Cid: The Cid’s wife prays—an epic creed

About the scene and clip:
The Cid’s wife, Doña Jimena, prays for the safety of her beloved husband, in what is called “an epic creed”: as she prays, she briefly goes over many great moments in the history of salvation, from the creation on.

About the work: 
The Song of the Cid (Cantar del Mio Cid) is a medieval Spanish epic, probably composed in the 12th century, and preserved in a single, somewhat incomplete 14th-century manuscript; it is probably anonymous (though there is controversy on the issue). It recounts important adventures of an historical figure, Rodrigo (or Ruy) Díaz, known as “El Cid” (from an Arabic honoric term, meaning “lord” or “sir”).  The Cid was a major hero of the “reconquista” (reconquest) of Spain from the Moors. This epic is (especially for an epic) unusually cheerful on the whole: The Cid was “born at the right hour!” The first part tells of his banishment from Castile by King Alfonso (for reasons unclear in the epic), his many conquests in Moorish territory, and his reinstatement at court. The second part focuses on the highly unsatisfactory marriages of The Cid’s two daughters to arrogant, cowardly Spanish noblemen, the sons of Carrión (the king had chosen the marriages); the brothers beat the two women and leave them for dead in the forest, but they are rescued. The Cid contrives a sophisticated and civilized revenge on the two men—and his daughters go on to marry kings.    

About the genre:  
The epic is an ancient genre and is found in almost every culture. It is a long heroic narrative that tells of war and great deeds. Epics are generally composed in verse, and sung from memory or improvised in performance by professional performers with instrumental accompaniment. These narratives are created from traditional elements, commonly without recourse to writing, by poets whose names are often unknown to us. Among the famous traditional epics are the Iliad and the Odyssey, attributed to Homer; the Anglo-Saxon Beowulf; and the Old French Song of Roland. Many known poets adopt epic forms and themes for their literary verse (such as Virgil in his Aeneid).

About the edition/translation: 
The Song of the Cid: A Dual-Language Edition with Parallel Text, trans. Burton Raffel, New York, Penguin Editions, 2009; stanza 18, pp. 25-27.

About the performer/ensemble: 
Katie Henry is a major in Dramatic Writing at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, with a minor in History (2012).

About the production:
This performance was created for the course “Acting Medieval Literature,” taught by Prof. Timmie (E.B.) Vitz at New York University in spring 2012. It was videoed by Samantha Ehrenberger and edited by Abigail Wahl.

Cid: The Cid prepares joyfully to go into battle

About the scene and clip:
The Cid goes joyfully into battle, with the performer beating  his hands on the table to imitate the sound of the Moorish drums.  The Cid reassures his terrified wife and the ladies that all will be well—he will conquer, and those drums will soon hang in St. Mary’s Church!

About the work: 
The Song of the Cid (Cantar del Mio Cid) is a medieval Spanish epic, probably composed in the 12th century, and preserved in a single, somewhat incomplete 14th-century manuscript; it is probably anonymous (though there is controversy on the issue). It recounts important adventures of an historical figure, Rodrigo (or Ruy) Díaz, known as “El Cid” (from an Arabic honoric term, meaning “lord” or “sir”).  The Cid was a major hero of the “reconquista” (reconquest) of Spain from the Moors. This epic is (especially for an epic) unusually cheerful on the whole: The Cid was “born at the right hour!” The first part tells of his banishment from Castile by King Alfonso (for reasons unclear in the epic), his many conquests in Moorish territory, and his reinstatement at court. The second part focuses on the highly unsatisfactory marriages of The Cid’s two daughters to arrogant, cowardly Spanish noblemen, the sons of Carrión (the king had chosen the marriages); the brothers beat the two women and leave them for dead in the forest, but they are rescued. The Cid contrives a sophisticated and civilized revenge on the two men—and his daughters go on to marry kings.    

About the genre:  
The epic is an ancient genre and is found in almost every culture. It is a long heroic narrative that tells of war and great deeds. Epics are generally composed in verse, and sung from memory or improvised in performance by professional performers with instrumental accompaniment. These narratives are created from traditional elements, commonly without recourse to writing, by poets whose names are often unknown to us. Among the famous traditional epics are the Iliad and the Odyssey, attributed to Homer; the Anglo-Saxon Beowulf; and the Old French Song of Roland. Many known poets adopt epic forms and themes for their literary verse (such as Virgil in his Aeneid).

About the edition/translation:  
The Song of the Cid: A Dual-Language Edition with Parallel Text, trans. Burton Raffel, New York, Penguin Editions, 2009; stanza 91, pp. 117-119.

About the performer/ensemble:  
Jon Sokolow is a Drama student in the Experimental Theatre Wing at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts (2012).

About the production:
This performance was created for the course “Acting Medieval Literature,” taught by Prof. Timmie (E.B.) Vitz at New York University in spring 2012. It was videoed by Alexander Herron and edited by Abigail Wahl.

