LANGUAGE OF THE SOUL is an escape from the monotony of life and daily trials and tribulations. Employing CELTIC WOMAN's songs as title to my posts, I draw observations and opinions on a personal level. Join me as I tread the language that communicates to all...MUSIC.
Grainne O' Mally, is an Irish pirate queen and the chief of her trading clan, who was also known as Granuaile. She is an important figure in Irish folklore and a historical figure in 16th century Irish history.
Mairead of Celtic Woman
I can only imagine what a character Granuaile might have been by the way Mairead ran and leapt. And how can you not like this fiddling? If she is of this world, why can she fly? This is the most unreal performance I've ever seen.
From your mountains grand, and all through this land,
You are beautiful to me.
And… O, America you’re calling,
I can hear you calling me:
You are calling me to be true to thee,
True to thee… I will be.
And I will answer you, and I will take your hand,
And lead you… to the sun:
And I will stand by you… do all that I can do,
And we will be…as one.
O, America you’re calling…
I will ever answer thee.
The influx of European immigrants to the United States began few decades after the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492, after that, immigration did not stop. In fact the United States is called the melting pot of all races because of the diversity of its population. Who is not attracted to the American Dream? There is a thin line separating patriotism and ambition for a better life, for someone who had gone through the difficulties just making both ends meet.
Despite the imperfections of America, the song believed in standing by Her through the good times and the bad. Where am I in this song? I will ever answer thee.
Like a picture, a song can have more than one meaning. Indeed interpretations are subjective. A very good example is the Orinoco Flow by Enya. My first taste of New Age Musicwas in the 90's when I heard Enya's Orinoco Flow. I thought it was Latin or Italian until I heard the "sail away" part. Scrutinizing the lyrics, it appeared that somebody is just enjoying the thought of sailing as he made reference to numerous places to navigate including Avalon, which only existed in a mythical Arthurian legend.
Just when most everybody thought Orinoco is the river which flows across South America, people behind the song claimed everything was just a metaphor of their journey to Orinoco Flow's success. Orinoco was the name of the studio that produced Enya's album. The words "We can steer, we can near, with Rob Dickens at the wheel" refer to Rob Dickens, the head of her record label. The Ross and dependencies line is not actually the area of Antarctica claimed by New Zealand but is the co-producer and the people around his organization. The song catapulted Enya to her stature now. As of 2009, she had sold 70 million albums, making her the most popular Irish female performer. With that, New Age Music had come a long way. Initially, vocals were minimally used. Mostly, electronic and acoustic instruments were utilized. As it evolved, vocals have become more common.
The intention of New Age Music is one atmosphere of inspiration, optimism, and relaxation.For starters, they may find it redundant and monotonous, but the purpose of repetitive melodies and words is to create a feeling of hypnosis. When I was still working in CLDH, people from the Businessmaker Academy will always play New Age, particularly Enya's, during workshops and group dynamics. It set the tone for a healthy discussion and creation.
Where there are gatherings and activities this song will continue to play. As for me its effect is never the same.It has has taught me lessons I took for granted two decades ago - my history and my geography. I did not even notice Cebu was mentioned in this song. I feel a sense of pride and I could only be grateful to Roma Ryan, Enya's primary lyricist. Now watch Enya and Celtic Woman as we sail away!
Enya
Celtic Woman
Let me sail, let me sail, let the orinoco flow,
Let me reach, let me beach on the shores of Tripoli.
Let me sail, let me sail, let me crash upon your shore,
Let me reach, let me beach far beyond the Yellow Sea.
From Bissau to Pilau -- in the shade of Avalon,
From Fiji to Tiree and the Isles of Ebony,
From Peru to Cebuhear the power of Babylon,
From Bali to Cali -- far beneath the Coral Sea.
From the North to the South, Ebudae into Khartoum,
From the deep Sea of Clouds to the Island of the Moon,
Carry me on the waves to the lands I've never been,
Carry me on the waves to the lands I've never seen.
We can sail, we can sail, with the Orinoco flow
We can sail, we can sail...
Sail away, Sail away, Sail away...
We can steer, we can near with Rob Dickens at the wheel,
We can sigh, say goodbye Ross and his dependencies
We can sail, we can sail...
