not native fruit

amma season

i've been absent from the weblog in recent weeks because i've been all caught up in 'amma season' - that wonderful time of the year that is better than school letting out, better than ski week, better than any holiday i can name - that time of year when amma visits the bay area from india.  we all had a fabulous time, and are still savoring our enjoyment of our time with her as she moves on her way across the country.  tomorrow will be her last day in los angeles and from there she will travel to santa fe new mexico.

as part of my service to the community this time around, i've published a new e-magazine called 'amma's forest dwellers' for old-timers, retired persons, contemplatives, hermits and the like - all of whom used to be called 'forest-dwellers' in the old folk-tradition of india.

i've also been reading Karen Armstrong's 'The Spiral Staircase.'  Years ago, I read her first book, 'The Narrow Gate,' about her time in the convent back in the late 1950's and early 1960's.  'The Spiral Staircase' tells her story after leaving the convent and eventually writing her best-selling books, such as 'A History of God.'  I found 'The Spiral Staircase' an engrossing memoir, plus entertaining (for example, her charming stories of Jacob), intriguing and educational (her description of her health issues), and I appreciated her articulate personal sharing.

i've been playing my dulcimer in the evenings more, as a part of my spiritual practice.  Toning and singing are even better, really, but i feel charmed by the mellifluous tones of the dulcimer.  like to feel the vibration under my hands and where the dulcimer lays flat across my lap.  my blue lion really truly does make exquisite sound.  very conducive to meditation.

folk music

i've been reading greil marcus' book 'invisible republic,' ostensibly about bob dylan, but really (imho) about the old way of being american - the stoic mask, the taking of other people's homelands (as in the song, coo-coo bird - because the coo-coo bird takes over other birds' nests to raise their young), the old ragtag music, etc. - as he terms it 'the old weird america.'

in fact, i've felt so inspired by the book that i've bought Smith's 'Anthology of American Folk Music,' a very nice 6-CD volume, remastered, with copious notes, and i am just enjoying it so much.  it reminds me of my adolescent fling with folk music, back in the early 1960's - i had no idea then that it really was connected with the american communist movement - and also it brings me back to those wonderful vanished people of my childhood, about whom i have written at length on this weblog.  (it's very easy for me to tell people that my father is danish, everyone readily believes that, but to describe my mother, who is hidden beneath my blonde exterior, but is visible if you know what to look for, is more difficult.  i've decided it might be easiest to say that she is from one of those old tri-racial isolate groups like the Louisiana Creoles.  I think they come closest to being like what her people were, than say the Appalachian Melungeons, which gives ordinary people a completely different picture.  And Americans are so image-conscious.) 

greil marcus writes brilliantly about all of this, and makes me aware that bob dylan seems to have really understood the truth about folk music and also about the ersatz folk-music of the early 60's, which he was expected to personify and chose not to.  Good for him.

There is something about this old, authentic 'folk' music on the Anthology that just brings tears to my eyes, and makes me want to take out my old repro dulcimer, the one with the wind-drones, and strum.

let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW (Ionian, arranged by km)

(chord notation is: base string/middle string/ treble string; strum pattern is of your own choosing; unless otherwise noted the base and middle string remain the same)

[0/0/0] Oh, [0] the [7] weath – [7] er [6] out – [5] side [4] is [2/0/3] fright- [0] ful,

[0] but [0] the [4] fire [3] is [4] so [3] de – [1/0/2] light – [0] ful.

[1/0/1] and [0/6/8] since [8] we’ve [7] no [6] place [5] to [3/0/4] go,

[8/0/9] let [8/0/8] it [8/0/7] snow, [5/0/7] let [5/0/6] it [5/0/5] snow, [4/0/5] let [4/0/4] it [4/0/3] snow.

(Chorus:)
[1/0/2] When [3] we [4] fi- [5-4] nally [2] say [4/0/7] good-[4] night,

[4/0/2] how [4] I’ll [3] hate [3] to [2] go [1] out [1/0/0] in [1] the [2] storm

[1/0/2]but [3] if [4] you [5-4] really [2] hold [4/0/7] me [4] tight,

[7] all [6+] the [5] way [5] home [6+]I’ll [7] be [8/6+/8]warm.

