Cycling home from choir practice (+ pub) last night I was accompanied by a stupendous silver moon. I started vaguely singing Schubert's Der Wanderer an den Mond. "Ich auf der Erd, am Himmel du ..." (Me on the Earth, you in the sky). When I got home I played my favourite rendition of that song recorded over 80 years ago by the matchless Karl Erb. I discovered that the full moon is actually tonight, the harvest moon. Any more lunar suggestions?
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Hello there,
The Mid Autumn Festival is a big deal in these parts and was celebrated here in China yesterday (Monday 24th September) with a public holiday, lanterns, fireworks and the proferring of moon cakes. Imagine something like medium to large sized pork pies but with any variety of fillings from sweet to savoury to god knows what. Definitely an acquired taste
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Anyway - here is some Schumann which I venture is far easier on the palate
Best Wishes,
Tevot,
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The moon did look great last night, and will again tonight I hope. 'Harvest Moon' is not an astronomer's expression. It's just that near the Autumnal Equinox (around now) the full moon rises not long after sunset, so people are likely to see it appearing bigger than usual (because of an optical illusion when seen low in the sky) and sometimes more orange than usual (because it's seen through a thicker layer of atmosphere).Comment
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Neil Young’s song of the same title is rather good!Comment
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A simple lullaby: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFTzBc6CA7QOriginally posted by gurnemanz View PostMy life, each morning when I dress, is four and twenty hours less. (J Richardson)Comment
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Debussy obviously. Van Morrison's Moondance. Of the many popular songs, I happen to think that Echo and the Bunnymen who were not all for the good - the schoolboy poetry either works or it doesn't : here it does work even if one can see the flaws and musically it is very strong - really got an atmosphere with The Killing Moon (1984). For the bewitching hours:
Last edited by Lat-Literal; 25-09-18, 20:00.Comment
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Two more lunar song favourites. ‘The moon is a harsh mistress’ written by Jimmy Webb and sung by Glen Campbell, Joe Cocker, Judy Collins and Linda Ronstadt amongst others! ‘The whole of the moon’ by The Waterboys.Comment
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Oh yes absolutely - and what with the Neil Young - I totally concur.Originally posted by cloughie View Post
The Capris - There's a Moon Out Tonight (1960) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVAZ5O0WXYAComment
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Crystal clear sky here, and the moon as beautiful as last night.
Celebrated the equinox with other folk here on Friday evening.
We should keep in touch with these ancient ways, IMVHO.Comment
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Originally posted by kernelbogey View Post
‘The Wicker Man’ wasn’t just made up, then. And, as for a song, the (pretty execrable) “Deep in the heart of Texas”, contains the memorable couplet, “The moon shines bright, in the middle of the night ...”.
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In The Morris Book, v. 5 (Novello, 1913) either Cecil Sharp or George Butterworth writes in the anonymous introduction:Originally posted by HighlandDougie View Post ‘The Wicker Man’ wasn’t just made up, then. And, as for a song, the (pretty execrable) “Deep in the heart of Texas”, contains the memorable couplet, “The moon shines bright, in the middle of the night ...”.
The purpose of these folk agricultural festivals was twofold :
(1) To celebrate the victory of Spring over Winter, to proclaim the renewed vitality of the spirit of fertilisation, and to bring the beneficent influence of re-awakened nature into the community, in order that the flocks, herds, and fields, as well as the inhabitants, might all share in its benefits ; and
(2) To purge the village of ghosts, devils, diseases, and the less obvious results of offences against taboo.
In the first case the underlying motive was the desire to secure mana. To this end fresh green branches and flowers, the symbols and proofs of resuscitated nature, were gathered and worn by the participants ; while the cottages, farm-buildings, and sometimes even the animals were decked with them. May-garlands were carried through the village, usually containing within them, in the form of a human effigy, the anthropomorphic representation of the nature-sprite. The tree, being the largest and noblest product of the plant world, was set up and worshipped by rings of dancers ; while ceremonies were performed at the sacred shrines, groves, and wells, upon all of which flowers and blossoms were formally placed. By these means the villagers hoped that they, together with their flocks and herds and the cultivated fields, might all share in the awakened spirit of nature, and prosper accordingly.
With the same motive, too, at one or other of the sacred shrines, an animal representative of natural forces was sometimes slain to yield mana through a sacramental meal.
In the second case it was fear, the other great motive of the primitive mind, which, working in a parallel line to that of desire, formed the groundwork of those observances of which the scapegoat was the type. It was deemed possible to transfer devils, diseases, and other obnoxious things to some individual, and then, more or less summarily, to get rid of him and the plagues at the same time, eg : by killing him, driving him away, or by taking him to certain places on the boundary and beating him there until the devils within him had fled over it and left him innocuous, the latter process being only a special application of the primitive remedy employed in cases of "possession."
Where the rite took its extreme form, in addition to the primary motive a link is now generally assumed between the animal sacrifice and the slaying of the human being, in the necessity of purging the blood-guiltiness which attached to him who slew the sacred animal. In the interval which elapsed between the animal sacrifice and the infliction of the death penalty, the guilty victim was honoured and worshipped as a King-priest.
In later days, in order to stay the annual loss of the chief man of the clan, a criminal, prisoner, or stranger, was vicariously killed in his stead ; and again, later on, when the sanctity of human life had come to be more generally realised, a mimetic or mock death was dramatically enacted in substitution of the real one, or the victim was allowed to escape death by payment of a ransom.
Later, Butterworth writes of the Kirtlington festival, where the dancers “were always accompanied by a shepherd dressed in a clean white smock, leading a lamb decorated with ribbons, round whom it was their custom to dance "Bonny Green" every morning during the festival before they went on their round” The animal would eventually be sacrificed, partly eaten, and pieces of its body buried around the village. Igor Stravinsky’s evocation of pagan Russia in Le Sacre du Printemps (1913) had almost nothing on a contemporary Oxfordshire village.Comment
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Completely unrelated, but still fascinating is a ritual I have watched.
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