For space is wide and good friends are too few.
As we were out a-hunting, one morning in the spring.
Both hounds and horses, running well, made the hills and the valleys ring.
But to our great misfortune, no fox there could be found.
Our huntsmen cursed and swore but still no fox moved over the ground.
Careful what you wish for, and all that.
“Black Fox,” by Heather Dale
Lyrics available here
Cat Faber writes:
Reddit is doing something cool: inspired by Terry Pratchett’s depiction of how the names of the dead were sent home by clacks along the Grand Trunk Line on Discworld, they are working out ways to do the same for Sir Terry here in the real world.
And that inspired this song: Send Him Home.A man’s not dead while his name is spoken
We will send him home
Down the line in a chain unbroken
We will send him home
Send him home, send him home
Hear the shutters clack and comb
Down the line his name will roam
Send him home
(Full lyrics here.)
The sweet juleficent filmed me while I sang one of my own songs, “In the Halls of Our Fathers”, accompanied by theriza on he clarinet, at HobbitCon 3!
There’s a lot of background noise in this, but it’s entirely worth it for a dwarf playing the clarinet.
Ominous, beautiful, and technically experimental.
Apparently, this is based on something by Seanan McGuire, and maybe it makes more specific sense if one has read this thing by Seanan McGuire, but out of context it’s just haunting.
Lyrics, chords, and sheet music available here
(if this doesn’t play from your dash, try going to the permalink. I’m not sure what’s up with the file, but sometimes it’s finicky.)
I said I would do the thing and I have done the thing.
Mage Warden singing to a romanced Alistair.
(Original song by Death Cab for a Cutie, backing track from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWXrcwwKkq0)
R.I.P. Christopher Lee.
We will always remember you and your work. As a tribute, I’m sharing this song he performed with the Tolkien Ensemble, singing as Treebeard.
“In the willow-meads of Tasarinan I walked in the Spring.
Ah ! the sight and the smell of the Spring in Nan-tasarion !
And I said that was good.
I wandered in Summer in the elm-woods of Ossiriand.
Ah ! the light and the music in the Summer by the Seven Rivers of Ossir !
And I thought that was best.
To the beeches of Neldoreth I came in the Autumn.
Ah ! the gold and the red and the sighing of leaves in the Autumn in Taur-na-neldor!
It was more than my desire.
To the pine-trees upon the highland of Dorthonion I climbed in the Winter.
Ah ! the wind and the whiteness and the black branches of Winter upon Orod-na-Thön !
My voice went up and sang in the sky.
And now all those lands lie under the wave,
And I walk in Ambaróna, in Tauremorna, in Aldalómë,
In my own land, in the country of Fangorn,
Where the roots are long,
And the years lie thicker than the leaves
In Tauremornalómë.“
~ J.R.R. Tolkien
So a while ago I wrote a filk song about a relatively unloved character in an obscure comic book, to the tune of the random folk song that was stuck in my head at the time, “The Lowlands of Holland.” If you don’t know the song, it’s not relevant, but it’s a nice song.
…and then yesterday somebody left me alone in a recording studio.
Forgive my somewhat unsteady guitarring, and the fact that the scansion may or may not entirely hinge on a mispronunciation of one Arabic word.Anyway, Al Jabr is the character sometimes referred to as “medieval Muslim Tony Stark,” this song is basically fanfic about what happens in the distant future when everyone on your superhero team but one is immortal.
If there be anything here
That cometh not in the name of the powers of light
Then in the name of the powers of light let it be gone
This is an odd song – hard to parse, kind of urban fantasy, and probably about knocking California into the ocean or something. I like it a lot.
By Leslie Fish, lyrics and chords available here. There are…way too many chords in this song. Fish has a “one word, one chord” style of text-setting, but this is an extreme example of the trope.
According to the liner notes for Avalon Is Risen, the chorus has been effectively used as a banishing ritual.
Cover of Ivory Tower by Tripod
In honor of the fact that we finally have confirmation of the end of the hiatus, here’s a filk song I wrote! Lyrics under the cut: