Why "Bard School"?

Why "Bard School"?

If you ask me, somehow there must be a name, is it not? And I don't want mere a name. I want an interesting name related to music.

So, "Bard School" is the one.

Bards were travelling poet musicians in medieval and early modern Scotland, Ireland and Wales. There were similar professions commonly addressed as Minstrel in Europe.

To be more specific, musicians who play instruments, sing or compose secular music, poems and epics were called troubadour(in Southern France), trouvère(in Northern France) and Minnesinger (in German, and called "Meistersinger" later). There are marginal differences among the definitions of these poet musicians in each district of Europe, in terms of languages, preferred types of music and poems, and even their social classes which range widely from the poor on the fringe of society to aristocrats.

Well, the introduction of medieval secular music would end here. However, I picked this name not only for bards as truly existing musical profession in the history, but also because of the class of bards in TRPG.

The TRPG bards are characters who perform instruments, inspire their partners' courage with songs and cast simple but useful spells, such as detect magic, lullaby and cure light wounds. These musicians may not be one of the most fierce fighters or spellcasters in the game, but definitely of the most intriguing characters!

Quite similar to the true musicians in our daily life!


Photo Info:
Owain Phyfe, a modern-day minstrel plays for an audience at a Renaissance fair in 2003.
Image created by David Ball, and used under creative commons.

Related Links：
Wikipedia-Bard
Wikipeida-Mistrel
Wikipedia-Troubadour
Wikipedia-Trouvère
Wikipedia-Minnesinger
Wikipedia-TRPG

中文閱讀請見：cakecat blog: [Blog] Bard School! A Brand-New Blog for Music