Three Tannahill Songs (1999)
Duration: 12'
Robert Tannahill (1774-1810) was a poet and songwriter in Paisley, Scotland; some of his songs are still in the folk repertoire today. He achieved some measure of fame during his lifetime, but was known throughout his life as a gentle and retiring man.
The Poor Bowlman's Remonstrance is dedicated to Sukha Linda Murray (now Haju Sunim) on the occasion of her installation as dharma heir to the Venerable Samu Sunim. She is the priest of the Ann Arbor Zen Temple, and it struck me, in light of the empathy and compassion that the poem expresses, that it was as close to a Buddhist sentiment as one was likely to get from an eighteenth-century Scottish folk poet.
Fill, Fill the Merry Bowl is dedicated to a mentor from my youth: Patrick McCabe, who taught me to play the viola, and inspired me with his infectious wild love of music. The song extols the joys of life suspended in the glow of drunken companionship.
I've always loved the still, grey in-between time after winter has departed and spring is still held in abeyance; Now Winter Wi' His Cloudy Brow takes place in this stark period of waiting when relief is palpable, and the opening verdure of spring seems both distant and immanent. The song is dedicated to Nicholas Thorne, who taught me to trust in unabashed lyricism; the whole set was written for Jennifer Goltz.
Duration: 12'
Robert Tannahill (1774-1810) was a poet and songwriter in Paisley, Scotland; some of his songs are still in the folk repertoire today. He achieved some measure of fame during his lifetime, but was known throughout his life as a gentle and retiring man.
The Poor Bowlman's Remonstrance is dedicated to Sukha Linda Murray (now Haju Sunim) on the occasion of her installation as dharma heir to the Venerable Samu Sunim. She is the priest of the Ann Arbor Zen Temple, and it struck me, in light of the empathy and compassion that the poem expresses, that it was as close to a Buddhist sentiment as one was likely to get from an eighteenth-century Scottish folk poet.
Fill, Fill the Merry Bowl is dedicated to a mentor from my youth: Patrick McCabe, who taught me to play the viola, and inspired me with his infectious wild love of music. The song extols the joys of life suspended in the glow of drunken companionship.
I've always loved the still, grey in-between time after winter has departed and spring is still held in abeyance; Now Winter Wi' His Cloudy Brow takes place in this stark period of waiting when relief is palpable, and the opening verdure of spring seems both distant and immanent. The song is dedicated to Nicholas Thorne, who taught me to trust in unabashed lyricism; the whole set was written for Jennifer Goltz.