Monday, December 21, 2009

Light



winter solstice
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11 comments:

Graham Firchlis said...

Made me look. I had forgotten this episode, Northern Lights seems ages ago, thanks for jogging my memory.

The language is Scots Gaelic and the song is Ebudae, based on a traditional Hebrides Isle song used by women to keep rhythm while waulking, or beating to soften, woolen twill. This version is by Enya with harmony overdub, from her album Shepherd Moons.

You can also hear this style of music in folk songs of Cape Breton Island in the Canadian Maritimes, brought there by Scottish immigrants.

Very nice choice.

Monday, December 21, 2009 9:29:00 PM
hipparchia said...

i remembered the lighting up, but had forgotten the music entirely. pretty cool to find out that it's scots gaelic [lots of them in my family tree btw]. thanks for the info. i'm planning to spend part of the upcoming yule-not-yule holiday re-filling my ipod, so i'm always on the lookout.

a further search of the intertubes tells me the music i had in mind [from marilyin's trip to seattle] was ojibway square dance of which you can hear a very short sample there or on this youtube.

Monday, December 21, 2009 11:04:00 PM
Graham Firchlis said...

A little Enya goes a long way for me, a bit too, ah, etherial for my taste, but I did enjoy much of the work she did with her family when they were together as Clannad.

I've lately been listening a lot to Loreena McKennitt again, good for these dark and dreary days. For additional Scots Gaelic waulking songs and assorted other tunes, try here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2v2BjNBH7w&feature=related

Wednesday, December 23, 2009 2:53:00 AM
hipparchia said...

curses! your diabolical scheme has succeeded! i have spent hours on youtube playing every video of mari boine that exists. can't say i regret even a minute of it.

doesn't take too much ether for me to overdose either, but i do like this one. also this one, which i discovered thanks to your directing me to ccd a while back, is still one of my favorites.

Friday, December 25, 2009 12:09:00 AM
Graham Firchlis said...

Ah, Rhiannon doing some "mouth-music"! Try this one from Mary Ann Kennedy and the gang, makes me smile every time.

Sunday, December 27, 2009 11:45:00 PM
Graham Firchlis said...

And, something has been nagging at me about music and Northern Exposure but I couldn't quite tease it out of the synaptic tangle. Maybe something similar has happened to you? Blame the cat fur, gums up all the works.

This is what it was. I am a huge Iris fan, can't get too much.

Monday, December 28, 2009 4:30:00 PM
hipparchia said...

blogger has apparently eated my reply to your comments. it was a good one too, and it included ella fitzgerald and mel torme singing scat.

Monday, December 28, 2009 10:42:00 PM
Graham Firchlis said...

Mel Torme doing what to a cat?

:-)

Curses on blogger.

Happy New Year. More semi-seasonal musing and music at the other place, should you have time.

Thursday, December 31, 2009 2:35:00 AM
hipparchia said...

[maybe he was taking ukelele lessons]

:D

ella fitzgerald and mel torme

i forget what cogent and trenchant comment i had about this one, but here it is anyway: christmas in july.

nice collection you have there over at your place for starting out the new year. here's one with dog[g]ies for ya.

Friday, January 01, 2010 8:13:00 PM
Steve Bates said...

I love the waulking song, and that instrumental ensemble, from the wooden flute to the tin whistle, could be straight out of the 17th or 18th century... and the performers know the tradition of ornamenting that delightful music using techniques that most modern wind players don't even know about. Thanks for introducing me to a lovely new old sound!

(Yes, I can claim Scots ancestry, in a nod to which my parents gave me the middle name Scott. It was what I was called as a child; I wish I'd kept it. Now you know the answer to the question, "whence does that [ahem] appellation spring?" <grin_duck_run />)

[Yuck. CAPTCHA text: "lardmat"... yuck!]

Saturday, January 02, 2010 10:49:00 AM
hipparchia said...

lardmat! that's just cold.

appellation spring, good one.

i love this song, and i'm flattered you found something new musically via my blog. and thanks for the mini-lesson too.

Wednesday, January 06, 2010 10:25:00 PM

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