| C: |
Next it's a Loreena McKennitt Christmas
recorded live last week at KCRW. |
|
[Dickens's Dublin (The Palace)] |
| C: |
We just heard a piece called Dickens's Dublin
featuring a marvelous recording of a Dublin girl telling her version of
the nativity scene I'm guessing. |
| LM: |
Yes. I first heard it when I traveled to
Ireland in 1981 and umm I met a veterinarian up in Donegal who had this
cassette and at the time that I heard it I was interested in playing or
creating a piece based on the plight of homeless people, then shifted my
creative focus to writing a piece based on homeless children. She as you
can imagine, she's trying very hard to remember how the priest had told
that story over and over and where she draws a blank she's not afraid to
fill in or add her own running commentary. |
| C: |
I guess it was about 10 years ago you found
that tape wasn't it. |
| LM: |
Yes, Yes. *laugh* |
| C: |
Well it's really children that bring out the
magic of Christmas isn't it. |
| LM: |
Yes. I think children seem to capture in a real
purity kind of form the idea of what Christmas is about and they really
latch on to those wonderful images of you know, Mary and Jesus, and the
baby. |
| C: |
It's interesting to me that you with so many
pieces of music that bring to mind the holiday spirit that you haven't
made a Christmas album yet. |
| LM: |
Well, I umm embarked on a very specific project
in '87 which was a compilation of more obscure Winter and Christmas
carols. At that time my resources were very limited. We recorded on
location in monastery. But I haven't set out to do a full
conceptualization of a Christmas recording. No. |
| C: |
This is the closest thing to it at this point
isn't it. |
| LM: |
Yes *laugh* |
| C: |
Are you in the Christmas spirit yet? |
| LM: |
Yes. I think so. I mean it's always
interesting. I personally get into the spirit when the seasons start to
change and the light diminishes in the sky and much of my own personal
research has been relative to the solstice time of the year so I feel very
much leading up to it. |
| C: |
So it's the seasons changing really that
transforms your own umm... |
| LM: |
Psyche. Yes. For myself I spend whatever time I
can in the garden, and I find the garden is this great metaphor for the
birth and death cycle of life, and so when one focuses in on other
festivals whether it's the Hanukkah or Christmas there are various
festivals throughout the centuries really and different cultures focus in
on this time of the year. |
| C: |
While we are hearing songs that come to mind
once that Christmas spirit moves you. Loreena McKennitt in the studio with
a great ensemble. Brian Hughes on guitar, Hugh Marsh violin, Donald Quan
on tabla and accordion Steve Lukas acoustic base, Rick Lazar on
percussion. |
|
[Snow with transition into a full
rendition of God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen] |
| C: |
*referring to band* All Canadians,
everybody lives in Toronto, right. |
| LM: |
Yes, Yes. We are pretty much all from Toronto.
I live just outside of Toronto, but, cold Canadians *laugh*, but
warm hearts (harps?) *laugh* |
| C: |
Warm harps? |
| LM: |
Yes *laugh* |
| C: |
That's a harp joke, right. So I imagine when
you think of Christmas it's full of snow and cold weather and fireplaces
and. |
| LM: |
Yes. Yes. From my part I grew up in the
Canadian prairies. A few folks here are from Alberta but snow I think for
everyone is a major feature of the season. Myself having spent a lot of
time around the farm and I still live on a farm but now in southern
Ontario. The whole imagery of rolling fields of snow umm dotted by these
very stark trees across the landscape becomes a very powerful seasonal
image. The temperature of course drives one in *laugh* and there
are fires from time to time planned and otherwise *laugh*. |
| C: |
Are there traditions in Canada at Christmas
that we don't have in the United States that come to mind. |
| LM: |
It's hard for me to tell. I think there might
be some traditions par- particularly on the East coast. Now lets say for
example in Newfoundland I know they have a New Year's tradition that goes
back to shooting rifles off into the sky at night to mark the new year.
