Prydain opera needs swordplay dialogue

[Don Rechtman]

I am a classical composer, and am setting Alexander's "Book of Three" as a romantic opera. In the first chapter, Coll teaches Taran how to swordfight. I am in need of what Coll's instructions might be.

"Hold your hand," chuckled Coll. "If you were to come against me like that, with all your posing and bouncing, I should have you chopped into bits by this time." He hesitated a moment. "Look you," he said quickly, "at least you should know there is a right way and a wrong way to go about it."
He picked up another poker. "Here now," he ordered, with a sooty wink, "stand like a man."
Taran brought up his poker. While Coll shouted instructions, they set to parrying and thrusting, with much banging, clanking, and commotion. For a moment Taran was sure he had the better of Coll, but the old man spun away with amazing lightness of foot. Now it was Taran who strove desperately to ward off Coll's blows.

What were the instructions Coll was giving Taran?

[Stewart Sackett]

A moderator is going to post in this thread & tell you to use your real name.

Your opera project sounds interesting. I’m not musical myself, but my little sister is a vocal performance major at the Boston conservatory. She’s a coloratura & she’s blonde. She might be a good fit for Eilonwy. I’m just putting that out there.

As to the instruction Coll offers: the book describes parrying (a common phrase used by non-fencers & post-enlightenment fencers) & it’s hard to say if the author meant that to be a stylistic description or he just thought it was a good general sword word. Assuming the word choice is intentional I would look at more modern books & steal catchy language from them. Hutton would be my suggestion, as stage fencing tends to rely on sabre like cuts for reasons of safety. If you wanted something a little more medieval I’d suggest reading Lindholm’s translation of Sigmund Ringeck. It includes English translations of medieval fencing poems that were used to remind students of the important lessons of the art. The phrases of the verse sound a bit awkward to the modern ear & translated to modern English, but some lines might do well if they were stolen & put to music. Coll would likely talk about the 3 times of the German fighting system (before, in the moment, & after) & some compositional plays with time could be done very nicely there.

It’s worth considering how any stage fencing will likely be implemented. Most stage fencing consists of broad sabre techniques & a lot of muscling back & forth in the bind, no matter what style of swordsmanship the story calls for. I’d say the easiest “real” sword work to ask of singers would be cutting some good figure-eights from above (Vom Tag) & defending either with evasion or with the hanging position. It would be easy enough to set up a pattern & then allow the characters to show through. Each doing the same basic attacks & counters, but Taran wild or frightened by turns while Coll remains calm & sets a steady pace. Every once & a while they’d bind blades & Coll would either shove Taran away easily or casually disengage.

Those are my thought, just off the top of my head. I wish you the best of luck with your project. Please, keep us posted as it progresses.

[Nicholas Moore]

I've not read this book and it sounds like he is talking about modern fencing to me. But the book is set in some sort of pre renaissance setting, right (at least a world with no guns)? So to be accurate it would have to be some sort of single hand sword length (roughly the size of a fire poker) weapon, most likely an arming sword but possibly a rapier (however unlikely it would be to see one of these weapons without a buckler/dagger/cloak/etc. pairing). One thing to understand about these weapons is that fights rarely lasted more than three techniques (an attack, a counter, then a counter to the counter). The instructions that are being given sound like reposte and parry techniques for a modern foil not an arming sword. So I guess we have to ask you, do you want to be accurate to the book or accurate to the function of the weapon? The passage could easily be adapted either way, but you need to find somebody with stage combat experience to plan it for you.

[Randall Pleasant]

oorfeo

Per the very clear forum rules, on your profile must include you full name.

[Don Rechtman]

Thanks for the comments, and patience with attaining my real name!

I think the style seen in the Lord of the Ring movies is what is desired. The timelessness of the setting seems to be, as Nicholas Moore said, pre-renaissance. I am virtually clueless as to how to create an informal instructor's dialogue such as this would be. When I consider how much additional work I already have in constructing a libretto and the music,I am very much inclined to be as lazy as possible and offer a written credit to someone else more experienced in sword play genre who is willing to write a few lines to help me in this project. I would not necessarily use it verbatim, but would make adjustments if needed to ensure the blending of music and text integrity. In other words, the wording that someone conjures up does not need to be perfect; it is the terminology and spirit of the scene I would like to capture.

Thanks,

Don

[Nicholas Moore]

Not to belabor the point but it depends on what weapons you wish them to emulate. Do you want to be accurate to the weapon or just make it sound impressive? Either way you need somebody with stage experience because to be honest I wouldn't know how to dumb down the technical language we use so that most people could understand it. Even worse many of the terms we use are not english. This is a task for somebody with a better knowledge of the manuals than me.

But I assume the format your looking for is a series of student/teacher questions/answers that could be plausible along with corresponding verbal commands for a short series of techniques. Again lets assume for a 12-15th century arming sword without a weapon pairing. Just making these two assumptions will help out somebody working on this, of course only if you agree.