messages reminding him that Calontir has its own share of solo bards, songwriters, poets and performers. The call went out and many answered and  “Part Two:  The Heart, The Land” was born. From across time and space, recordings of Calontir bards were gathered and assembled into a playlist:

Lord Gideon’s “The Knowne World Bardcast” is a great addition to the wealth of SCA culture, and this close look at Calontir’s culture of song is most welcome. We will be adding KWB to our SCA Links page under “Arts and Culture”