This blog is where I share the spoils from each Imaginary Song Hunt. Feel free to use the ‘comments’ box to share feedback or fun facts! If you enjoyed the session, please drop some pennies into the tip jar…
4th September 2024:
A beer-themed session to celebrate the autumn harvest, taking a brief foray into Sumerian and medieval drinking and harvest songs, before deep diving into the much-love traditional song, John Barleycorn. What’s with the human sacrifice? When did we start personifying booze? Where and when did the character of John Barleycorn come from? Lots of juicy questions – very few reliable answers! 😂 (As usual!)
This blog is where I share the spoils from each Imaginary Song Hunt. Feel free to use the ‘comments’ box to share feedback or fun facts! If you enjoyed the session, please drop some pennies into the tip jar…
7th August 2024:
In this session, Joan Armatrading and medieval lyres joined forces, in my take on the ‘bardcore’ genre. We also enjoyed a spot of Hildegard von Blingin’ and a chat about the do’s and don’ts of cover versions, and some Song Hunter favourites.
Session video
The Joan Armatrading cover (first draft!)
Favourite cover versions
Some highlights from the Zoom chat:
Pete: Matthews Southern Comfort version of Woodstock. Different and even more tuneful than original
Moira: Karine Polwart – Parting Glass- superb!
Debby: worst: orchestral versions of Nick Drake at the proms this year!
Mike: best: Hendrix – All Along the Watchtower. Worst: Rolf Harris – Stairway to Heaven.
Sjakk: worst: King Crimson’s Fracture, by a not so small chamber orchestra. Best: King Crimson’s Starless, by Unthanks
Helena: Hallelujah is by Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley covered it, but that goes to show what a good cover it was. Can’t beat the original with that one though! [Good point Helena! Love it too, yet still constantly give if to Jeff… just because that was the one I heard first! 😏😅]
Graham: we saw Joan at Ronnie Scott’s on our wedding night in 1975. [!!!!!] Cover choice: Joni Mitchell’s River by US jazz singer Dianne Reeves. Long, soulful and cool.
Mike: Rolf – just bad. Best: Walter Trout’s version of Dylan’s “Girl from the North Country”. Amazing blues guitarist makes it his own.
Helena: One of my faves is a piano instrumental of Moulette’s Revenge of the Bear, a frantic song with frantic strings. The piano gives a whole different perspective.
Liz P: I like Creedence Clearwater Revival’s version of “Through the Grapevine.”
Mike: Yes, agree it has to be “a different take”not just repeating the original. As per my earlier comment, the cover version artist “makes it their own”.
Tony: Another very different cover version. I’m a great fan of Manfred Mann covers. YouTube link
And some thoughts in an email from Coleman, which were too interesting not to share:
What makes a good cover is very much like seeing different productions of familiar Shakespeare plays. When you have read Hamlet or other familiar play and seen many productions of it, you can still be amazed by a new performance that reveals profound truths that make you wonder, “Were those lines really in the play? I never noticed those before. Were those lines not used in earlier productions? Or did this actor find meaning and emphasize it in delivering those lines? Or what?“ Sometimes I have to go back and read it to be sure. I have the same experience with Chekhov and Ibsen, but sometimes a different translation reveals new meaning. And of course I am different each time, as I have more life experiences and/or I am more receptive.
Great covers of songs are the same way. Bob Dylan prefers to say “uncovering” a song when the new version reveals things you never noticed before. The first cover that blew me away in spite of familiarity was Joe Cocker’s version of “With a Little Help from My Friends.” The emotional impact was so much stronger than the original by the Beatles. It had a lot to do with Joe Cocker’s gravelly voice and his phrasing that was in the same league with Sinatra’s best work, but the main thing is that he communicated emotion that was lacking in the original. Jimmy Page’s guitar solo added to the emotional impact.
Then there are the covers of songs I had never heard before. When I heard Shane MacGowan and the Pogues sing “And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda,” it hit me emotionally like a ton of bricks. He sounded as if he had barely survived the Battle of Gallipoli and had written a song about his experience. When I read that this great song was written by Eric Bogle, I bought the CD and found his delivery to be relatively lifeless. Another favorite is Johnny Cash’s cover of “Hurt” by Nine Inch Nails, recorded by Cash near the end of his life.
