Long ago, at a time when I was trying to decide what to do with my
life, I discovered a small, beautifully bound volume of The Romance of
Tristan and Iseult. I fell in love with the story.
It's a
magnificent tale, bursting with adventure and marvelous characters. And
it's a dazzling window on the medieval world. But, it's also a heart
shattering illumination of the beauty and tragedy of love. A
life-changing story.
It's beautiful on the page. It's even more
beautiful when spoken. The words and phrasings are as sumptuous and
lyrical as any the English language can offer.
It's more
beautiful still with music. The sounds of the Celtic harp, the medieval
harp, the vielle, the lute, the psaltery, the drum and the singing
voice draw the listener deep into the mysteries of the medieval world.
This story made me want to be a storyteller. It made me want to be a musician.
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Patrick Ball: Celtic Harp, Spoken Word
patrickball.com “Patrick Ball casts a haunting spell...”
Washington Post “Richly theatrical...hauntingly beautiful.”
St. Petersburg Times
Eventually, I asked acclaimed Early Music instrumentalists and singers
Shira Kammen and
Tim Rayborn
to join me in performing the story.
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Shira Kammen: Vielle, Medieval Harp, Voice shirakammen.com
“A wonderfully sophisticated and inventive performer on vielle and
medieval harp...an expert singer...always providing a firm foundation of
stylistic knowledge and creative musicianship.” The Boston Globe
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Tim Rayborn: Lute, Psaltery, Medieval Harp, Percussion, Voice timrayborn.com
“A world-class talent in the field of ancient music." Magnatune
"Tim Rayborn’s playing is quite extraordinary, with all the technique of a virtuoso." Sacramento News and Review
Watch Shira and Tim describe the music and instruments used in the show.
For the last 6 years, we've been telling the
tale in cathedrals, concerts halls, and theaters throughout the United States. Now we want to record the story.
This CD will be unique...the first fully realized English language
recording of the tale where the story is told as a medieval storyteller
might have presented it, and where all the music is performed on the
instruments of the time.
We're
delighted to say that we have finished the basic tracking. However, mixing the project, mastering
it and manufacturing the CD represent our biggest financial challenges
because the length of the story requires that it be a double CD. The
total running time will be in the neighborhood of 1 hour and 20 minutes.
We also need to create art design of the CD. Tristan and Iseult
is a legendary tale. We'd love to be able to afford a design as
beautiful as the story. And we want to include extensive imagery and
liner notes to bring to life as much of the history and scholarship as
we can. (Luckily for us, Tim has a Ph.D. in Medieval Studies from the
University of Leeds.)
The expense are pretty simple. It's the paying for them that is a challenge:
Recording - $2400.00
Mixing and Mastering - $900.00
Art Design - $800.00
CD Manufacturing - $2400.00 (double CD)Shira and Tim and I have recorded and produced many CDs in the course of our careers. But, this one is special. In a very real sense, we've spent most of our lives
preparing for this project. Now we want to make it happen. But, we can't
do it without you. Please join us. We'd be so grateful for your help.
If you can't contribute, please pass along your passion for the project to your friends! Indiegogo has wonderful
Share Tools which will make it easy to spread the word.
Stretch Goals
If we have the very good fortune of exceeding our goal, we'll use the extra funds to finance our touring plans. It's tremendously expensive these days to take a performance like this on the road. Extra funds would be used to cover the cost of airfare, rental cars, and lodging, all of which will allow us to bring the live show to a city near you!
If we don't reach our goal, well, we'll tighten our belts and continue to work to finance the project. We've completed many projects. We'll complete this one. It will just take longer.
