A New Song, for a New Book
Jul. 4th, 2007 08:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
catsittingstillHrmm. Ahem. This is perhaps a little late. I had hoped to get it finished by OVFF, actually, and recruit a pair of strong singers to handle it, but since I didn't, I will just post it here.
Lois McMaster Bujold's newest book _The Sharing Knife: Legacy_ is now out, and I was lucky enough to get an ARC a while back. Before I go any farther, I should warn would-be readers that they will want to start with _The Sharing Knife: Beguilement_ first, as unlike most of Bujold's other works, this is a sequel that doesn't stand very well on its own; the two books were originally written as one.
Now I was quite charmed by the first book, which is unabashedly a love story, complicated by clashing cultures, inescapable duties, horrific monsters, borderline-functional families and a come-at-it-sideways form of magic. I can always trust Bujold to have a new take on the supernatural. The second book completes the first, and lives up to it, with many of the same themes recurring, and a clever little farmer girl up to her ears in adventure. I'm a sucker for love stories, and a sucker for clever women, so what can I say?
Common Ground
Lyrics and melody by Catherine Faber
You are the sun, I the sunflower near
Swayed by a music you make but can't hear.
My starveling heart has me twisted around;
Surely, it pleads, we can find common ground.
My folk and yours different paths have to walk,
Lives as distinct as the hawthorn and hawk.
You who are rooted, in blossom are crowned;
Still I can hope to achieve common ground
Like a firefly called, I encircle you now,
Confused as my wee, simple brain will allow.
I cannot surrender this joy I have found;
I'll fight or I'll flee but I'll find common ground
Strange is the counterpoint woven and dared,
Partnered where not even meter is shared;
In juxtaposition new harmonies sound,
Working in concert to make common ground.
I don't have an mp3 ready yet, though I do have NotePad files if anyone wants them. I intend to record it, but the melody is 3 beats per measure and the harmony is 2 beats per measure, and I'm having some trouble playing-2-while-singing-3. (This is why I would have needed strong singers, had I finished it in time to present it as a duet. But doing it as voice-against-instrument does relieve me of the challenge of writing words that mean the same in two different meters that can still be understood while sung on top of each other, so maybe that's for the best.) :-)
Lois McMaster Bujold's newest book _The Sharing Knife: Legacy_ is now out, and I was lucky enough to get an ARC a while back. Before I go any farther, I should warn would-be readers that they will want to start with _The Sharing Knife: Beguilement_ first, as unlike most of Bujold's other works, this is a sequel that doesn't stand very well on its own; the two books were originally written as one.
Now I was quite charmed by the first book, which is unabashedly a love story, complicated by clashing cultures, inescapable duties, horrific monsters, borderline-functional families and a come-at-it-sideways form of magic. I can always trust Bujold to have a new take on the supernatural. The second book completes the first, and lives up to it, with many of the same themes recurring, and a clever little farmer girl up to her ears in adventure. I'm a sucker for love stories, and a sucker for clever women, so what can I say?
Common Ground
Lyrics and melody by Catherine Faber
You are the sun, I the sunflower near
Swayed by a music you make but can't hear.
My starveling heart has me twisted around;
Surely, it pleads, we can find common ground.
Blossom and feather, shelter together
Troubles to weather, on common ground.
My folk and yours different paths have to walk,
Lives as distinct as the hawthorn and hawk.
You who are rooted, in blossom are crowned;
Still I can hope to achieve common ground
Like a firefly called, I encircle you now,
Confused as my wee, simple brain will allow.
I cannot surrender this joy I have found;
I'll fight or I'll flee but I'll find common ground
Strange is the counterpoint woven and dared,
Partnered where not even meter is shared;
In juxtaposition new harmonies sound,
Working in concert to make common ground.
I don't have an mp3 ready yet, though I do have NotePad files if anyone wants them. I intend to record it, but the melody is 3 beats per measure and the harmony is 2 beats per measure, and I'm having some trouble playing-2-while-singing-3. (This is why I would have needed strong singers, had I finished it in time to present it as a duet. But doing it as voice-against-instrument does relieve me of the challenge of writing words that mean the same in two different meters that can still be understood while sung on top of each other, so maybe that's for the best.) :-)
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no subject
Date: 2007-07-05 02:59 am (UTC)I
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May Dar and Cumbria have their tent collapse one night when the rest of the camp has departed.
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Date: 2007-07-05 04:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-05 01:12 pm (UTC)Hmm . . . I wonder if my vocal range will work or not?
But, that being said, I'd love to learn this, as I adore those books and really like the lyrics too!
BTW . . .I am attending OVFF . . .
Andrea
no subject
Date: 2007-07-05 04:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-05 03:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-05 04:17 pm (UTC)Melody? Gruitar tablature?
Date: 2007-07-05 04:47 pm (UTC)I'd like to see or hear what yours is like, of course. Thank you.
Re: Melody? Gruitar tablature?
Date: 2007-07-05 07:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-09 02:23 am (UTC)