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, these lines evoke not only the age-old custom of leaving a garland at a neighbor's doorstep on May Day but also a metaphor for coming to the end of one's earthly journey and being able to present to God and man the fruit of one's labor throughout a full life.

To this day, when I listen to this, I am at times overwhelmed with skin-tingling euphoria, nostalgia, and spiritual transcendence, sometimes all at once! This IS May... and this is life.
(Incidentally, this title of this blog is a reference to this song: "Who would go down to the shady groves, / And summon the shadows there?")

 The next four songs are recordings of traditional May Day pieces that I have arranged for mountain dulcimer (not MY arrangements but certainly some of my sources of inspiration!).

Lance Frodsham- "The May Day Carol"

This is the original carol from which "The Mummers' Dance" is derived, and its innocent lyrics and tender melody have their own sweet charm. Variants of this tune hail from towns and regions throughout England, but this version appears to be based the “Swalcliffe” variant from Oxfordshire. https://mainlynorfolk.info/martin.carthy/songs/maysong.html

Wallace House- "Robin Hood's Morris"

This morris dance tune, lustily rendered by Wallace House with his own lute accompaniment, describes the characters of Robin Hood and Little John, among others, who would appear in the Helston Furry Dance of Cornwall in England. Apparently the dance took place on "Old May Day," which was May 8, the Feast of the Apparition of Saint Michael. (For more, see the liner notes of the original Smithsonian Folkways album: https://folkways-media.si.edu/docs/folkways/artwork/FW06839.pdf)

The Watersons and Broceliande: "Hal-an-Tow"

The Watersons (and other artists of the folk revival) were responsible for re-popularizing this other variant of the Helston May Day song, but I think Broceliande's rendition has the distinction of being one of the merriest! It has been suggested that “hal-an-tow” (meaning the dance and pageant itself) was derived from “heel and toe.” https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2017/05/hal-an-tow-some-intriguing-evidence-on-a-may-song/

Anonymous 4 and the Boston Camerata- "Edi beo thu hevene quene"

  

Another important figure in the May celebrations of Christendom is the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God. This precious 13th century medieval gymel is also known as the "Llanthony Carol," and it describes Mary in courtly poetic terms as knights would describe the ladies they served. The language of the song is Middle English: https://mainlynorfolk.info/shirley.collins/songs/edibeothuhevenequene.html
Incidentally, a brief quotation of this song appears in The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson (see the prologue!): The Black Arrow | Project Gutenberg
Anonymous 4's performance is contemplative and reverent, but the Boston Camerata's version is playful and exuberant!

David Arkenstone - The Celtic Book of Days

“Heart of Spring,” “Road to the Faire,” and “The Turning of the Year”

May Day is associated in traditional Celtic culture with the festival of Beltane, a highlight of the Celtic calendar or “book of days.” This album, a product of its time from 1998, sparkles with a sense of wonder at the beauty of nature, ancient tradition, and legend. The Celtic Book of Days is an album designed to be experienced in “print.” Lovingly packaged with exquisite cover and disc art inspired by the statue The Dying Gaul and the rare old growth forests of Ireland, the music itself is lushly orchestrated with hybrid electronic and acoustic symphonies highlighted with traditional Celtic accents like the flute, fiddle, and accordion. Some tracks strongly evoke the soundtracks of The Lord of the Dance (which was released only a few years before) and “The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring” (which emerged not long after in 2001!). The liner notes with their poetic tone and rich historical background only add to the delight of this album.

 Heather Dale - “May Queen”

Heather Dale has been beloved for years as a creative interpreter of Arthurian legend in song, especially in medievalist circles such as the Society for Creative Anachronism and the Renaissance Faire circuit. Her tragically tender contemporary folk ballad “May Queen” is told from the perspective of Sir Lancelot, describing how he lost his heart to Guinevere when he saw her dressed in floral splendor on a fateful May Day long ago. The album on which this song appears is called Avalon, a collection of Heather's Arthurian compositions; while these songs were previously released on earlier recordings, the vocals on this anthology have a lot less processing, resulting in performances that are much more genuine, vulnerable, and authentic to her live singing style. Avalon (King Arthur legend – 2010) (heatherdale.com)