The Voicewas the winner of theEurovision Song Contest 1996, performed in English by Eimear Quinn, who represented Ireland. Themusic and lyrics were composed by Brendan Graham. It has the components of Irish music - inspirational, spiritual, earthy. The singer portrays herself as "the voice" which watches over the world, describing "her" effects on the elements, such as the wind, the seasons, in a similar way to Mother Nature. Quinn's interpretation is fresh, however, there are few instances where she is out of breath and a little off key. Nerves are evident especially when the song soars. But then this is a competition and sometimes psychology may work for or against you. Anyhow, she went home with the bacon. See how enthralling the lyrics are:
I hear your voice on the wind
And I hear you call out my name
"Listen, my child," you say to me
"I am the voice of your history
Be not afraid, come follow me
Answer my call, and I'll set you free"
I am the voice in the wind and the pouring rain
I am the voice of your hunger and pain
I am the voice that always is calling you
I am the voice, I will remain
I am the voice in the fields when the summer's gone
The dance of the leaves when the autumn winds blow
Ne'er do I sleep thoughout all the cold winter long
I am the force that in springtime will grow
I am the voice of the past that will always be
Filled with my sorrow and blood in my fields
I am the voice of the future, bring me your peace
Bring me your peace, and my wounds, they will heal
I am the voice in the wind and the pouring rain
I am the voice of your hunger and pain
I am the voice that always is calling you
I am the voice
I am the voice of the past that will always be
I am the voice of your hunger and pain
I am the voice of the future
I am the voice, I am the voice
I am the voice, I am the voice
Eimear Quinn
Lisa Kelly and Mairead Nesbitt of Celtic Woman
Lisa Kelly of Celtic Woman did a better interpretation of the song. Smooth singing, and charming mannerisms, made the performance worthy of a second, third, and more looks. Lisa captivates as she is in constant embrace with her audience. For a better future, we do not have to sing the way she does, though. We just need to do our own little part. Each little act of goodness will cascade until we reach our journey to hope and healing.
There is a picture of how the earth would look like in 2050. In that image, earth is non-recognizable. I will be entwined with the soil by then, but my little contibution for a better planet will benefit our children, and our generations to come.
Chloe Agnew was only 15 or 16 years old when she sang this song, but she already did a magnificent job. Pure, clear, and effortless singing. How can she ever go wrong? This was just an indication of what is to come and what she would become. She is now twenty one and developed into one of the voices ofCeltic Woman. Who would think that this young woman is a self-proclaimed rocker by heart as she sings in a heavenly manner:
Intro: Walking in the air, floating the sky...
Floating in the air...
We're walking in the air
We're floating in the moonlit sky
The people far below are sleeping as we fly
We're holding very tight
I'm riding in the midnight blue
I'm finding I can fly so high above with you
Far across the world
The villages go by like dreams
The rivers and the hills, the forest and the streams
Children gaze open mouthed
Taken by surprise
Nobody down below believes their eyes
We're surfing in the air
We're swimming in the frozen sky
We're drifting over icy mountains floating by
Suddenly swooping low on an ocean deep
Arousing of a mighty monster from its sleep
We're walking in the air
We're dancing in the midnight sky
And everyone who sees us greets us as we fly
Chloe Agnew of Celtic Woman
Walking in the Airwas composed by Howard Blake,and the soundtrack of the TV film, The Snowman.This is an animated adventure about a young English boy, who made a snowman one Christmas eve, only for it to come into life that night and take him on a magical adventure to the North Pole to meet Santa Claus. Even without the images of the film, Chloe's singing entirely tells the story. Children and old alike will surely love the song's feel of freedom and magic.
Angelic voice plus arrangement and orchestration at its finest equals a work-of-art.
Ireland has produced a number of known artists. Inspite of the dominance of pop music and culture, the ability to break the world market without losing its heritage is a trademark of this country's performers. This is true with U2 and Enya, two of the most popular Irish singers. Such style is also evident with Bob Geldof, The Corrs, The Cranberries, Sinead O'Connor,Westlife, and the ensemble Celtic Woman . There is almost always a touch of their origin in their musicality.Apart from dancing, just every Irish seem to at least know how to sing or play an instrument. The latter is a part of the Ireland's school curriculum. Small wonder why every singer in this country is also a musician.
I learned how to play the guitar when I was in grade school. Then, it seemed like taboo for someone like me in a male-dominated society, to play an instrument like that. These days? Just every school girl seemed to have been influenced by Sheryl Crow and the more popular Taylor Swift. I am striking a parallel with CelticWoman'sMairead Nesbitt. Forty years ago, she may not have enjoyed the freedom and acceptance that she is reaping now as an instrumentalist, especially fiddling, which I regard as a higher level of performing. Gone were the days where exceptional talent could belong only to a male species.
