I use Elizabethan speech in all my public performances of Elizabethan music.
It creates first astonishment, then curiosity, and ultimately enhances the
sense of period. I must stress, though, that it has to be studied and
practiced exhaustively, so that it sounds natural, and not like a rehearsed
and badly-delivered speech. I'm now sufficiently familiar with Elizabethan
speech patterns and idioms to improvise, reply to questions and make jokes
without dropping into anachronistic modernisms, but it's taken me many years
to get there.
Text panels are, of course, much easier, because one can prepare them in
advance. Provided the pastiche is accurate, it should work very well. There
is a historical window, though, within which it's workable. I suspect that
WWII text would hardly be perceived as different from modern display text,
which is expected to be slightly formal, unless one concentrated heavily on
iconic phrases which have dated particularly dramatically, and then it would
border on caricature. At the other end of the timescale, 1550 is about the
limit beyond which English starts to get unintelligible to a modern reader.
Best wishes,
Paul Baker
Renaissance Musician, Instrument Maker,
Computer Maestro and lots of other things.
Diabolus in Musica and Midlands Early Music Forum
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www.diabolus.org
----- Original Message -----
From: "Vicky Mair" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, September 11, 2007 4:29 PM
Subject: text in period settings
*apologies for cross-posting*
Hi,
I was wondering if any of you have had experience of using 'period' text to
fit in with a period setting (e.g. using Victorian language and style to fit
in with a Victorian display). Has anyone tried this (and evaluated what
visitors thought of it)?
I'd be interested to find out if visitors found it immersive or just plain
confusing!
Or if any of you have ever had requests for this kind of interpretation from
visitors?
Many thanks,
Vicky
Vicky Mair
Visitor Studies Reserach Assistant
Riverside Project
Museum of Transport
Glasgow
G3 8DP
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