Silence: Minstrels arrive

About the scene and clip:
Minstrels arrive at the court. The solo storyteller is accompanied at points by instrumentalists from the ensemble PanHarmonium.

About the work:
Silence tells the story of a girl whose parents raise her as a boy so that she can inherit their land. Silence, though inwardly conflicted over her true nature, becomes a successful knight and minstrel and unwittingly attracts the love of the queen. Silence is finally unmasked by the seer Merlin; now a woman, she wins the love of the king. This unusual romance contains major female characters whose names refer to speech (Silence and Euphemie) and the allegorical adversaries, Nature vs. Nurture. The website contains several clips from Silence that demonstrate some of the many different ways in which characters and scenes from this work can be performed.

About the genre:
Medieval romances are typically long narratives of love and adventure in which an aristocratic hero (or occasionally a heroine) proves himself in combat and courtship. Medieval romance arose in France and Anglo-Norman England in the 12th century and spread through Western and even Eastern Europe. Many early romances tell the stories of knights and ladies at King Arthur’s court. In the 12th and 13th centuries, romances are composed in verse (typically octosyllabic rhymed couplets), and are commonly performed aloud from memory by minstrels; romances are also sometimes read aloud. In the 13th century, some romances begin to be written in prose; public and private readings become more frequent.

About the edition/translation:
Abridged and adapted from A Thirteenth-Century French Romance, Silence, ed./trans. Sarah Roche-Mahdi, East Lansing, MI, Colleagues Press, 1992.

About the performer/ensemble:
Dolores Hydock is an actress and story performer whose work has been featured at concerts, festivals, conferences, and special events throughout the United States. Details about her work can be found at www.storypower.org.

PanHarmonium is a trio made up of David Cantrell, Susan Marchant, and Gilbert Ritchie. The group plays reproductions of early instruments, and their repertoire includes music of the medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque periods. For more information about PanHarmonium, e-mail DWCantrell@sigmaxi.net.

About the production:
This performance of Silence was held at the Virginia Samford Theatre in Birmingham, Alabama in November, 2007. Dolores Hydock and PanHarmonium have also performed Silence at numerous other events.

Hilali epic: Awadallah sings of Abu Zayd

About the scene and clip:
This video shows performances drawn from the Egyptian epic devoted to the hero of the Hilali tribe,Abu Zayd, sung by a traditional Hilali performer and recorded by the ethnographer Susan Slyomovics. The performer sings the epic, accompanying himself on a drum and interacting frequently with the audience. He performs as storyteller, with great emphasis on wordplay and punning; there is relatively little attempt to impersonate the characters. In the video, we first see Awadallah in the town square, surrounded by his audience of men. Then, he begins to speak to his listeners, telling them that he is a “merchant of art.” The singer continues the performance in his home, singing about Abu Zayd, frequently holding his drum against his ear. Medieval epics like Old French The Song of Roland were probably performed in quite an analogous manner: sung by solo professional performers to instrumental accompaniment, with only modest levels of character impersonation, and with substantial interaction with (at least originally) a largely male audience.

About the work:
A vast epic tells the history of the Bani Hilal tribe of Bedouin Arabs of Egypt. The earliest parts of their story go back to the 8th and 9th centuries when they moved northward out of the Arabian peninsula, eventually settling in Egypt. The original stories were developed and augmented over hundreds of years, transmitted through performance and in written form; they are still performed in Egypt today by professional singers in cafés and marketplaces. In this part of the epic, the Hilali hero Abu Zayd rescues the royal family of Iraq from their oppressors.

About the genre:
The epic is an ancient genre and is found in almost every culture. It is a long heroic narrative which tells of war and great deeds. Epics are generally composed in verse, and sung from memory or improvised in performance by professional performers with instrumental accompaniment. These narratives are created from traditional elements, commonly without recourse to writing, by poets whose names are often unknown to us. Among the famous traditional epics are the Iliad and the Odyssey, attributed to Homer; the Anglo-Saxon Beowulf; and the Old French Song of Roland. Many known poets adopt epic forms and themes for their literary verse (such as Virgil in his Aeneid).

About the edition/translation:
The video, The Merchant of Art, accompanies a book by Susan Slyomovics, The Merchant of Art: An Egyptian Hilali Oral Epic Poet in Performance, University of California Press, 1987.

About the performer/ensemble:
The performer, Awadallah Abd aj-Jalil Ali, is a professional singer of Hilali epics in Aswan, Egypt (1983).

About the production:
The video The Merchant of Art was filmed in 1983 in Aswan, Egypt, by Prof. Susan Slyomovics, a member of the faculty of the Anthropology Department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2004). A copy of this video is available at the Avery Fisher Center at Bobst Library at New York university. This video is also available on line at http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21a/21a.453/merchantofart.mov