The Student News Site of Black River Falls High School

BRFHS Paw Print

The Student News Site of Black River Falls High School

BRFHS Paw Print

The Student News Site of Black River Falls High School

BRFHS Paw Print

The Madrigal Debacle

Madrigal is usually associated with the beginning of the Christmas season. However, this year this will not be so.

The Madrigal dinner this year was scheduled for December 11 and 12. However, Black River Falls had a blizzard to deal with over the weekend, which in turn made the music department have to cancel and reschedule Madrigal. Madrigal has been officially rescheduled for January 30, so it will definitely not be the beginning of the Christmas season.

Everyone has a favorite part of Madrigal, for some it may be the food, or making fun of the freshman.

“My favorite part of Madrigal, is the 12 days of Christmas, because of the way the jesters really work hard and do a great job at making people laugh,” said madrigal King, Byron Fink.

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“My favorite part is seeing all the students get in to their characters and make an event like this come alive.  It is fun to see the students have so much fun. I like all of the music that we perform, but I think my favorite moment is when we sing Silent Night at the close.  It’s a very captivating moment,” said choir director Corey Colburn.

Everyone also has their least favorite part associated with Madrigal.

“[My least favorite part of Madrigal is] decorating, because it takes forever and after a while people don’t cooperate,” said madrigal Queen, Elizabeth Torkelson.

“Major thing:  taking everything down. Minor thing: gossamer that won’t stay up no matter how much duct tape you use. This year: Having to decorate and tear down twice,” said Colburn.

For those who are not involved with the music department or have never gone to Madrigal, you should know that music department always decorates on the Friday before the first Madrigal performance. Decorating usually takes from 3:05 to at least 12:00 or 1:00. Not to mention that whenever we have decorating it always is on a basketball game.

They’re probably some out there who have never been to Madrigal, and have abosolutly no idea what it even is.

“Technically, a madrigal is a style of music from the Renaissance era. They were very popular among the nobility, singers would sing for them for entertainment when they got together,” said Colburn. “Our Madrigal dinner combines music with the Medieval English custom of having lavish feasts around Christmastime that would last for 6 or 8 hours or more. We get into costume, seniors take the role of the King, Queen and court. We have music and ceremonies that would’ve been customary at one of these Yuletide feasts.”

Since Madrigal began in the early 1970’s it’s never been canceled, until this year. So why is Madrigal being put off till the end of January?

“The reason it’s so hard to reschedule is because we must look at 3 major issues. Food service, we need enough staff [at least 6 people] to make madrigal work. When they come and work for madrigal they arrive at noon and aren’t usually done until 9PM, when all the dishes are done. Another issue we have to deal with is that we need to find a day when the school facilities are free. Finally, we need to find a day when there’s the least conflict to students,” said Colburn.

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The Madrigal Debacle