From: Maia Cheli-Colando <maia>
Date: Tue, 19 Apr 2005 10:21:11 -0700

Benita Strnad wrote:


I spent a good part of Sunday transcribing Eileen Hemphill-Haley's song
/Dream of Loren/ into notation. What struck me is that although EHH uses a wide variety of tunings and chord changes in other songs, this song in chord and rhythm is sweetly simple, and the simplicity of the notes almost chase the light colors/setting of the lyrics -- the drifting moon, settling loon, dove, down. It isn't only music that does this, of course, poetry does too; the rhythm and subject of a poem are more intimately related than in the majority of fiction, for example. I find this intricacy immensely appealing, but I know that some people find it alienating. With music, or a poem read aloud, one can literally get moved by the sound waves, bypassing the insecurity. But perhaps if you don't know how to make the waves move properly in your own head, it feels a bit like unpleasant standing waves instead?

/The whippoorwill will moan and the dove will coo and sigh and the loon will bow her head and I'll dream of Loren tonight The stars will all be out with Orion on the rise and the moon will pass on by and I'll dream of Loren tonight... Living in a dream from dusk to dawn Adrift in the blue I come around in soft goose down And gently hold you Till then I'm dreaming...
/ Eileen Hemphill-Haley, /Dream of Loren/ (www.ehhmusic.com)

I agree with Jim that Loreena McKennitt is fabulous -- a musician who gives full body to the written word. Like Ashley Bryan, yes, her voice is so rich and she is so very present within it that I find it difficult to shake off the spell afterward. A good thing.

Maia
Received on Tue 19 Apr 2005 12:21:11 PM CDT