A Garland of Music for May Day
Happy May Day to you all! Here I present to you a musical garland to celebrate this sacred month, so full of life and tradition. Loreena McKennitt- "The Mummers' Dance" This piece is, quite frankly, one of my favorite songs of all time... I have loved "The Mummers' Dance" since at least 1999, when I was about 10 or 11 years old. When I first really encountered it, I had recently discovered the Redwall series by Brian Jacques, and at the time, this song called up the wild love of adventure and rich reverence for nature that the woodland creatures of these stories possessed. Today, it means even more... I have since learned that the song borrows many lyrics from the traditional English "May Day Carol": We’ve been rambling all the night And some time of this day. Now returning back again, We bring a garland gay... A garland gay we bring you here, And at your door we stand. It is a sprout well budded out, The work of Our Lord’s hand. For me, thes...