Madrigal Dinner Feast Adds New Flavor to Tradition

For the first few days in December, the Student Union Ballroom becomes a medieval court, with some new changes for the 2006 performance.

John Dickson, director of choral studies and chair of the conducting division, says the dinner is a modern invention based on several traditions from the Renaissance and medieval eras.

“We try to create the atmosphere of a medieval fair,” Dickson says. “People are still fascinated with the medieval period, the pageantry, the costumes. It reminds us of a time when entertainment was not so pre-packaged.”

A Less Formal Feast

The boar’s head sits in a place of honor at the head of the table. The lords and ladies of the court, displaying layers silk and velvet, lead the procession to dinner. The jester, dressed in silk finery, complete with jingling bells, stands at the entrance and jokes with the audience as they enter the ballroom.

It’s time for the 30th Annual Texas Tech University Madrigal Dinner Feast to begin.

A show, a concert and a dinner all in one, the Madrigal Dinner Feast offers jugglers, holiday music, poetry readings, traditional holiday cuisine and the chance to participate in some of the many dances. Proceeds from the performance benefit vocal scholarship students in the School of Music and the College of Visual and Performing Arts.

A major change for this year’s performance is the lack of a king or a queen to help lead the dinner.

“I wanted to give more people the opportunity to participate,” says Gerald Dolter, writer and director of the Madrigal and associate professor at the School of Music. “The king and queen end up doing most of the lines.”

The absence of a king and queen make the dinner a little less formal.

“The king and queen are very stylized,” Dolter says. “Our audiences can get a little raucous and laid back. The new script reflects what the audience wanted.”

More Medieval Music

The performance this year also boasts authentic musical instruments from the medieval era. The medieval orchestra includes lutes, recorders and several other instruments from the olden days.

The Shawm, described by Dolter as a compact reed instrument, is about the size of a jug. Another instrument, the Krumhorn, looks like a backwards letter J. Dolter says it truly fits it’s name, as the word “krum” in German means “bent.” This “bent horn” is a wind instrument that sounds almost like a kazoo. It usually accompanied the entrance of the king.

Other unusual instruments include the Psaltery, a flat string instrument bound with metal, the Rebec, another string instrument, and the Vielle, which is similar to a fiddle.

A New, Educated Jester

The jester’s role in the performance is another change to this year’s performance.

Dickson says that the more he researches the character of the jester, the more he realizes how inaccurate the original jester was.

“In court times, the jester was the most learned, educated member of the court,” Dickson says. “The jester is quite varied in expressions. It’s a kind of clowning and comedy that comes out of an informed consciousness. He always incorporates local humor and political humor appropriate to the time.”

Andy Midkiff, a senior vocal performance major, has played the part of the jester for three years. He has been a part of the performance for five years.

“In my first year in the Madrigal, I was one of the singers,” Midkiff says. “I was called Sir Dumb, the opposite of Sir Dumber.”

Midkiff says he likes playing the role of the jester because it allows him to perform comedy and gives him the freedom to come up with new lines and improvisation to improve his role.

“I memorize my lines, then look through the script for places where I could ad lib,” Midkiff says. “Anyone who’s done comedy knows timing is everything.”

Unexpected Entertainment

Like all performances, the Madrigal Dinner produced a great many laughs, both intentionally and unexpectedly since its conception 30 years ago.

“There’s always the occasional nightmare of the sound not working here and there,” Dickson says. “But another funny thing is that we use a real boar’s head. About the third day of the performance, he starts to look a little sadder than before. He usually needs a little makeup and a little wax around his snout.”

There was also the year “the queen had had a little extra surgery on her bum,” Dickson says. They had to put extra padding on her throne so she could sit on it comfortably.

Dolter says that the traditional mistletoe dance always has entertainment value. During this humorous version of musical chairs, audience members pass around a spring of mistletoe and if a participant is holding it when the music stops, he or she has to kiss the person sitting next to them.

“No matter who you are sitting next to, you have to kiss them,” Dolter says. “Even if that means that two guys have to kiss. It’s quite hilarious sometimes.”

Midkiff, the jester, says one of his memories from his years in the Madrigal Dinner involved an audience member.

“We had a woman go into labor once,” Midkiff says. “I had told her at the beginning of the performance ‘you look like you’re about ready to pop!’ And then she did.”

Despite these sometimes humorous – and medical – delays in the performances, Dickson still thinks Texas Tech does a fine job of producing the Madrigal Dinner.

 “It’s a very intricate show,” Dickson says. “I don’t know that I’ve seen any other more elaborate than ours. To us, this is something that is important for scholarships, but it’s also our gift to the community.”