Welcome to the Online Clann Tartan Newsletter for March 2006

Come one, come all! Winter Muster is your chance to learn skills if you need them, and share them if you have them. We will meet at Corcoran, 3334 20th Av South.in Minneapolis, on March 18th at 10:00. Our esteemed Quartermaster will be present to log your accomplishments in muster requirements. If you don't know, this is the place to learn—how to handle a pike, how to load a musket, how to spin wool, how to start a fire. This is where new members can master the skills to advance in the ranks!

Lunch will be served. We will break up at 4:00 PM.

If you are coming, please let Mistress Lyon (Julie Yoder) know so she will know how many to feed. Her number is 651-698-8375. If you are willing to teach, please let her know that, too, so we can arrange a schedule of lessons.

All of the memberships in Clann go through March 31st. So it is time to start collecting the renewals for next year. The following people are paid beyond March 31, 2006: Dawn Gaetke, Maeve Kane, Elizabeth LeClair, Mark Steer and Abby Struck. Everyone else needs to get their renewals in to me in the next couple of months. Amount is still the same, $18 for adults or families, $10 for students. You can give me your check in person at an event, pub night, drill etc or mail your check made out to Clann Tartan to Bruce Yoder, 1817 Juno Av, St Paul MN 55116.

Clann's Dance Guild has a new Wednesday location. We will be dancing at the Lake Hiawatha Community Center at 2701 E 44th St in Minneapolis. The center has a sprung wooden floor (so much easier on the feet than concrete!) and views of Lake Hiawatha. Parking is on street and is free, and the center has pop, water, and snack machines. Because there are one-way streets in the area, you must approach from the east on 44th St. Mapquest has a good map. We will dance at the new space on February 1st and 22nd, and March 8th and 22nd, then return to our regular schedule of 1st and 3rd Wednesdays for the rest of the year. We will continue to have our Tuesday practices on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of each month at St. Christopher's Episcopal Church in Roseville as usual. If you haven't come to dance lately, come give us a try – the dances are easy and we have 'way too much fun!

No, get your minds out of the pasture! The Clann Staff is looking for shearling remnants (skin with fleece on) to use for hotpads and mortar swabs. If you have any scraps you can share, please advise Rob Johnson; otherwise, we will have to see to buying a sheepskin.

Your staff thanks you.

The online store can be found at www.cafepress.com/clanntartan.

Drill

Board Minutes

Minutes of Clann Tartan Board Meeting
January 2, 2006

In attendance:  (Board) Diana Steben, Bruce Yoder, Mary McKinley, 
Glenn McDavid

(Staff) Julie Yoder, Marty Byers

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Minutes of the December Meeting were approved as corrected.

OLD BUSINESS
============
Paper Dolls -- no report from the Paper Doll committee.

Awards -- Shaun Gaffney's old proposal sounds good, but is really
oriented towards a much larger group.  Waived until next meeting.

REPORTS
=======

Treasurer
---------
No activity in December, so last month's report is still valid.
Still trying to contact the previous Treasurer about some old business.

Secretary
---------
The Secretary reminded the Board that he is not a professional
webmaster, and that the web site needs some major work to be easier to
use.  Hence he would like some technical help with running it.  A couple
leads to suitable people were suggested.

Quartermaster
-------------
No report from the QM.  Diana can point out the holes on the Cook's
tent.  Marty will replace the uprights on the Cook's Fly.  We will also
look for some brass rings for tent reinforcement.

Dance Guild
-----------
Need another site for Wednesdays.

Dance Music Sub-Guild
---------------------
Sean is working on this.

Sword Guild
-----------
Still trying to schedule space at Corcoran.

Historic Site
-------------
No report.

Fiber Guild
-----------
No report

Music Guild
-----------
No report.  We do not know the location of the Clann drums.

Garage
------
We may need to look again at alternative sites.

Camp Drill
----------
None in January.  Will have one in February.  Diana is willing to help.
Will try to have a special theme once per quarter.



UPCOMING EVENTS
===============
Winter Carnival:  The parades are on--our check has been cashed.  Bruce
is exchanging e-mails about arrangements.  There is one issue about
insurance that needs to be worked out.  All participants will need to
submit a waiver--we have the forms.

Annual Meeting (Feb. 5).  Board Elections--President, Vice President,
Treasurer, and Camp Rep are all open.  We have candidates for all
positions.

Ramble (Feb 18-19):  Everything is on track.  We will have a room on the 2nd
floor.  We will be the honor guard.

Tartan Day: We have been invited to participate in the Tartan day
celebration.  Tartan day is Thursday, April 6, but the event will be
translated to the following Saturday, April 8.

PUB NIGHT
=========
We will try Fridays for three months.  January will be at the Backyard
in Richfield.  We had 7 people at O'Briens in December.

OTHER NEW BUSINESS
==================

Summer Muster -- Staff is working on it.  Need to check with the
Quartermaster.  Hellen's parents have offered their farm as a location.

Next Meeting Saturday, Feb. 4, at Corcoran.  Meeting adjourned 7:50 PM.

