The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #793   Message #472941
Posted By: GUEST,Lynn T
30-May-01 - 08:47 AM
Thread Name: Songs of Faery / Fairy / Fairies
Subject: RE: Songs of Faery
I can throw some light in:

The song with "we are the little folk, we" is Kipling's Pict Song, tune by Bob Esty of Clam Chowder: not faerie at all, but bitter and enduring; the gist is that the peasantry though downtrodden will always outlast the conquering nobility. I can remember a few fragments: "We are the little folk, we, too little to love or to hate, but give us some time and you'll see how we can tear down the state" and "Mistletoe killing an oak, rats gnawing cable in two, (missing line), how they must love what they do." and "You -- you will die of the shame!"

But there's a wonderful Ferie song nobody has mentioned yet. Clam Chowder also does Kathy Sobansky's setting of Poul Anderson's "Queen of Air and Darkness" from the short story of the same name; the Ranger Arvid encounters the Queen of the Faeries one evening on his way home to his own lady; when he refuses to go with her, she curses him to hopeless mortality: "Your dull and foolish woman, treat kindly as you can, and live your days in longing, set free to be a man" with the chorus "The dance weaves under the firethorn". Great song, especially in Kathy's clear soprano, backed by harp, bass and hammered dulcimer. While they've done it for years and it's on earlier recordings, it's also included on their latest CD, just released. The Clams have a website; please pardon my ignorance about formatting matters.

http://members.aol.com/sirharper/chowder/index.htm

Lynn