... "The old ways are lost", you sang as you flew, and I wondered why

Two weeks and four days until my first exam. The last month has been pretty hard with some really bad news. Still, I'm not here to share the negative news, but some positive news instead.
On the 5th of April I'm going to fulfill a dream of mine. I'm going to see and hear one of the greatest artist on this planet, an artist I've dreamt of seeing perform since I was 12 years old.



(Here are some previous written entries about her)

music for the mind, body and soul #3

It's really been a while since I've last posted an entry like this. I've written about Loreena McKennitt before, but that has also been a while. Since she is my favorite artist, she deserves another entry. So here we go:

Loreena Mckennitt


Loreena McKennitt is a Canadian artist. She can sing, play the harp, the piano and the accordion. She compose most of her own music with Celtic and Middle Eastern elements, but she also play traditional songs and use lyrics from poets like William Shakespeare, W. B. Yeates, Sir Walter Scott, William Blake, Alfred Lord Tennyson and Alfred Noyes. She is also one of the few artists who sounds even better live than in studio recordings.

(I've linked to all the songs, so you can have a listen. If you can't listen to them all, I recommend you take a look at the Huron Beltane Fire Dance to see some really talented musicians)

I started to listen to this artist in...
... 2001, when I started to listen to alot of filmscore and celtic inspired music.
The first song I heard was...
... I'm not sure if it was The Mystic's Dream (around the time a read and saw The Mists of Avalon), or Skellig (which I had on a cd with all kinds of celtic music)
The three songs I've listened to the most are...
...Dante's Prayer, The Old Ways and All Souls Night (according to last.fm)
At the moment, my three favorite songs are...
... impossible to choose, so I'm going to cheat and pick three songs from each studio album (I've left out the christmas albums and the songs already mentioned):
Elemental (1985): The Stolen Child, Banks of Claudy and Lullaby
Parallel Dreams (1989): Huron "Beltane" Fire Dance, Dicken's Dublin and Ancient Pines
The Visit (1991): Between the Shadows, The Lady of Sharlott and Cymbeline
The Mask and the Mirror (1994): The Bonny Swans, Cé Hé Mise le Ulaingt? and Full Circle
The Book of Secrets (1997): The Mummers' Dance, The Highwayman and La Serenissima
An Ancient Muse (2006): Caravanserai, The English Ladye and the Knight and Beneath a Phrygian Sky
The Wind that Shakes the Barley (2010): Brian Boru's March, The Star of the County Down and The Emigration Tunes
The emotions the music evokes are...
... yearning, sadness, nostalgia, bittersweetness, joyous, free, serene, moved, thoughtfull, dreamy, inspired


"For Love will still be lord of all "


(I've linked to the songs, so you can have a listen)

...Breathe life into this feeble heart

No other music has touched my the same way as celtic or celtic inspired music has. No other music makes me dream the sweetest of dreams, makes me wanna go and live in far off places, makes me wanna dance around the fires at Beltane, makes me wanna cry, laugh, draw, write, read, and makes me wanne play some foreign musical instrument, the same way as this kind of music. It lightens my heart a little, when I get the chance to play this kind of music in the record store I work in, and lightens my heart even more when some people want to buy it. If you don't feel a thing while listening to it, I feel abit sorry for you, but not because I don't understand different music tastes, only because you really miss a magical journey to a almost forgotten history and to far off places.

It all began when I started to listen to alot of different moviescores around the time the Lord of the Rings movies came to the cinema. It soon opened my eyes to celtic music, and I started it all by buying the Celtic Cirle cd's. From that time on, the celtic music has been a part of me ever since. You can't really talk about this kind of music without mentioning Lorrena McKennitt. So the rest of this entry I will dedicate to some good McKennitt songs. Even if this is not your cup of tea, I still recommend you take a look and also listen to the amazing stories.
[most of these videoes are taken from her live dvd "Nights from the Alhambra"]

Stolen Child [words by W.B.Yeats]

Huron "Beltane" the Fire Dance

Old Ways

Cymbeline [words by William Shakespeare]

The Bonny Swans [words traditional]

Dickens Dublin

Skellig

The Highwayman [words by Alfred Noyes]

Dante's Prayer

Penelope's Song

Lullaby [words by William Blake]