So when I found out that a local harpist was the recipient of the Silver Brooch scroll I was assigned, it was clear I needed sheet music to be the inspiration piece. I love painting sheet music, mostly because despite the fact that the only instrument I play is the iPod, I love period music.
And the search began. Her persona is defined, so I insisted on keeping it period to her persona. Enter the Walters. This is one of theirs - a scant 4 folios of sheet music from one source, but lucky for me one of them was already a capital S. 1400's English.
This is the chosen page:
W 745, f. Br - Two leaves of Antiphonary
I chose not to use the imagery in the capital, and instead replaced it with bench holding a harp. I played on the period practice of breaking the box and had the Brooch "pinned" around the outside edge. I really love how that looked once finished, and kept the outside decoration to the edge of the letter, instead of following the Brooch.
The original is on vellum, my scroll is done on pergamenata with gouache. The lines were done in red ink, as was the decoration around the capital letters. I used Higgins ink for the black, and Winsor Newton for the red.
Writing the text was both fun and difficult. I wanted it to follow the flow of the original text, but figured out really quickly that I had more to say than the original text did. After consulting a few musicians, I came to the decision that even if the text didn't really fit with the music anymore the music was still playable and that was, to me, the important part. I was as faithful as I could in replicating the music, considering I reduced the scroll size from the original.
I usually try very hard to create a 1:1 scroll ratio. The original piece is 14" x 19". My finished scroll is 9" x 11". I chose to go smaller because a) this is not a Peerage scroll and b) I do think about what sort of wall space the recipient has. Yes, I would have loved to create a huge scroll but I think that we as scribes need to understand that framing is costly on odd size scrolls and that while for something like a Peerage scroll that's fine, for something so early in the promising career of an artist in the SCA, being able to find a nice mat and frame at the store without having to special order a custom cut mat and frame is important. Thus, smaller scroll.
This is also the first scroll where I used a table to map out where my calligraphy went. Because I decided to use the notes in red as part of the text I did actually need to follow a map when I went to write the pieces. Having two calligraphy nib handles actually worked really well here and I have decided that I really do prefer having a round handle, and so will be replacing one of my pens soon.