This blog is where I share the spoils from each Imaginary Song Hunt. Feel free to use the ‘comments’ box to share feedback or fun facts! If you enjoyed the session, please drop some pennies into the tip jar…
17th July 2024:
In the second of my July ‘new album specials’, we hunted down the song known as Maid Freed from the Gallows, or The Prickly Bush, which tells the story of a young woman abandoned to the gallows by her family, and ultimately saved by her lover. We looked at some old transcriptions, from England and the Appalachians, as well as mid-20th-century American source recordings, and delved into the weird cante-fable (part-sung story) ‘The Golden Ball’, which seems to be an origin of the song, complete with bogles under the bed, giants being chopped in half, and an impatient Yorkshire hangman!
This blog is where I share resources from each Imaginary Song Hunt session, along with a Zoom video for anyone who wants to catch up. Feel free to use the ‘comments’ box below to share feedback, fun facts, or just to say hello! If you enjoyed the session and these resources, please: drop some pennies into the tip jar
19th June 2024:
The Silver Dagger
In the first of my July ‘new album specials’, I took at look at some of the historical sources for a favourite folksong of mine, The Silver Dagger, thinking about how historical research broaden the scope of our ways of interpreting and reimagining traditional songs today. We looked at some First-World-War-era Appalachian transcriptions of this song, and traced its variants back to 19th Broadside Ballads. We sang a version transcribed by Cecil Sharp in 1907, in Somerset.
This blog is where I share resources from each Imaginary Song Hunt session, along with a Zoom video for anyone who wants to catch up. Feel free to use the ‘comments’ box below to share feedback, fun facts, or just to say hello! If you enjoyed the session and these resources, feel free to: drop some pennies into the tip jar
19th June 2024:
A Song for Saint Æthelthryth
A special session for anyone planning a pilgrimage to Ely, to venerate our local saint, Æthelthryth (c.636 CE – 679 CE), on her feast day (23rd June). The crowds queuing up to sing this song for Æthelthryth will probably give the ones at the Euros a run for their money! 😂 In this Song Hunt, we took a look at the hymn to Saint Æthelthryth composed by the Venerable Bede (in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People), explored the process of finding suitable medieval melodies for songs for which no words survived, and experimented with some medieval-style harmony.
Slides from the session
Video
If you’d like a copy of this song, drop me a line! The score’s not very tidy just now, but I’d happily polish it up for an outing. Why not sing it to celebrate Æthelthryth’s feast in 2025? 😁
This blog is where I share resources from each Imaginary Song Hunt session, along with a Zoom video for anyone who wants to catch up. Feel free to use the ‘comments’ box below to share feedback, fun facts, or just to say hello! If you enjoyed the session and these resources, feel free to: drop some pennies into the tip jar
5th June 2024:
Sweet Melodies Unheard
This session was a bit of a reverie on loss, transience, mortality anxiety, and Shakespearean ‘secular spirituality’, prompted by my thoughts on setting Sonnet 60. Taken from a poem by John Keats, the title – Sweet Melodies Unheard – is a reference to the Song Hunt itself (sometimes it’s sweeter imagine lost songs than to listen to surviving ones) and to the fact that almost none of the original music to which Shakespeare’s words were set has survived. We took a look at the Robert Johnson and Thomas Morley melodies that do survive, and explored the process of creating a performance ‘edition’ of Desdemona’s famous ‘Willow Song’ (from Othello), by combining a surviving lute song and a broadside ballad with Shakespeare’s words.
Slides from the session
Video
Do you have a favourite Shakespeare setting you’d like to share? If so, please add it using the comments form below!
This blog is where I share resources from each Imaginary Song Hunt session, along with a Zoom video for anyone who wants to catch up. Feel free to use the ‘comments’ box below to share feedback, fun facts, or just to say hello! If you enjoyed the session and these resources, feel free to: drop some pennies into the tip jar
8th May 2024:
Why did Lord Randall have to die?
This session explored the ancient ballad commonly known (among 50+ other titles!) as ‘Lord Randall’ (Roud 10, Child 12). A young man (called ‘Randall’ in many versions of the song) is asked by his mother where he has been, who he was with, and what he has eaten. He answers the questions and sings a refrain that tells his mother he is very unwell. In some versions he has eaten eels; in others, snakes; in others, worms. The conclusion in almost all versions is that he has been poisoned, usually by a lover. In many other versions, he then dictates his will. It’s a creepy song with a big mystery at its heart: why was he murdered?!