Witnessing how this fleet-footed, dimunitive lady play, is like witnessing a thunder bolt of lighting from the sky! She fiddles then dances like a swan, no like a butterfly. She is a powerhouse of emotions. She personifies both Venus, the goddess of beauty and love, and Shakti, the goddess of energy. She does not need to open her mouth to elicit a response or to be understood. Her emotions and fiddle are her words. Her body language is just a beauty to behold. Her presence in Celtic Woman gives a different facet to the group. As she performs Butterfly, an Irish traditional tune, I imagine the amount of discipline and training she poured before she got to that point. When I saw her perform in Lord of the Dance, it blew my mind! Is this even a mortal? There is just one more thing I ask of this being - sing a few lines!
Lord of the Dance
Mairead of Celtic Woman
It may no longer be a myth. Immortals are just here on earth, mingling with the humans.
Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears was written by Brendan Graham, who also did the lyrics of Josh Groban's You Raise Me Up. The song revolves around Ellis Island, which served as the route for millions of immigrants to the United States from 1892 to 1954. Graham's song is so melancholic, that if you are not moved by it, you are either dead or obtunded. I have this nagging pain in my chest everytime I hear this song:
Celtic Woman
On the first day on January,
Eighteen ninety-two,
They opened Ellis Island and they let
The people through.
And the first to cross the treshold
Of that isle of hope and tears,
Was Annie Moore from Ireland
Who was all of fifteen years.
CHORUS:
Isle of hope, isle of tears,
Isle of freedom, isle of fears,
But it's not the isle you left behind.
That isle of hunger, isle of pain,
Isle you'll never see again
But the isle of home is always on your mind.
In a little bag she carried
All her past and history,
And her dreams for the future
In the land of liberty.
And courage is the passport
When your old world disappears
But there's no future in the past
When you're fifteen years
Chorus:
When they closed down Ellis Island
In nineteen fourty-three,
Seventeen million people
Had come there for sanctuary.
And in Springtime when I came here
And I stepped onto it's piers,
I thought of how it must have been
When you're fifteen years.
Today the island, largely artificially created through landfill, is situated on the New Jersey side of the Upper New York bay. The natural portion of the island, part of New York City, is surrounded by rest of the island in Jersey City. For sometime Ellis Island was subject to a disputeof who really has jurisdiction over it - New York or New Jersey. Then came a 1998 Supreme Court decision ,which found most of the island to be part of New Jersey.
My family had gone through its own Ellis-Island-experience, although not as difficult as Annie Moore's or the few percentage who were declined. The chorus lines are very true to me. The American dream is for everybody who would like a better life for his family. The hard part is to go through the process. There will be no shortcuts.
We left our countryin 2006, full of hopes for a better future. With the hope came along the fears, of rejection and failure. Will we ever succeed? What is in store? There was a sense of liberation from a difficult life, but along came a feeling of ambivalence. Will I ever see my country and my loved ones again? I never really stopped thinking of home since I got here. My refuge are the tears that I cry. The isle of homeis always on my mind. With that constant torment I will find solace in Celtic Woman's voices.
A Requiemor Requiem Mass is also known as Mass of the Dead or Mass for the Dead. In 1983 Andrew Lloyd Webber did his own version of Requiem in memory of his father. TheAndrew Lloyd Webber version combines the text of the Pie Jesu with that of the Agnus Dei's. With this style, Webber showed that he can be versatile. His works are famous for their melody and pop-oriented style, to name a few, Phantom of the Opera, Evita, and Cats.
Pie Jesu, (4x)
Qui tollis peccata mundi.
Dona eis requiem.(2x)
Agnus Dei (4x)
Qui tollis peccata mundi,
Dona eis requiem.
Sempiternam. (4x)
English translation:
Merciful Jesus,
Who takes away the sins of the world.
Grant them rest.
Lamb of God,
Who takes away the sins of the world,
Grant them rest.
Everlasting.
I used to work in a hospital where the administrator is a devout Catholic. She would play classical music on the PA and so we were no strangers to the Kireis, Pie Jesus, Glorias, Agnus Deis, Misereres, Orapronobises, and the like. There were also daily Masses and on holy days of obligations, she will request our choir to sing High Mass hymns. Masses will run thirty minutes more than the usual time they should take, but people came out of the chapel uplifted and renewed.
As I now listen to Celtic Woman's version, I am reliving how those people might had felt then.Lynand Chloe's vocals were just the right blend, and Mairead's fiddling pinches you in the heart. These ladies are soaring and they are professionals! You could just imagine how many times more I am uplifted. I will end this post as I leave you with our pride and joy,Lea Salonga, as she sings with tenor Daniel Rodriguez. She is into Broadway musicals but her powerful rendition should put the angels in heaven to a halt.
