Stray thought occasioned by the term “independent scholar”

Wouldn’t "The Independent Scholars" be a great name for a band? Not a rock band, but an early-music band that plays dance hits of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. (I am a Renaissance person, after all.) Like the Folger Consort or the Newberry Consort, only maybe with more bawdy songs. (And on period instruments; I’m not much of a musician, but I want to learn to play the theorbo someday.)

I like the name "Independent Scholars" because it has a certain aura of intellectual seriousness with an edge of rebellion. I think I’m thinking both of the Tallis Scholars and of the Unaccompanied Women, an all-women’s a capella group at my undergraduate alma mater. And possibly the Clerkes of Oxenford as well. Or maybe I’m just thinking of the "band or album?" game, in which, whenever an unusual or interesting phrase comes up in conversation, everyone has to decide whether it should be the name of a band or the title of an album.

(N.B.: This post is meant to stand in for all the posts I would be writing if I weren’t going to try to grade ten more papers tonight, fifteen tomorrow, and still more on Thursday…)

5 Responses to “Stray thought occasioned by the term “independent scholar””

  1. Rana says:

    Got space for a tenor recorder in that consort? 🙂

  2. Amanda says:

    You play recorder? Cool. So did half my family at one point or other. Yes, recorders are welcome!

  3. Dale says:

    how about conga drums?

  4. Rana says:

    Yeah, I can play (rustily, now) soprano through tenor. The former sounds too “fweepy” to my adult ears, though.
    Congas and recorder would be tres cool.
    17th century fusion, maybe? 🙂

  5. ABD Instructor says:

    I’m dying for a group to play viol or recorder with. Just my luck to get a good academic job in a Jazz town 🙁