
Caressing the Unnameable
This song is the first one we ever collaborated on. Melanie had composed
the melody on hammered dulcimer, and we just naturally felt our way
into the harmonic spaces of the song as the guitar arrangement emerged.
It’s a song that breathes itself, which demanded that we record
it together, live, in order to truly capture the subtlety of its fluid
movement, adding cello and violin after we had recorded our instruments.
Whenever we play this song together we feel as if we’re touching
a space so fine it’s beyond words to describe, caressing the
unnameable.
Neanna Sundra
This song began, as it does in the recording, with a simple hammered
dulcimer pattern, a distinctive rhythm and feel that the vocals naturally
wanted to sing to. As the melody and lyrics emerged, it took on a
tribal feel, and bass arrangements were explored with the help of
Melanie’s friend, Ben Cziller. “As soon as he played a
couple of bass lines, I broke out into a huge smile and said ‘that’s
it!’ It’s amazing how a song just clicks in all of a sudden.”
We then composed the rest of the arrangement, capping it off with
balaphon, which Marshall played, to complete the feel that we were
going for.
The lyrics are calling the women, young and old, and they translate
this way:
Calling the women to gather together
Calling women of all ages
Calling the women to gather together
Come from Near and Far
Calling the women to build the Fire
Dance in the Circle and tell the old stories
We carry the lineage inside of us
Bringing the news of the Ancients here
Celebrate this Life!
The Earth and Sky
And our Place in it
Celebrate this Life!
We, the Weavers of Life
The Spoken Word in the middle of the song was an idea that Marshall
and I developed for the song, to offer the song and the listener a
translation of the essence of the song and an invitation:
Come all the women unto this place
See the future before us
Our face is searching for the answer
Our Answer
We are the Answer
Find it
It is here Inside
Taste it
And Share it
This is a call to the women
Sa’dâwî
Traditional Sephardic Romance. Medieval Spain, Judeo-Spanish, Composer
Anonymous
Much of the music composed by the Sephardim in medieval Spain was
not notated, being passed on orally. It is an honor to continue this
lineage of a passionate and vibrant music and people that was created,
often anonymously, during a time of peaceful integration between the
Islamic and Jewish cultures until the expulsion and exile of the Jews
in 1492. “I have loved medieval music for years, particularly
that of Spain,” Melanie says. “We recorded this piece
before I traveled to the South of Spain last year, where this music
originated, in Andalucia. I found the Judeo-Spanish music to be quite
obscure, even the local musicians often not knowing how to find it,
the gypsies no longer in their caves or performing the more popular
flamenco for the tourists. My soul felt such a recognition with the
place, and I feel even more grateful to participate in this music,
as other musicians are also doing in our time. Other recordings can
be found of these romances, each one distinctly unique. I am happy
that this lineage is being carried on, both classically and through
the eclectic compilations of world music such as this album.
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