"Scarborough Fair"is a traditional English ballad.The song tells the tale of a young man, who tells the listener to ask his former lover to perform for him a series of impossible tasks, such as making him a shirt without a seam and then washing it in a dry well, adding that if she completes these tasks he will take her back. The woman in return gives her lover a series of equally impossible tasks, promising to give him his seamless shirt once he has finished.The melody is very usual of the Middle English period. As the song became popular, it was adapted, modified, and rewritten. By the end of the 18th century, there were several interpretations.
More commercial versions sprung from the 40's onward, but it was Simon and Garfunkel's which stirred the most attention. Nothing is more beautiful than this song being sung by a duo, but ex-Celtic Woman Hayley Westenra's captivating voice and and Sarah Brightman's ancient Greek (?) backdrop gave the song a different character.
Sarah Brightman
Hayley Westenra, ex-Celtic Woman
Simon and Garfunkel
In this modern age, the story of Scarborough Fair still lives. It differs only on what the impossible circumstances will be. I think the era or period does not matter at all. Being irrational is a human response, a defense mechanism, considering how distressful relationships can be at times. Can you think of impossible tasks that are modern? Just toying with the idea, already sends a smile to my face.
May It Beis a song sung by Enyathat can be heard in the credits ofPeter Jackson'sFellowship of the Rings. Some of the words are written in Elvish, just appropriate because the setting was supposedly Middle-Earth ,where this language is being used. Take a closer look at the lyrics:
May it be an evening star
Shines down upon you
May it be when darkness falls
Your heart will be true
You walk a lonely road
Oh! How far you are from home
Mornie utúlië (darkness has come)
Believe and you will find your way
Mornie alantië (darkness has fallen)
A promise lives within you now
May it be the shadows call
Will fly away
May it be you journey on
To light the day
When the night is overcome
You may rise to find the sun
Mornie utúlië (darkness has come)
Believe and you will find your way
Mornie alantië (darkness has fallen)
A promise lives within you now
A promise lives within you now
Without the music (and the Elvishlanguage), you might think it is just one of these inspirational pieces that you can turn to over and over again to douse a trodden spirit. Incorporating the music totally transforms the work to a different level, definitely mystical. It takes you to a state of optimism where there is peace and contentment. If only the world can be transformed into that place, there will be no more war, famine, hatred, and fear.
As a composer, Enya did her homework, as she always does in her other works. She has an extraordinary brand of composing songs which is absolute to an artist's staying power. She may not have the best vocals but she compensates the lack of it through her creative musical arrangements and her ability to play various instruments. Her compositions are simple but uses extensive multi-tracking or layered vocals which make the sound unique to her.
Enya
Interestingly, Lisa Kelly of Celtic Woman shares a solid voice to a timeless composition. Let's hear it as we are haunted and buoyed into another place and time.
Sting supposedly wrote this song after he bought a house near a barley field. Notice how a simple story can be turned into powerful medium of expression. It is poetic, and as such, is subject to various interpretations depending on the occasion of one's emotions. The song goes:
You'll remember me when the west wind moves
Upon the fields of barley
You'll forget the sun in his jealous sky
As we walk in the fields of gold
So she took her love
For to gaze awhile
Upon the fields of barley
In his arms she fell as her hair came down
Among the fields of gold
Will you stay with me, will you be my love
Among the fields of barley
We'll forget the sun in his jealous sky
As we lie in the fields of gold
See the west wind move like a lover so
Upon the fields of barley
Feel her body rise when you kiss her mouth
Among the fields of gold
I never made promises lightly
And there have been some that I've broken
But I swear in the days still left
We'll walk in the fields of gold
We'll walk in the fields of gold
Many years have passed since those summer days
Among the fields of barley
See the children run as the sun goes down
Among the fields of gold
You'll remember me when the west wind moves
Upon the fields of barley
You can tell the sun in his jealous sky
When we walked in the fields of gold
When we walked in the fields of gold
When we walked in the fields of gold
At the moment, I am obliged to say, that this is a moving story of passionate love between two people, who like any other, had their own challenges. It seemed like the man broke promises before but when the time was right, made up and pursued a love that would last till death. In death the man pictured their love to be remembered exactly the same way they teased and flaunted with the jealous sky and sun upon thefields of gold. Such love was intense and compelling that it could evoke an emotion even from the heavens.
I like the way Sting wrote this song. He used simple words to convey his emotions. The comparison of a fields of barley to a fields of gold is a creative beauty. I just thought his songwriting outstaged his singing here. A more soulful rendition is that of Eva Cassidy's, while an enchanting version of Celtic Woman's Lisa Kelly is a personal favorite.