(Verses:)
It doesn't show signs of stopping,
And I brought some corn for popping;
The lights are turned way down low,
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

The fire is slowly dying,
And, my dear, we're still good-bye-ing,
But as long as you love me so.
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

wandering in the forest

Vandring i Skoven, by H.C. Andersen (lyrics) and Henrik Rung (music)

Ionian

1             4        4  à                     1

0             0       2                             0

0   2       4  4    4         4-5   4 4      2   0-1    2    2     1   1     0

Min       sÆde Brud, min unge Viv, Min Kjaerlighed, mit Liv!

I           denne lyse, tause Nat, Hos Dig, min Verdens Skat,

Du        er saa frisk som BÆgens Hang, Som Nattergalens Sang,

1             4        4  à                  1

0             0       2                        0 -

0   2       4  4    4       4-5   4 4      2    0-1    2    2     1 1   0

Kom, Maanen skinner stor og klar, en stilhed Natten har,

Jeg er saa glad, saa salig glad, Duft, friske BÆgeblad!

Saa dyb som Nattens stille Ro, Her hvor Skov maerker gro,

4 à                               x      2   x      2       x        1

2                3       2          x      0  x      0        x        0

0-2  4  4   4      4 7  5    4         5       3  3      3        4        2

En Delighed, en Ensomhed, Min sÆde Brud, kom med!

Syng, Nattergal, lys maaneklar!  Jeg her al Rigdom har:

Hvor maleriske BÆge staa, og vi ved Maans’kin gaa:

1   4                     4   x   2         1

0   3                     2   2   0          0

0   5   5   5   5     4   x    0   0-1    2    2     1      1     0

I BÆgeskoven gaa vi to, der hvor Skovmaerker gro.

Min sÆde Brud, min unge Viv, min Kjaerlighed, mit Liv!

Min SÆde Brud, min unge Viv, Min Kjaerlighed, mit Liv!

My sweetest bride, my wife so young, my love, my life, come hither where the moonlight’s bright in the stillness of the night.  Oh, loveliness, Oh loveliness, my sweetest bride, do come!  In the beech wood we’ll walk, we two where woodruffs many grow. 

In this most bright and silent night, with you my dearest treasure, I am so glad, so full of bliss, do smell the leaves so fresh, sing nightingale, shine clearest moon!  All riches I do have: my sweetest bride, my wife so young, my love, my life.

Like the leafy beech you are so fresh, like the song of the nightingale, as deep and quiet as the night, where all the woodruffs grow; where beeches picturesque abound, we two in moonlight walk!  My sweetest bride, my wife so young, my love, my life.

silent night

This is my arrangement of 'Silent Night' for the dulcimer.  I felt it was the most appropriate of the carols I've arranged for this season, given that my long-time friend Ruthie died on December 10th.  We had the memorial gathering in her home today.  It was a beautiful event, filled with wonderful people, great food, fantastic photos of Ruthie at all ages.  I feel so fortunate to have gotten to know Ruthie.  She gave me so much, and she lives on in my heart.

SILENT NIGHT

SILENT N, HOLY N ALL IS CALM, ALL IS BRIGHT

4        1    4  1  8     8  5      7    7      4

2        0  2    0 6+   6+ 4      5  5       2

4-5-4 2  4-5-42 8     8 6+    7      7       4

ROUND YON VIRGIN MOTHER AND CHILD

4                  -       4   -  4  4       4           1

3                  -       3   -  2    2       2           0

5                  5      7-6+-54    5        4            2

HOLY INFANT SO TENDER AND MILD

4->                                                   1

3 ->                       2->                     0

5       5    7     6+      5  4    5   4          2

Sleep in heavnly Peace, Sleep in heavnly peace

8 ->                    6+6+    4    4      1    4       1

6+                 6 + 0 0      0   0      0    4 3 1 0

8      10      8       7 – 9     7  -4      2     4      0

SILENT NIGHT, HOLY NIGHT, SHEPHERDS QUAKE AT THE SIGHT

GLORIES STREAM FROM HEAVEN ABOVE, HEAVENLY HOSTS SING ‘ALLELUIA’, CHRIST THE SAVIOR IS BORN, CHRIST THE SAVIOR IS BORN

I hope you enjoy your holidays, whichever ones you celebrate.  We celebrated the Solstice, and remembered Ruthie.