Blog posts about Sea Tangle: Songs from the North, an album of works for voice, violin & harp. This is a completely self-produced album full of songs with ancient myths and folk tales from Alaska, New England, Scotland, and Iceland.
Joining Maren Montalbano on the album are violinist Rebecca Harris and harpist Christa Patton, as well as composers Melissa Dunphy and Emily Lau, whom she has commissioned to write new music for this album.
In these posts, Maren explores the poems, stories, and processes involved in putting on this project, from an in-depth look at folk tales to editorials on current global affairs, all relating to the album and commissioning project.
Melissa Dunphy’s Hervararkviða, which was written for Sea Tangle: Songs from the North, has gotten a second life in Ohio. It was featured on The American Sound on Radio WOSU in March 2018. A Gender-Bending Viking Warrior Claims Her Birthright in Three Songs by Composer Melissa Dunphy By Jennifer Hambrick – March 19, 2018 Philadelphia-based […]
Like trains of cars on tracks of plush I hear the level bee: A jar across the flowers goes, Their velvet masonry Withstands until the sweet assault Their chivalry consumes, While he, victorious, tilts away To vanquish other blooms. His feet are shod with gauze, His helmet is of gold; His breast, a single onyx […]
I shall keep singing! Birds will pass me On their way to Yellower Climes — Each — with a Robin’s expectation — I — with my Redbreast — And my Rhymes — Late — when I take my place in summer — But — I shall bring a fuller tune — Vespers — are sweeter […]
The grave my little cottage is, Where, keeping house for thee, I make my parlor orderly, And lay the marble tea, For two divided, briefly, A cycle, it may be, Till everlasting life unite In strong society. – Emily Dickinson
That it will never come again Is what makes life so sweet. Believing what we don’t believe Does not exhilarate. That if it be, it be at best An ablative estate— This instigates an appetite Precisely opposite. – Emily Dickinson
The moon is distant from the sea, And yet with amber hands She leads him, docile as a boy, Along appointed sands. He never misses a degree; Obedient to her eye, He comes just so far toward the town, Just so far goes away. Oh, Signor, thine the amber hand, And mine the distant sea,— […]
I never saw a moor, I never saw the sea; Yet know I how the heather looks, And what a wave must be. I never spoke with God, Nor visited in heaven; Yet certain am I of the spot As if the chart were given. Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
By Emily Lau Voice, violin, harp I found Emily Lau’s album, Isle of Lucidity, while searching the internet for voice and harp music. I was so moved by the first track, “I Believe,” that I contacted her. Much to our mutual surprise, we have many friends in common, and we quickly agreed to work together. […]
At her birth, a druid prophesies that Deirdre will be the most beautiful woman in the world. He warns, however, that if she is not killed immediately, her beauty will cause the downfall of her clan. Her father cannot bear to kill her, so he has her spirited away to be raised in solitude. When […]
This song was sung at the end of a waulking — a rhythmic, labor-intensive process of cloth-making that involves applying force to cloth, particularly wool, to make the fibers thicker and softer. Waulking songs are generally only sung by women, as men do not participate in the waulking at all. When the waulking proper has […]