I'm not exactly sure what the origins of that are. But up in the sky,
they're not shooting at each other of course *laugh*. |
| C: |
That's a whole other tradition. *laugh*
You are speaking of the maritime provinces. |
| LM: |
Yes, Yes. Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and
Newfoundland, again I think those provinces having a stronger Celtic
background. I have not spent a lot of Christmases here so I can't really
compare the two. but there is a real sense of community still even within
major cities in Canada. |
| C: |
Up next is a staple this time of year.
Greensleeves. What's the origin |
| LM: |
Well, Its a wonderful old melody. There are all
sorts of ideas, whether it was King Henry VIII who originated the lyrics
or not but yes I can do a version of that. |
|
[Greensleeves and then Between the
Shadows] |
| C: |
You make me think of something my mother use to
always say. She would say, "I was born at the wrong time" *laugh*.
I'm sure you get asked that a lot too. Do you think you were born in the
wrong century or ..? |
| LM: |
Well not really. I mean I think that part of my
research has caused me to examine some earlier centuries fairly closely
and I think times were pretty , pretty difficult and uncomfortable. Ummm,
I think the thing that attracts me to older cultures however is the size
of the communities, and the composition of these communities and that life
was operating on a very integrated kind of way and you knew your own
shopkeeper, you grew your own produce and I think it's easy to get trapped
into a romantic notion of that but I think the bottom of that is a sort of
yearning for a scale of life that you understand and that means something
to you. So I find I'm drawn to examine those cultures but at the same time
I think life was very, very difficult. |
| C: |
Difficult but at the same time simpler in some
ways. |
| LM: |
Yes, Yes. We're a very old creature I think as
a species and we have very primitive needs. Umm We're now living in a
society where life is moving so fast and there's so much moving so fast,
that I think we find it difficult to absorb and handle all the things that
are coming at us. So I think this is partially what is so wonderful about
the Christmas season, that it represents a simplicity. It represents an
emphasis of community and spending time with friends and family and that
is the value of the time. |
| C: |
Well you're fond of going back in the past for
inspiration. We see it time and again in your work. You have brought
something today that is evidence of that. Coventry Carol. |
| LM: |
Yes. This is a wonderful 15th century piece and
has very strong elements of very primitive forms of the music, so we will
do a bit of this for you. |
|
[Coventry Carol] (This same
recording was later released on Loreena's Christmas EP, A
Winter Garden). |
| C: |
We're going to try an experiment here aren't
we? |
| LM: |
Yeah! |
| C: |
You've come in with an idea and a very small
book. |
| LM: |
Yeah *laugh* |
| C: |
Try something a little collaborative here. What
made you think of this? |
| LM: |
Well, I don't know. I remember many years ago
hearing Dylan Thomas's "A Childs, Christmas on Wales", over the
radio and being totally swept away by the imagery. He has a wonderful
sensibility of the countryside and the people and person ability of this
community in Wales and so there is just a lot of imagery that really
struck me in a warm fuzzy kind of way I suppose *laugh*. So I
thought it might be kind of fun and since you're up for the sport. It
would be great to try it together. |
| C: |
OK. Here goes nothing, perhaps something. *laugh* |
| LM: |
So ... |
|
[Good King Wenceslas sung by L.M with
Dylan Thomas poem read by Chris] |
| LM: |
Good job Chris, yes it was good job. *claps* |
| C: |
*laugh* That was our first take we
should say that much. It's a Loreena McKennitt Christmas here on KCRW.
Thank-you for bringing the band in and for a marvelous performance. It's
been a pleasure having you here. |
| LM: |
Oh! It's been a pleasure being here. Thank-you |
| C: |
Its Loreena McKennitt in the studio with harp
in hand. We really hope the holidays bring you and your loved ones
together safely and we wish you a very Merry Christmas. |
| LM: |
It's a pleasure...
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