Greetings, Molotov, Dumas, Accipiter, Sapience!



Thank you, Molotov, for bringing your thoughts on the Bards. but I
believe you are a little mistaken in your post. Let me clarify the
subject and bring some light into the last 5 years.


Dumas, I, Tallidus and the Tre'Mon Group, Blackharp, and all who follow
Scarlatti aren't doing so on a response to Sarapis' call to Bards. Your
question on 'how many were preaching Scarlatti musings' before that
announcement was made is quite simple. All of us were. If you refer back
to a public post I made about 5 years ago, I'm sure you have not read
it, it answers promptly to your question.

I have started studying on Scarlatti a 6 years ago. I started
questioning the Gods, the Wise, the Litterate, but none could tell me
about him. I ended up forsaking my guild and hometown, Eleusis, To
wander the world looking for the Truth of Scarlatti. For 2 years I've
lived in his Hall in Delos; then for 2 years I've been a wandering
musician, and now I've resumed my studies in Cyrene. All this time, I
met a lot of people who were too following Scarlatti all over the land.
I prayed to Valnurana and have sought advice with Averroes. I have asked
the Gods in all ways I could. The Announcement was made much after all
that.
Blackharp has been a Bard for more time than I, and any who have heard
him singing can tell that he is brilliant in what he does, and is one of
the favourite Bards of Sapience.
Tallidus Tre'Mon has taken it upon him to lead the greatest (and if not
first) Performing Group of Achaea. Thanks to help of those who encourage
the arts, he founded a Performing Arts Clan I believe a 5 years ago.
Besides those, through that public post 5 years ago I got to know many
others who have been following Scarlatti in some way for quite a long
time.

I believe that answers your question quite well.

Your other thoughts are not very well formed, too; being a Bard does not
make anyone Spiritual, not Mystical, not Ethical, and not Religious, if
the person is not already. Being a Bard makes us Artistic. Artists can
be sorrowful, joyful, hideous and hateful, scornful, lovers - not only
fun. Art is not made for fun. If you still think that's the way, you can
ask Phaestus of the Artist who has sculpted the statue of His that
stands today in the Vashnars - and ask him if it was made for fun.


Bards take Art seriously, just as Jesters take Jestering seriously. One
can say being a Jester is fun, but if you ask them, they will tell you
that Fun is their business, and that it is a high art, that of making
Fun; and that it is, too, a serious subject to them.


And now to your last sentence -
As I've said, and you've said, Bards are not a religious group. The only
thing that interests a Bard, besides personal designs, is Art. The
hypothetical coming of Bards to Mhaldor would not interfere a bit with
the Apostates, as it would not interfere with any religious group in the
land. Apostates are a religious group, Bards are an Artistic group. The
relationship between them that you tried to state is contraditorious to
your own thoughts. A religious group would be the Order of Scarlatti,
but that does not exist, as of yet. And of course, the Bards guild that
is to come will not be dependent on the worshipping of Scarlatti for its
members - Bards of Neraeos, of Sartan, of Valnurana there will be! I
believe I knowe one Bard of Phaestus, already, but can't remember his
name. 🙂
And I'd take a wild guess that the estabilishing of the Bards guild,
when it comes, in any of the cities of the land would bring nothing but
strenghtening to that city.
[Mhaldorians might object to that - if they do still think that Bards
are happy little singers; and not fit for a follower of Sartan]


I'll be happy to hear from you again, and if you wish, we can meet for a
good round of Ale and good conversation, if you wish to knowe more.

Scarlatti bless your days with many colours,
~ikiepu



p.s.: Accipiter - too bad there is not a newsboard for Bards. Anyways,
my pointless post is adressed to those who are interested; if you are
not, just skip it. Anyways - I think you already did skip it, so it was
quite pointless to write a p.s. to you that you won't read. Darn! :))

p.p.s.: I'm posting my latest post here again, with this one. Somehow,
lines are missing, and I've fixed the problem now.






~ -----old post corrected below----- ~

Greetings, followers of Scarlatti all over the lands!

Continuing on my thoughts of Arts in the realms, as I've promised, I'll
talk of the manifestations of the essence of the Arts, and later on, of
the static ones.

Scarlatti himself was of many Arts. He shows himself both as musician
and painter in his Hall, and we know he is the Greater Poet, the Soul of
Acting, and a master of all the
Arts. His followers, thus, are the actors, poets, musicians, and artists
of Achaea.