Board & Staff

If you need to contact someone associated with Clann Tartan, here is where you find out how. If you are unsure who to contact, you can always email us at: info@clanntartan.org

Guilds

COMMON MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS IN SCOTLAND AND SURROUNDING AREAS IN THE 17th CENTURY

WOODWINDS

Lower class

Horn - simple blast horn with no finger holes, made from (you guessed it) horn.

Gemshorn - probably already ancient when first documented about 1500. A poorly documented instrument (we don’t even know its English name), the gemshorn was made from chamois or cattle horn. The open end was plugged with a piece of wood in which a fipple was carved, and was played like a recorder. Great peasant/shepherd instrument.

Pipe (tabor pipe) - this simple woodwind had only three holes, and was designed to be played one-handed, leaving the other hand free to play the tabor (see below under percussion). It was usually used for simple dance accompaniment. Considered quite low-brow.

Classless

Woodwinds tended to be much more class neutral than other families of instruments.

Bombard-drawing by David Vavreck

Shawm - reed instrument, often played in consort by Waits.

Bombard - a particularly loud Breton shawm, this is the only period instrument I know of that could hold its own playing a duet with bagpipes. It was often used for outdoor dance accompaniment.

Hautboy (oh boy) - descendant of the shawm, and ancestor of the oboe. Replaced fifes as a preferred infantry instrument from about 1660 to about 1740.

Bagpipes - various types in use not only throughout Europe, but North Africa as well. Most bagpipes in our period still only had one drone, but those with two were becoming more common. The modern Highland pipes have three. Highland chiefs still often employed a piper, and there was a college of piping (so to speak) on Lewis or Skye.

Whistle/Flageolet - this is the wooden ancestor to the modern penny whistle. In addition to being commonly used for dance music, the French used it to play along with the drum to relieve the monotony of the march.

Fife - in addition to being a common infantry instrument in our period, this was also commonly used for dance and other folk music.

Both the whistle and the fife have six holes, and are fingered the same. Someone who plays one can play the other, the difference being that the whistle is end-blown (you stick the end in your mouth and blow) and the fife is cross-blown (you blow across a hole, which takes more practice to get right).

Recorder - also known as the “sweet flute” or “german flute” this family of instruments, from the tiny high-pitched garklein to the enormous great bass, had 8 holes. Popular amongst all classes (Henry VIII owned 76 of them), they fell out of favor in the 18th century, when they were replaced by the much louder flutes. Noted early music performers the Family von Trapp--about whom “The Sound of Music” was loosely based--were instrumental to their 20th century revival.

Flute - open holed, i.e. no keys. Not as popular as the recorder in our period, as although they were louder, they have a much more shrill tone than recorders.

Cornette - not the same instrument as the modern cornet (a small trumpet), this resembled the oboe.

Woodwinds not appropriate for our time period

Keys did not start to appear on woodwinds until late in the 17th century, when they were first used to extend the range or ease the playability of larger instruments. Fully keyed instruments did not become common until the 19th century.

Tin/Penny Whistle - a result of the industrial revolution (they are stamped metal), these began to appear around 1840. They are a cheap imitation of the wood flageolet/whistle.

Clarinet - not invented until about the 19th century (?), although other reed instruments were around, such as the shawm, bombard, and hautboy.

And sorry, no saxophones.

Stay tuned to the next installment, where David discusses Brass!

Calendar of Events

MARCH 2006

SUNDAY	MONDAY	TUESDAY	WEDNESDAY	THURSDAY	FRIDAY	SATURDAY
			1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8 Dance Lake Hiawatha Community Center	9	10	11 Staff Meeting—Yoder's 1:00
12 ;	13	14 Dance St. Christopher's	15	16 Sword Drill 7PM at Corcoran Park Hall (where we hold our annual meetings) Call Marty 651.483.1173 twolodge@yahoo.com	17	18 Winter Muster at the Corcoran Park Recreation Center 10:00 a.m. til 4:00 p.m.
19	20	21 Board meeting—Yoder's 7:00	22 Dance Lake Hiawatha Community Center	23	24 Night at the Pub 7pm at Mannings Cafe 2200 Como Av SE	25 CAMP DRILL 10AM to 4PM Please call a staff member for location
26	27	28 Dance St. Christopher's	29	30	31

CLANN TARTAN SCHEDULE
FOR MARCH, 2006

Date	Event	Status
March 8	Dance Practice—Hiawatha Community Center 7:00	Scheduled
March 11	Staff Meeting—Yoder’s 1:00	Scheduled
March 14	Dance Practice—St. Christopher’s 7:00	Scheduled
March 16	Sword Drill—Corcoran	Scheduled
March 18	Winter Muster—Corcoran 10:00	Scheduled
March 21	Board meeting—Yoder’s 7:00	Scheduled
March 22	Dance Practice—Hiawatha Community Center 7:00	Scheduled
March 24	Night at the Pub: Manning’s	Scheduled
March 25	Camp Drill—Corcoran 12:00	Scheduled
March 28	Dance Practice—St. Christopher’s 7:00	Scheduled

Camp Drill

Don’t forget Camp Drill! This is an occasion to gather and work on camp-type projects—clothes, characters, brogue, camp crafts. A number of members have also expressed an interest in a fabric swap—trade your old, boring bits of stash for somebody else’s new, exciting bits of stash. We encourage those who wish to participate to bring their fabric, and themselves, to Corcoran on Saturday the 25^th at 12:00. It’s always a fun gathering—see you there!

