See a perusal copy of the music.
Hear a synthesized realisation
This piece is part of the set Three Helen Cruickshank songs
The next piece is Sea buckthorn
If you don't want to buy the whole set, then you can buy Ballad of lost ladye individually using the link on this page.
Cruickshank's ballad-like poem is given a shifting tonality and a sequence of imperfect cadences that, like the story, keep us guessing how and where the song will end. The unexplained discovery of the body of a visitor in the early morning beside the Sithean Mor (great fairy mound) on the small, lovely and historic island of Iona happened within the last century.
Glossary and pronunciation guide included
Words
O siller, siller shone the mune An' quaiet swang the door, An' eerie skraighed the flaughtered gulls As she gaed by the shore.
O saft tae her the meadow girse, But set wi' rock the hill, An' scored wi' bluid her ladye feet Or she cam' the place intill.
The sheen o' steel was in her hand, The sheen o' stars in her een, An' she wad open the fairy hill An' she wad let oot the queen.
There cam' a shepherd owre the hill When day began tae daw; And is this noo a seggit ewe Or flourish frae the schaw?
It wasna lamb nor seggit ewe Nor flourish frae the schaw, It was the ladye bright an' still, But she had won awa'.
The peace an' loveliness upon Her broo said, 'Lat abee, Here fand I that I sairly socht, Ye needna peety mee.'
Helen Cruickshank
Copyright is held by A C Hunter, Ashgrove House, Loanhead, Midlothian, Scotland EH20 9NG
Purchase – 1020: Ballad of lost ladye
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