Music News

[Front-Ranger]

To Katie and all Mark Knopfler fans: An expanded live CD of his duet album with Emmylou Harris, "All the Roadrunning" is now available, along with a DVD of their performance!!

[Front-Ranger]

I finally acquired Sting's Songs of the Labyrinth, I got it at WalMart! It's a beautiful CD. I'll post more about it later. Say, did you know that the word labyrinth does not mean maze? It stands for the labrys, which is the double-sided ax of the goddess, which resembles a butterfly.

[Front-Ranger]

This amazing music comes with a booklet where Sting talked about his collaboration with luteist Edin Karamazov, John Dowland and his times in Elizabethan England, Dowland's travels to Italy, Sting's labyrinth at his estate in England and the one on the rose of his lute, the lyrics and music, and the recording process. The music, both vocal and instrumental pieces, are interspersed with his reading of extracts of a letter written to Robert Cecil, Elizabeth's chief of security (successor to the spymaster Walsingham). It's strange to hear some of the melodies which are surprisingly modern.

[moremojo]

Say, did you know that the word labyrinth does not mean maze? It stands for the labrys, which is the double-sided ax of the goddess, which resembles a butterfly.

That's interesting to learn, Lee. I remember my professor of Classical Mythology stated that words ending in -nth were very ancient and represented a pre-Indo-European linguistic stock--labyrinth was precisely the word he was invoking in this context. Plinth and the place name Corinth are two other -nth words that immediately come to mind.

[Front-Ranger]

Sting will be performing this music, along with Edin Karamazov on January 11, 2007 at the Walt Disney Music Hall. More about it here.

[Front-Ranger]

Classicalmusicsource had a mixed review of Songs of the Labyrinth, but did praise Sting's work on Robert Johnson's "Have you seen the bright lily grow." These are the lyrics:

Have you seen the bright lily grow
Before rude hands have touched it?
Have you marked but the fall of snow
Before the soil has smuched it?
Have you felt the wool of beaver
Or swan's down ever?
Or have smel't o'the bud of the brier
Or the nard in the fire?
Or have tasted the bag of the bee?
O so white, o so soft, O so sweet is she!

[Front-Ranger]

There aren't any Christmas carols on this CD, but it all seems faintly holiday-ish anyway, what with the beautiful lute music and reverent tenor voice. I'm enjoying Songs of the Labyrinth by Sting and it eases my holiday-induced tension immensely!

[Front-Ranger]

I listened to my Songs From the Labyrinth CD on the way home from work, and then I watched Elizabeth I, the public broadcasting system miniseries, with Helen Mirrin, last night. They calmed my nerves immensely, nerves frayed not so much from the holiday season but from living with two teenagers! The crowning touch that put my mind at ease was calling my Brokie friend EDelMar and hearing his voice.

[Front-Ranger]

 In honour of the New Year, here are the lyrics to the song "The New Year" by Death Cab for Cutie:

So this is the new year and I don't feel any different
The clanking of crystal and explosions off in the distance
So this is the new year and I have no resolutions
It's self-assigned penance for problems with easy solutions
So everybody put your best suit or dress on
Let's make believe that we are wealthy for just this once
Lighting firecrackers off on the front lawn
As thirty dialogues bleed into one
I wish the world was flat like the old days
So I could travel just by folding the map
No more airplanes or speed trains or freeways
There'd be no distance that could hold us back
There'd be no distance that could hold us back...
There'd be no distance that could hold us back...

[Front-Ranger]

Tonight I am enjoying watching the DVD, Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man, with performances by U2, Rufus Wainwright, Nich Cave, Jarvis Cocker, Antony, Martha Wainwright, and Teddy Thompson of Leonard Cohen songs. I remember when I was young that, the more far out I used to get, the more I liked listening to his songs.