Filk Music
Lee Gold, filk
by (Ms.) Lee Gold
"Filk" has had lots of definitions over the years, ever since Karen Anderson took Lee Jacobs' typo and redefined it in her SAPSzine, back in the early 1950s. (See http://www.nightsong.com/filk/twippledop/ for the first deliberate use of "Filk Song".) The only thing we're sure about is that it has something to do with music. Percussion music and guitar music and keyboard music and autoharp music. Drums and guitar and keyboards and autoharps and banjos and more. Solo singers and groups of harmonizing singers, a lot of them good enough that they've been professionally recorded, a lot of them just enthusiastic amateurs. And of course the whole room singing together, maybe songs that most people know well (and are happy to let newcomers see in our songbooks), maybe songs from the NESFA Hymnal or the folk collection RISE UP SINGING.
Funny songs and morose songs and pedantic songs. Parody songs and songs that reuse a well-known tune but don't parody it and songs to original tunes. Songs about cats and computers and fannish history and spaceflight and religion and roleplaying and vampires and history and myth and current events and science fiction and fantasy books and movies and television and comicsx and manga and more.
We'll be having all sorts of music programming at Worldcon, but our plans aren't yet carved in stone.
We'd like to have a drum and percussion circle if we can get volunteers to lead it.
Write me (filk or at 3965 Alla Road, Los Angeles, CA 90066)if you've got any suggestions for programitems, or if you'd just like to volunteer to help.~~
Please tell me if you're planning to come to the convention, or if you know any other filkers who are planning to come. The more we know about possible performers and likely audience size at a given time, the better.
If you're thinking of arriving early or staying late, and using the time to visit Disneyland or California Adventure, let us know so we can put together a group of filkers. How else can we make sure that we'll have people to sing with while we row a canoe around Tom Sawyer's Island? If you've got a Disney Club card and can get a discount on Disney tickets, let us know that too. (The convention is working on discounts for Disney tickets but those arrangements aren't yet made.)
We plan to have a music lounge where we can chat, tune up instruments, and have panels during the daytime.
We plan to have concerts, but when they're held will depend on when you plan to show up. This convention is going to run Wednesday through Sunday, so the Dead BEM song session will be Sunday late afternoon and evening. Concerts will be held on the afternoons and evenings when most attendees will be present at the convention. There'll be one-shots in between concerts. And we also plan to present the Pegasus Nominees.
There'll be hosted theme circles, focusing on songs about a particular topic. Obviously, one of the themes will be Space. Another, given our location, is likely to be Disney. And another might be roleplaying gaming. Write to me if you've got any suggestions for these.
There'll be panels on the history of fannish music. There'll be a panel (singing and speaking) on Kipling's poetry, and another one (singing and speaking) on song and music in science fiction and fantasy. (Remember the great songs in Robert Heinlein's and Poul Anderson's and John Myers Myers' and JRR Tolkien's works. Come hear how they sound.)
A panel on fannish history as preserved in filksong. A panel on space history as presented in filksong. A panel or theme circle on paleofilk (written back before the publication of Westerfilk I in 1980). And more.
And there'll be open circles where everything goes. Chaos, Bardic, Poker Chip, Domino, Fortune Cookie -- song circles of all the types you've heard and maybe more. And Leslie Fish will probably be hosting a Sin Pit up on the hotel's smoking floor (at which smokers will be welcomed). And oh yes, there'll be a scheduled singing of "Banned from Argo" (and related songs) so people who want to hear it can do so and people who don't want to won't have to.
Let us know if you'd like to participate in a story one-shot session, where you proceed your song with up to a one minute story (perhaps quoting the science fiction or fantasy work the song is about). Let us know about your song ahead of time, and I'll see if the author is going to be at Worldcon and would like to come hear it.
Filking will take place in the Hilton Anaheim.
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