Much research for fiction involves listening to the past. It so happens that in Researching this new novel I am becoming absorbed in all things Bronze Iron Age and British-Roman.
Then the ineffable Lola Borg drew my attentions on Twitter to the programme Soul Music on Radio 4. Lola said, "All about dreams and longings and unexpressed desires". If you just missed this on She Moved Through the Fair http://bbc.in/11Sywjv.
The programme featured commentators and singers - most centrally Sinead O'Connor - trying to nail the peculiar magic of this song.
It's a song sung on international stages by celebrities and in pubs and hearth-gatherings of families and friends by un-lauded singers. Sinead tells a story on the programme that at the end of the funeral after the early, unexpected death her partner Padraig they played a recording of him singing this song. As it's a story of the fragility of human experience and of obsessive love that lasts beyond the grave this was curiously appropriate. She said, 'My dear one had departed. He always had a huge sympathy for people who were in trouble. He was an old soul and a very kind man... He 'sang' at his own funeral. I found it consoling.'
Perfect circularity. I listened and was swept away.The song and its music have been whirling in my head ever since. Apparently the music is older than the song they are both lost in ancient times.
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Every lines (in full below) are worth quoting but the I particularly like the lines -
Then she went her way homeward with one star awake/
As the swan in the evening moves over the lake
- which are full of pain and with the keening sounds of the ancient music allow the singing of this pain.
The Soul Music programme showcases several versions of the song including that of Sinaed O'Connor herself and Van Morrison and The Chieftains. I have found many versions and everywhere the meaning of the words and the music transcends style and fashion.
I liked this one by Loreena McKennit.
- Although the setting is rather grand for such an apparently simple song, she sings - very appropriately - to the harp and she definitely looks the part,
(LATER) And the lovely blogger 60 Going on Sixteen (See comment below) recommended the purely exquisite 1941 version by the legendary John McCormack. I see he is accompanied bu Gerald Moore, the equally legendary pianist. Give yourself a treat and listen to the past in two dimensions - World War 2 and The ancient past.
(EVEN LATER...) and this version by Van Morrison and The Chieftains appropriately sung - almost spoken - by Van Morrison shows the tragic young man at the centre of the story.
(LATER) And the lovely blogger 60 Going on Sixteen (See comment below) recommended the purely exquisite 1941 version by the legendary John McCormack. I see he is accompanied bu Gerald Moore, the equally legendary pianist. Give yourself a treat and listen to the past in two dimensions - World War 2 and The ancient past.
(EVEN LATER...) and this version by Van Morrison and The Chieftains appropriately sung - almost spoken - by Van Morrison shows the tragic young man at the centre of the story.
Listening to the past makes sense not just for writers but for all of us who are trying to solve the puzzle of what it is to be human and spiritual at the same time.
She Moved Through the Fair
And my father won´t slight you for your lack of kine,
And she stepped away from me and this she did say,
It will not be long love ´til our wedding day.
She stepped away from me and she moved through the fair,
And fondly I watched her move here and move there,
Then she went her way homeward with one star awake,
As the swan in the evening moves over the lake.
The people were saying no two were e´er wed,
But one has a sorrow that never was said,
And I smiled as she passed with her goods and her gear,
And that was the last that I saw of my dear.
I dreamt it last night that my young love came in,
So softly she entered her feet made no din,
She came close beside me and this she did say,
It will not be long love ´til our wedding day.
