“The instincts of a Bard are, I fear, beastly in nature; it seems the most skilled Bards are those who carry the power of the mountain’s echo, the crash of the avalanche or the wail of the winter wind in their song, and who do it with so little applied thought or theory that it seems that they were born simply with it in their blood. It makes it easy — too easy — to doubt the scientific nature of the discipline.” — Jack Gavinsohn Alfritz, in an opinion letter to the Den Elessa Times, 1899.

Songwork is one of the four disciplines of structured magic, or thaumaturgy, in use in the State of Elessa. Colloquially called Bard magic, it is the oldest and most well attested of the four schools, with clear historical references predating even Bloodwork. The most prominent — and obvious — of these is the Drowned Bard himself, but while Proteus is occasionally shown working miracles through poetry and song, these are relatively few and far between when compared to the magic and music of the Three-Tongued Pilgrim. In the work of Otfrid of Wessenbrijk (1500s), our earliest attested work featuring Merlin and indeed any of the Nine Heroes, Merlin’s three faces are said to represent the three types of art — Inktkunst (art of paper and ink), Talakunst (art of the tongue) and Forkunst (art of the hand and body). Roughly speaking, this translates to writing and art as the first; song and speech alike as the second; and dance, the work of an instrument, and performance as the third. Even crossing from folklore into recorded history gives us a wealth of instrumental and vocal mages, from Rosette Lammasdottir (late 1500s, vocalist) to Hieronymus Locke (1720s, harpisichordist and pianist).

In sharp contrast to Smokework, Songwork is much less systematized. Music theory, of course, is a thriving field, and there are magical mechanisms attached to every bit of musical theory, from the modes (Aeolian, Lydian, etc.) to key signature and rhythm, to the nature of a composition (iterative, progressive, so on and so forth.) There are even names for particular compositions with particular effects, slotted into types and categories of spells, meant as stand-ins before a Bard gets around to composing their own work (as they are always expected to do). But at its heart, Songwork is a deeply felt discipline. It is all very well and good to know what artefacts such as the ‘devil’s interval’ are (two notes separated by three whole tones or six semi-tones) but a true Bard knows how to surround it with the correct notes, the correct timing, the correct words (depending on their style) to evoke the needed emotion from those around them.

A lack of full systemization in spell natures does not, however, mean that the Bards themselves do not have their own separate schools. Within the Bard College, there are Troubadours, Virtuosos, Balladeers, and Rhythmists. Troubadours focus primarily on folk-styled music, and play a mix of instruments but normally simpler ones; the violin, (wooden) flute, uillean or bag-pipes, lutes or small guitars, balalaikas and accordions. (The only recorded accordion player in Songworker history, at least as his primary instrument, is Fayvel Bar-Nohra in 1848. Still, as a result, it is an accepted and studied instrument.) Virtuosos are classically inclined, and tend towards larger compositions played in a stationary position. As such, Virtuosos will play instruments such as piano, harpsichord, silver flute, clarinet, cello and so on. There are also instruments that overlap depending on size and use — violins and harps are found in both schools with quite a bit of regularity. Balladeers are the only school that regularly uses lyrical music, although some lyrics may appear in Troubadour craft here and there. The interplay of words and music is where their interest lies, and so they may play any of the above instruments, barring any of the wind or reed; violins are also rare due to their positioning. The most common instruments for a Balladeer are lute, guitar, or small harp. Finally, the Rhythmist school is the youngest; while it has had a presence in the College since the late 1890s, the rising popularity of moving pictures has created an unexpected rise in drummers. While piano players provide the soundtrack for films in-house, drummers are the Foley artists of the movie theatre, and the combination of the heightened emotion of any film with the nature of a drumpad has created (and continues to create) a massive number of new Rhythmist Bards. These Bards work with any kind of drum or percussion instrument; bass guitars and double basses often appear but are second line to the bodhran, tambourine, snare drum, and even ‘instruments’ as humble as castanets or rainsticks. Not included in the Bardic College, and in fact looked down upon by the leaders of such, are Minstrels — unregistered Bards who have learned next to no theory at all, but somehow have enough of a deft hand with the magic to use it skilfully anyway, and are sneaky enough with it to avoid being arrested as unregistered thaumatists. Most Minstrels are jazz or blues performers, which is a fascinating coincidence, if you listen to the Bardic College about it.

The Songwork (or Bardic) College is the oldest of the Colleges, founded in 1732 and awaiting the celebration of its 200th birthday with both trepidation and great excitement. Its early years were markedly different, focused primarily on teaching the skills of music rather than magic, and in fact early surviving documents bear conflicting mastheads of ‘Bardic College’ and ‘Bard’s Guild’, demonstrating internal strife on the exact purpose of the institution. By the 1740s, however, this strife was clearly resolved and the first true class was accepted as a group. The only major disruption in the Bardic College’s history is during the Civil War of 1909-1911, where the College decided not to accept any new students for ’10 or ’11, and the leadership of the College was torn between the opposing factions of the war.

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Out of Universe Commentary:

Doing music-magic is always tricky when you know just enough music theory, but I had fun with this! Most of this will end up in the story as well given that one of Rook’s favourite schools is Bard magic — and to forestall any concerns, the bit about Minstrels is very, very deliberate. (You will meet at least one Minstrel.)

Keep coming back for more worldbuilding posts! And don’t forget — if you want to subscribe and help me out, my new monthly support platform is over on Ko-Fi!