The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #4716   Message #122794
Posted By: Jeff Kalmar
11-Oct-99 - 07:50 PM
Thread Name: Pagan/Folk/Earth Music Research Project
Subject: RE: Pagan/Folk/Earth Music Reasearch Project
As an initiate of Gardnerian Wicca and a musician, I must agree with those who state that the likelihood of finding "authentic ancient" Wiccan music is slim to nil. I'm going to take a leap here, and assume that what Mud Puppy is looking for are songs from Celtic and/or other British Isles folklore that have at least some hint of Wicca/Paganism/Faerie Lore etc. I don't think there are any 1000-year-old examples survuving, but some of Yeats's poetry fits the bill (i.e. "The Stolen Child" as recorded by Loreena McKennitt), "Oak, Ash and Thorn" (Available in the Digitrad database), many of the Child Ballads ("Tam Lin" and "True Thomas" spring to mind), and modern songs that "sound old", such as Archie Fisher's "Witch of the West-Mer-Lands" and many of the songs from the movie "The Wicker Man". As for other Pagan religions such as Hinduism, Egyptian Poltheism and ancient Greco-Roman beliefs, There are numerous example available, such as Delphic hymns and fragments of text such as the prayers quoted by Philip Glass in "Akhnaten". There are probably some Shinto songs still sung in Japan, and some African and Native American tribes have preserved some songs. But if you're looking for songs sung by the ancient Druids at the Solstice when Stonehenge was shiny and new, Lotsa luck! Unless you know someone who channels Taliesin! :-)