APRIL 2006

SUNDAY	MONDAY	TUESDAY	WEDNESDAY	THURSDAY	FRIDAY	SATURDAY
						1
2	3	4	5 Dance Lake Hiawatha Community Center	6	7	8 TARTAN DAY MN State Capitol
9 ;	10	11 Dance	12	13 Sword Drill 7PM at Corcoran Park Hall (where we hold our annual meetings) Call Marty 651.483.1173 twolodge@yahoo.com	14	15
16	17	18	19 Dance Lake Hiawatha Community Center	20	21	22 CAMP DRILL 10AM to 4PM Please call a staff member for location
23	24	25 Dance	26	27	28 Charles City Military History Days	29 Charles City Military History Days
30 Charles City Military History Days

Event Schedule for the 2006 Season:

Hello all,

The following is a list of the dates of the events that are currently on the schedule for this year. The staff has met and decided to keep this running list of events in the newsletter to give you a chance to get an idea of what is going on this season as well as keep you updated to changes in the schedule.

The column titled status will include the following information.

Tentative- this means that an event organizer or clann has expressed a strong enough interest in doing this event that it warrants reserving space on the calendar for the event.

Pending- this is the next stage of an event. This means that Maeve has entered serious discussion about Clann doing an event but we are still not committed to the event. You should however if possible think about wether or not you may be able to attend this event.

Scheduled- this level means that the board and staff have approve the event and we are committed to providing manpower to making the event happen. When an event is assigned this level please let Julie know as soon as possible if you can or can not attend this event.

Canceled- This means that for various reasons an scheduled event has been removed from the current season. We will try and give as much notice as we can prior to canceling an event.

If you have any questions about this, please feel free to contact me regarding this matter

Thanks,
Rob Johnson.

DATE	EVENT	STATUS
1/1/2006	Airing of the Tartans 1st Footing	Finished
1/28/2006	Grand Day Parade	Finished
2/4/2006	Torchlight Parade	Finished
2/18-19/2006	Scottish Ramble	Finished
4/28-30/2006	Charles City Military History Days http://hometown.aol.com/daveww2/CHARLESCITYclub.html	Pending
6/3-5/2006	Wisconsin Renaissance Fair (This fair runs all weekends in June) www.wirenfaire.com	Tentative
6/10-12/2006	Wisconsin Renaissance Fair (This fair runs all weekends in June) www.wirenfaire.com	Tentative
6/10-11/2006	Olde World Renaissance Faire (Twig) http://www.owrenaissancefaire.com/	Pending
6/17-19/2006	Wisconsin Renaissance Fair (This fair runs all weekends in June) www.wirenfaire.com	Tentative
6/24-26/2006	Wisconsin Renaissance Fair (This fair runs all weekends in June) www.wirenfaire.com	Tentative
7/15/2006	MN Scottish Fair and Highland Games http://www.mnscottishfair.org/	Scheduled
7/15/2005	Dun Gowan Tactical www.dungowan.com	Tentative
8/5-6/2005	Deer River Rendezvous www.whiteoak.org	Pending
8/19/2006-10/1/2006	MN Renaissance Festival (This fair runs weekends typically we only do one of them)	Tentative
8/2-4/2006	Wisconsin Scottish Highland Games http://www.wisconsinscottish.org/	Tentative
10/5-6/2006	Big Island Rendezvous (education days)	Pending
10/7-8/2006	Big Island Rendezvous (public days)	Pending
10/12-14/2006	Mankato History Fest	Pending
10/17-22/2006	Big Muddy River Rendezvous	Pending

***********************************************************************

Board Minutes	Staff & Board Directory	Guilds
Calendar of Events	Maps	Announcements
Articles	Tentative Event Schedule for the 2006 Season	Event Maps and Notification

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Maps

 

Map to Board Meetings Bruce and Julie Yoder's Home	Map to St. Paul location St. Christopher's- Dance
Map to Board/Quarterly/Annual Meetings Corcoran Neighborhood Center, 3334 20th Av South, Minneapolis, MN	Map to Lake Hiawatha Community Center 2701 E 44th St in Minneapolis 1st & 3rd Wednesdays dance location Helleand Building

Board Minutes	Staff & Board Directory	Guilds
Calendar of Events	Maps	Announcements
Articles	Tentative Event Schedule for the 2006 Season	Event Maps and Notification

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Event Maps and Notification

WINTER MUSTER- March 18th, 2006 Corcoran Neighborhood Center, 3334 20th Av South, Minneapolis, MN 10:00 a.m. til 4:00 p.m

The same place we hold our Annual Meetings/Elections. *************************************************************************************************