Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire

                 by Grace McKenna

 

 

        The annual Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire was quite the enjoyable event. The Mount Pleasant Early Music Ensemble, under the direction of Mr. Brian Drumbore, had the opportunity to perform there, and explore all of the excitement it had to offer. Our group arrived in time to perform in the Madrigal competition, which is a Renaissance genre of music. We had our recorders and krummhorns, and we performed Belle qui tiens ma vie by Thoinot Arbeau. We placed sixth out of the dozens and dozens of other performing high schools. 

 

        Dressed in the traditional clothing of the time period, we were able to blend in with many of the actresses and actors working the Faire, and learn about the ways of life in the fifteenth century. For example, there were many cases during the fair where an actor would approach a visitor wearing purple, and demand to know their family of royalty. This is because purple was considered a color only for royalty, as it was very expensive to dye cloth such a dark color. There were shops where we could see other traditional forms of clothing, like jester outfits and fabrics made for queens. The Queen, Catherine of Aragon, even asked us to play our music for her! 

 

        To see people talking and dancing and singing as if they were in the Renaissance era was a wonderful experience. We ate food from the period, such as pickles on a stick and the infamous turkey leg that represents the food of the Faire. It was delicious food too, although I am sure that the grease was historically inaccurate. We were introduced to the customs of people back then, and we learned about the history of politics and of music. We watched a joust, which lead to a sword fight. We also sang along to some of the court songs, we watched jesters and musicians, and we learned about the Renaissance way of life; including the differences between the poor and the royal.  

 

        When it was time to leave the faire, I did not think anybody was happy to leave. With the idea of simpler and also more complex times, we explored the world when it was smaller than us.