Filk as a Musical Culture Trivia Quiz

Answer: A typographical error

There are competing theories about what typographical error for "folk music" gave rise to filk, but pretty much everyone agrees it was a typo. The best supported theory is that an article submitted to a zine had "folk song" in its title, but the author mistyped it.

The article was never published because it was so bawdy it could have run afoul of the postal regulations of the 1950s, but SF fandom was a tight community in those days, and people heard about it anyway. They decided it was too good a word to throw away.

Answer: Poul Anderson

Poul and Karen Anderson were central to the founding of filk as a fan culture. Karen was the first person to use the word "filk" intentionally in a fannish-musical context, in a 1953 zine. Poul wrote a piece called "Barbarous Allen" and subtitled it "A Filk Song," marking the first time that an author wrote a song and designated it as filk.

Answer: Each person in the circle gets a turn

In a bardic circle, each person gets a turn and can "pick, pass, or play." "Pick" means asking someone else to do a song, or asking if anyone can do a song on a certain topic. "Play" means performing a song, and "pass" should be obvious. A "chaos circle" is one where people jump in. Sign-up is used for concerts and song contests. "Moderated chaos" is a chaos circle where a leader tries to make sure everyone who wants to sing gets a chance.

Answer: Illinois 1979

The first filk con was, appropriately, called "FilkCon," and it was held in Arlington Heights, Illinois on July 28-29, 1979. When more conventions in the series were added, it was retroactively named "FilkCon I." For a few years, all filk conventions were called "FilkCon" plus a number (e.g., "FilkCon 5.1"), sometimes in addition to a local name such as BayFilk.

Answer: France

Most filk conventions are held in the United States, but Germany, Canada, and the UK all have annual conventions. There aren't enough active filkers in France to get a convention going.

Answer: Pegasus Award

OVFF lets members of the filk community vote for the Pegasus Awards in the following categories: best filk song, best classic filk song, best performer, best composer, and two categories that change from year to year. All of the nominated songs are performed at OVFF before voting is closed.

The Filk Hall of Fame recognizes lifetime achievement and is associated with the Canadian convention FilKONtario. The Rhysling Award is a prize for science fiction-related poetry. Penguins are popular among filk fans, but the Australian Penguin Award has no connection to filk.

Answer: Taking too many turns

People who jump in too often to sing are called "filkhogs" (not usually to their face) and are politely urged to wait longer before taking another turn. While filkers like good performances, people at all levels of ability are encouraged to sing. Poetry readings are acceptable, and no topic is off-limits.

Answer: dandelion

Kathy Mar promoted the "Dandelion Conspiracy" starting around 1990, seeking to improve the reputation of filk at science fiction conventions. She explained, "I hope to convey, as gently as the flower-power movement did, that filk is almost impossible to root out. If disturbed, it tends to proliferate.

It can be beneficial at times, and it can even be beautiful in spite of its weedy reputation." The effort was largely successful, and today the dandelion is an emblem of filk.

Answer: Off Centaur Publications

At first, such filk recording as there was consisted of tape recorders brought in for personal use. In 1980, Jordin Kare, Teri Lee, and Catherine Cook started Off Centaur to produce higher quality studio recordings and make a (very) small amount of money for the artists and songwriters. The story of its breakup was messy and is better not told here.

Answer: Zoom

Online singing continues, even as people return to in-person gatherings. Most online filksings use the Zoom platform. There were some early attempts to use Jitsi Meet, but at least at the time it wasn't reliable enough. Any online platform has the problem of network propagation delay, which makes group singing impractical, especially when people from different countries are in the same gathering. Each performer has to take a separate turn.