Slides from the session
Video
Scores
You’re welcome to use this score for your own performances, but please just credit me if you do so (and let me know, in case I can come and listen 🙂). I am always grateful for feedback on my scores!
There was some fun speculation in the chat (and by email) about why Lord Randall might have met his end in such a grisly way.
I loved Yvonne‘s idea that Randall’s mother and lover were in cahoots, or that the lover was in fact ‘hired by the mother’ to help her get her hands on the inheritance. Ooooh… nasty! 😬
And Pete rather rationally pointed out that ‘If he is Lord Randal, his father must have already died and he has inherited the title, lands, and the rest’, which makes ‘the theories that people (lovers, mothers, etc.) [are] after his money …reasonably plausible’! Eek! Life was more brutal in those olden days, I guess, and without a welfare state, this sort of cruelty was probably a bit more common than today. As Pete says, ‘No good waiting until he has a son of his own… – Get him to make a will, quick; under duress if necessary’!!
And Gry asked about the ballad of Olaf and the mermaid, which I briefly mentioned in relation to the archetype of the supernatural feminine death-bringer! 😈💀💋 Here’s a great blog on the song/story, and its many relatives: https://terreceltiche.altervista.org/lord-olaf-herr-olof-and-the-elves/
This blog is where I share resources for each Imaginary Song Hunt session, along with a catch-up Zoom video. Feel free to use the ‘comments’ box below to share feedback, fun facts, or just say hello!
With the medieval ‘interval song’ Diapente et diatessaron (‘the fifth and the fourth’) as our inspiration, in this session, we looked at manuscript evidence that gives us clues about how medieval music-makers learnt (and understood) their craft. If you’re wondering what an ‘interval song’ is, then look no further than this brilliant one, by Django Bates – it’s a song that helps music learners get used to identifying the different leaps and steps between tones.
This blog is where I share resources for each Imaginary Song Hunt session, along with a catch-up Zoom video. Feel free to use the ‘comments’ box below to share feedback, fun facts, or just say hello!
In this session we tackled Sainte marie, the last in my series of sessions on the three (or arguable FOUR) songs by Saint Godric of Finchale. The notation for this song (or two) survives in three manuscripts, but is complete in only one of them, and the substantial stylistic differences between the two sections begs the question: is it one song? And, if so, is it all created by the same person?!
This blog is where I share resources from each Imaginary Song Hunt session, along with a Zoom video for anyone who wants to catch up. Use the ‘comments’ box below to share feedback, fun facts, or just say hello!
In this session we tackled the Old English ritual known as Æcerbot (‘Field Remedy’), which was supposed to heal fields that were barren, perhaps as a result of witchcraft! We looked at one of the Old English metrical charms contained in the ritual, and experimented with different ways of whispering, reciting, and chanting it. The session includes an interview with Debby Banham on this fabulous text.
Translations, commentaries, and manuscript facsimiles: Old English Poetry in Facsimile Editions (look for ‘Charms’ in the dropdown menu on the left). The British Library Manuscripts page has been down for some time because of a cyber attack, so for now this is the only place to view the manuscript online.
Fun blog, with an incredible amount of historical detail, on putting this ritual into practice, by Karen Louise Jolly.
On patterns of recitation in Anglo-Saxon music, you can find more info in Sam Barrett’s Restoring Lost Songs project (especially his book, The Melodic Tradition of Boethius “De consolatione philosophiae” in the Middle Ages, Monumenta Monodica Subsidia Series VII, 2 vols., Bärenreiter, Kassel, 2013). See also: Hanna Marti’s video introduction to Orpheus: the Ovid Project. In a similar vein, Sequentia’s Monks Singing Pagans programme focused on classical texts in medieval song, and you can watch a video about the project (which sadly doesn’t exist as an album).
Teresa made a link between the recitation of incantations and the amazing Sami ‘yoik’/’joik’ singing tradition, sharing this album: Folk Voices – Finnish Folk Song Through the Ages (Ondine, 1999). On the content, she notes:
at 2:15 (track 1) call & response chant
3:40 (track 2) I think this is a yoik about stalking elk
11:32 (track 5) herding calls for cows
14:08 (track 6) Tulen synty -loitsu (a spell for starting/birthing a fire) parts are sotto voce, and others could probably be heard across the whole landscape!
