As many of you know, the Middle Kingdom is currently working on updating the criteria for A&S competitions. I’m the team lead for Division I, which includes the performing and literary arts.
It is very important that the new criteria work well for the people who plan to enter these categories in A&S fairs. So Midrealm performing and literary artists, we need your feedback!
As categories become available for public commentary, I’ll post links to them here. Please read and comment on any that are of interest to you.
Categories in Division I
- Choreography
- Dance Performance: 15th century European
- Dance Performance: 16th century European
- Dance Performance: Non-European
- Demonstrating Period Activities
- Dramatic Performance: Improvised
- Dramatic Performance: Scripted
- Equestrian Performance
- Literary Composition: Drama
- Literary Composition: Poetry
- Literary Composition: Prose
- Miscellaneous Performing Arts
- Music Composition
- Music Performance: Ancient & World Music
- Music Performance: Medieval Music
- Music Performance: Renaissance Music
- Music Performance: Post-Period Music
- Physical Performance
- Spoken Performance: Improvised
- Spoken Performance: Poetic Recitation
- Spoken Performance: Prose Recitation
De Bel-Accueil énamouré 
I think you should make more explicit the distinction between “medieval” and “renaissance” music, with a date cutoff as you did to separate 15C from 16C dance. 1500 would be appropriate, in my opinion, but “renaissance” is a very poorly defined term in musicology and most “renaissance music” textbooks say in the foreword that the phrase lacks meaning.
I must say I’m impressed with your categories, as a rule!
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I’d add a category (or add onto a category) for arrangement of music from a period manuscript. This is not composition, and should not include performance. For instance, I usually arrange music from 16th c. lute and choir manuscript sources, rewriting difficult to access tabs and staffs into modern notation for the modern musician. I would broadly divide the sources into neumes, ligatures, and Elizabethan notations. An example would be the death song of Charlemagne, written by his own personal bard, in neumes, which drove me absolutely nuts until I figured out it was a bagpipe piece. It became one of my best after I added the drone. A fair amount of organ pieces from the 1400’s written in ligatures could be the source for cat 2, and the Elizabethan songbooks are legion.
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