Some music

[luzula]

I was browsing through some recordings I and my sister had made, intending to post some Swedish Christmas music. But then I came on some recordings we'd made in a church, where we actually had good acoustics, instead of just recording in the living room! So I'm posting those instead (click the links to listen). She's the soprano and I'm the alto.

Härlig är jorden (Fair is the Earth) is a hymn which seems to be German, but these lyrics are originally Danish. Of course we can't resist emphasizing the folk music qualities of it...

Hemlig (Secretly) is...a folk song, I guess? You should listen to it if you like intricate harmonies. The lyrics are very mysterious, here's a translation:

Secretly I stood one morning
upon a concealed city.
With much crying and suffering,
I heard how prayed
Death of a young man
that he had seized
and bound with strong bonds.

The pronouns are unclear to me, so that I can't really tell whether it is death or the young man who is bound, though of course the latter seems more likely. But why would death bind someone, as opposed to just kill them?

Comments

[naraht]

You and your sister are amazing singers! That harmony in Hemlig is otherworldly. Thanks so much for sharing.

[luzula]

Aww, thank you! There's something about singing with a sibling, I think--you've grown up singing together and are just used to each other's voices.

[regshoe]

Oh, these are lovely, thank you for sharing them :) I like the folk-songy sound of the first one, and 'Hemlig' does indeed sound very spooky and mysterious (those odd traditional songs where the exact meaning of the lyrics isn't quite clear, perhaps because it's been lost or forgotten, can be so haunting). And the harmonies in both of them are gorgeous!

[luzula]

Thanks! Not many songs start off half a note apart, I guess. : )

Ahhhhhh

[jesse_the_k]

What lovely singing! Thanks so much for sharing them. The "Hemlig" is creepy in the best possible way. In addition to the gloriously weird harmony and the echo in the hall, the mode seems Phrygian. Just right for murder ballads.

Re: Ahhhhhh

[luzula]

Thanks! I've never managed to learn those different modes, so I've no idea if you're right... : )

[brigantine]

Ooh, thank you for sharing that. I just now listened to the first one. You and your sister sound so lovely together! :D

[luzula]

Awww, thank you! : )