Putting it simple, the major manifestations of Scarlatti's reign are the
Music, the Writing, the Performing, and the Visual Arts. Those are the
major paths through which his followers channeled the essence. Dumas has
spoken very true words on the Music, but what of the others? How is it
that
inner essence reaches the spectators, and how does it return to the
artist in each of these manifestations?

Music is the projection of essence through sound. It deals with 2 main
aspects - sound and time. Sound, we talk about harmony and melody; Time,
we talk about rythm and momentum. A piece of music is made of that -
harmony and melody holding the musical momentum through time and rythm.
Of course, like an enchantment, music holds its spectators as long as it
lasts - a Bard that ceases to play cuts his
connection with his audience. Thus, essence in music is like
water, for it flows through us. Harmonic, rythm and melodic progressions
are made such as to sustain this flow of essence.
We can state, then, that music is the flow of essence in time, through
rythm, harmony and melody. It has the power to conduct and lead people
through emotions contained in this essence.


The Visual Arts of Sculpture, Painting, Drawing, and so on, are the
exact counterpart of Music: they lack the progressive characteristic of
time, for they are static - but therein lies its strenght. A piece of
Art is a deposit of essence in form. An artist seeks the beauty in Form,
and puts his essence into it. Finished, a sculpture is a material
depository of emotions, static and idle, for a piece of Art forgotten
inside a locked room never loses its
essence - if there is no one to admire it, it means nothing. But if
someone opens the door and sets eyes on it, the spectators own essence
of admiration triggers the power within it. It is like a crystal
ressonating, but it reacts
only to the essence of people who look upon it.
We state that the power of Visual Arts lies in its static and depository
state, a being of pure essence enclosed in the material form of beauty.


Writing might be the most difficult one to define. I have myself doubts
on my own thoughts, and have not yet found rest within this subject (not
that I have found on any other, but this is more complex).
All people write. We write everyday, letters, journals,
messages, news. Poets write in the same way others do. Pen and paper are
subject to the action of the mind through the
hands. What is it that differs Poets from mere writers?
The Poet [please note that by Poet I mean all who write on Artistic
inspiration - be it stories, plays, poetry] seeks the beauty in the
words. He puts them through time and sequence. Words and Time, then, are
the tools of the Poet.
Better, Words inside Time. But it is not only finding
glamorous words and putting them in any sequence. It is finding the
harmony in the relationship between words, and of words x time.
Where in this comes essence? Oh, if only the Colourful were here to
explain it to us! I'm not really sure, but I'll give it a wild shot. The
thread woven by the words is held together by essence in an harmonic
way, like a beautiful tapestry is at the same time only pieces of string
tied in patterns. Tieing words together is where the Poet puts his
essence, binding them into the harmonious pattern he has imagined. The
reader, then, must 'untie' it, reading it
through time, and release the essence within it kept.
Reading a poem aloud is pouring forth essence contained in the words of
the Poet.


What of Acting? The most dynamic and bodily Art involves not only time,
but space! Scarlatti, bless me with your wisdom, for of this I knowe but
little.
Acting involves first of all body and words. It can be added of visual
and musical effects, but the essence within it is in the relationship of
text and movement. It is but a stronger representation of Writing, for
it does not involve
one person reading a text, but (usually) more than one _acting_ it out.
It brings the emotions into scene, and what words say, the body he says
it too. It's words in movement, Acting. Essence that was put into a text
is augmented throught the Actors own essence when he performs it.

Dance, closely related to Acting, is the relationship of body and image.
The body of the Dancer becomes a moving canvas, a living sculpture
through which the body makes the
image stronger. Then, people dancing together brings in a ressonance of
harmony between them, greatly magnifying the Dance's effect. Essence is
here at its wildest flow, for it usually comes accompanied of Music, and
the Dance is the
ultimate response in essenceflow to most pieces of Music.


Scarlatti forgive me If I've forgotten anything, but then, I'm only a
Grook 🙂
I'll keep on posting, and very interested in having a mug of Ale (be it
Darkbrew, the better!) and discussing the Arts with any who might be!

Scarlatti bless your days with colours many!
~ikiepu




Penned by my hand on the 19th of Lupar, in the year 346 AF.