Mummer's Dance

Thank you Joanne May for introducing me to this fabulous singer and also for introducing me to Celtic music. It's been a long time since I heard anything so deep and intense. Listening to Loreena voice was like listening to the song of a ghost from a far away dessert. Such magical haunting she creates with her voice! And the composition of that song took me to a trance! I would've listened to it at least 20 times by now. And even when I'm not listening to it, the sound of the violin, the accordion and Loreena's voice keep ringing in my head!

This is but a humble try at singing that song. And guess what? I couldn't sing it without trying to imitate the background score of this fabulous piece of music. Hope none finds it too wired that I had to create the music with nothing but my own voice.

And a word of apology to Joanne May if she feels that I've so cold heartedly murdered her favourite musical piece. But I was helpless Joanne. I couldn't help but sing this out to a crowd and see how much I faired! It was so inspiring!

The lyrics:

When in the springtime of the year
When the trees are crowned with leaves
When the ash and oak, and the birch and yew
Are dressed in ribbons fair


When owls call the breathless moon
In the blue veil of the night
The shadows of the trees appear
Amidst the lantern light 


We've been rambling all the night
And some time of this day
Now returning back again
we bring a garland gay 


Who will go down to those shady groves
And summon the shadows there
And tie a ribbon on those sheltering arms
In the springtime of the year 


The songs of the birds seem to fill the wood
That when the fiddler plays
All their voices can be heard
Long past their woodland days 


We've been rambling all the night
And some time of this day
Now returning back again
we bring a garland gay 


And so they linked their hands and danced
Round in circles and in rows
And so the journey of the night descends
When all the shades are gone 


"A garland gay we bring you here
And at your door we stand
It is a sprout well budded out
The work of Our Lord's hand" 


We've been rambling all the night
And some time of this day
Now returning back again
we bring a garland gay (2)



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