I left out the last eight verses

[sovay]

Seriously, there should be an emoticon for not actually dead—I'm not, even if this inbox full of unanswered e-mail says otherwise. I got a cold. I dropped off the map. Mostly I've been self-medicating with various books and Flanders and Swann,¹ although last week Eric and I watched Norwegian Insomnia (1997) and this Wednesday Viking Zen showed me The Secret of Kells (2009).

In any case, the mail just brought me two awesome things: Louise Brooks' Lulu in Hollywood (1982), which I suspect of being a birthday present from my best cousins ever,² and my contributor's copy of Not One of Us #44, in which can be found my poem "In the Earth in Those Days." It is about Biblical selkies; asakiyume introduced me to the folklore. Appropriately, it appears in the same issue as Jeannelle Ferreira's "The Seal Wife," also Loren Rhoads' "Catalyst," Patricia Russo's "With the Blue Heart People," and other fine pieces of autumn and change. Go forth and pick up a copy of your own. I am going to read Louise Brooks until I have to leave for a rehearsal. Wish me luck.

1. Probably to no one's surprise but my own, I find that I consider Donald Swann awesome: I am already inclined to respect an ostensible straight man who goes off with Greek tongue-twisters and can sing about hippopotami in Russian even before he decides that going mainstream from light comedy means setting Tolkien to music and writing an opera of Perelandra. I don't suppose anyone has his recording of Sydney Carter's "Lord of the Dance"?

2. Edit: Confirmed. Best cousins ever.

Comments

[sovay]

I have Swann's Tolkien settings. They are pretty cool.

I was able to track those down! I'm not yet sure how I feel about some of the original settings with William Elvin, which are much more Romantic art song than English folk—I just hurt myself by imagining Benjamin Britten in the Shire—but his own version of "Bilbo's Last Song" went definitive for me about two bars in. There is also the fact that, although I don't have the CD's liner notes, it looks as though Swann recorded the song in 1993. He died in '94. I will have trouble disentangling the song from him now.

The concert revival of Perelandra, alas, remains inaccessible, unless you're in Oxford or Illinois. I assume recordings exist of the original 1964 staging, but I also assume they're in private hands and/or buried in copyright. Someone should just film Perelandra already; I know it would make rushthatspeaks happy, and then maybe I could hear the opera.

[zdenka]

I meant that I have a book of the sheet music, rather than a recording, in case it wasn't clear. I picked it up at some random used book store, as one often finds these treasures.

I agree that a few of the settings are too Romantic. Sam's song in the tower, especially, doesn't make melodic sense without the accompaniment -- and did Mr. Swann think that someone shlepped a piano up the stairs into Cirith Ungol? But I am quite fond of the Hobbit walking-song. And Tolkien himself heard them in his lifetime and didn't disapprove, which makes me like them the more.

[sovay]

I meant that I have a book of the sheet music, rather than a recording, in case it wasn't clear.

Oh, nice: with Tolkien's notes and calligraphy. That I do not have.

And Tolkien himself heard them in his lifetime and didn't disapprove, which makes me like them the more.

Yes. Lewis cried at Perelandra; one can usually take that as a good sign.

Would you like the recordings?