 voices rise up
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Jun. 8th, 2008 @ 02:54 pm 
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I'm waiting for a chance to do a post about the two-volume Warner Collection (Appleseed Recordings), which I have finally bought (and wow, just wow).
Vol. 1 "Her Bright Smile Haunts Me Still"; Vol. 2 "Nothing Seems Better To Me"
It's field recordings of folk songs, mainly sung by people in North Carolina, but also in New York and New Hampshire, made between 1940 and 1966, made by Anne and Frank Warner. I want to do a proper post about the music later, but I want to use an image from the liner notes, and I'm waiting for permission from Appleseed Recordings.
(The liner notes are amazing. They come with photos and a bibliography!)
But this post is about a different kind of magic. I was listening to "When Sorrows Encompass You Round." I have two versions of that already, one from Jean Ritchie and one from Cordelia's Dad, and I'm sure I've heard a Pete Seeger version and probably others as well. It's a lovely song. I'm going to learn to sing it like Jean Ritchie does. Anyway, the Warners had recorded Linzey Hicks singing it.
I turned it up to hear it better, and then:
Suddenly all the sounds in the background came clear, too. I could hear children talking. I could hear an aside from one of the Warners (I imagine), too close to the microphone. I couldn't see anything, but suddenly I felt like I was there, back 40, 50, 60 years ago, in that house or on that porch, where the recording was made.
It's 90 degrees out now, but that made me shiver.
ETA: Just got an e-mail giving me permission to use the image, yay! Next entry, then!I feel...:  amazed I hear...: Lee Monroe Presnell: Johnny You Are My Darling |
Oh, how awesome! I get that same shiver when I see people's handwriting in very old books.
Yes! Old inscriptions are so evocative. My younger daughter bought a couple of 19th-century books of poetry from our library's book sale, and I think one had an inscription in it.
One was a first edition of "Snowbound." I don't know if that sort of thing used to move me, but now, when she gave to me to hold, the thought that someone held it once in the days when the poet was still alive just... I don't know, it filled me with emotion.
Ooooh.... *covet covet*
That sounds so very amazingly wonderful.... I love old recordings of music, not only for the interpretations and the sound of how the music was sung/played back then, but also for the slice of life it provides you. Very much different from hearing someone's performance of a particular version in a concert setting. :D
Yes, exactly. The sounds of the children and the accents--you feel right there.
You made me just order them off Amazon!
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| From: | ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) asakiyume |
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| Date: |
June 9th, 2008 11:24 am (UTC) |
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Re: Oooh!
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Woot! You will love them--at least, I do :-)
Thanks for this - - I love this kinda stuff!!
Oh, you're so welcome! I'm just eating it up, myself. It's still so new to me, and I just love it--for so many reasons.
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