Reviewed By: Amber Royer
Cantaria
http://www.chivalry.com/cantaria/
GENERAL DESCRIPTION AND COVERAGE This is a division of Chivalry.com, which is a promotional site for folk singers. Despite the .com in the URL, this is a non-profit project, "completely supported by the designers." The purpose is education. About itself, the site says, “Cantaria is a collection of bardic music: period, traditional, new-traditional and filk.” They offer the lyrics for over 160 songs, and almost all of these have an audio clip of at least one verse, sometimes the whole song. The songs are divided into pre-1600, traditional (1600-1950), and contemporary. Very few of the songs fall into the pre-1600 category. There is also a key-word search feature, which comes in handy when the folk song you are looking for has more than one title. Peruse this site with discretion: folk songs are sometimes bawdy, and the traditional lyrics have been preserved, but you can usually tell from the title. Most of the songs are quite well done. AUTHORITY The site is maintained by a professional bard (affiliated with the well-respected Society of Creative Anachronisms) who has a MA in Medieval and Renaissance History from the University of Houston, in conjunction with a web expert. Their names are Scott Jernigan and Kathleen Akers. CURRENCY This site seems to be updated every few months, with the last set of additions dated September 2002. They keep adding songs. Of course, this is the kind of information that doesn't easily become "out of date." OBJECTIVITY AND ACCURACY I found the site to be very professionally put together. The contributing bards included The Sassy Lassies and Wild Mountain Thyme, which I have heard perform on the NPR radio program Thistle and Shamrock. There are also thirty other contributors (all active bards), who range in background from a Dublin radio announcer who has an “Irish Ballads” show, to Renaissance Fair and Pub performers. This range of professional viewpoints blends well to create an objective site and serves to ensure accuracy. I have not found any of the links to song history to be in error.