En Plus - As the Story Says

So those of you who arrived here after seeing the link in the CD jacket will notice that there is an extra song to the nine songs for chamber orchestra and soloist. This is the bonus track, and I brought back in Taliesin, because his story is just so great!

I spent a bunch of time last summer reading the Mabinogion, the Celtic folk-bible, and the story of Gwion Bach and Ceridwen is a typical chase story - he accidentally drinks the useful part of her potion, she gets upset and chases him. He, now that he has magical potion-given powers, turns into a hare, and she turns into a hound; he turns into a fish, she turns into an otter; he turns into a bird, she turns into a hawk; he figures he'd better give up running and hide, and he turns into a grain; she turns into a hen and eats him.

And here's the part that makes it an awesome folktale: she gets pregnant, and bears him for nine months. And then, when he is born, she can't find it in her heart to kill him, so she throws him into the sea in a leather bag.

And she went forth after him, running. And he saw her, and changed himself into a hare and fled. But she changed herself into a greyhound and turned him. And he ran towards a river, and became a fish. And she in the form of an otter-bitch chased him under the water, until he was fain to turn himself into a bird of the air. She, as a hawk, followed him and gave him no rest in the sky. And just as she was about to stoop upon him, and he was in fear of death, he espied a heap of winnowed wheat on the floor of a barn, and he dropped among the wheat, and turned himself into one of the grains. Then she transformed herself into a high-crested black hen, and went to the wheat and scratched it with her feet, and found him out and swallowed him. And, as the story says, she bore him nine months, and when she was delivered of him, she could not find it in her heart to kill him, by reason of his beauty. So she wrapped him in a leathern bag, and cast him into the sea to the mercy of God, on the twenty- ninth day of April.

The writing in this translation is amazing - turns of phrases like "And she went forth after him, running" and "he was fain to turn himself into a bird" and "as she was about to stoop upon him" and "she transformed herself into a high-crested black hen" (that one in particular I love, because it is so detailed! Does it matter what kind of hen? Apparently!) and "as the story says" and the fact that it gives the date she throws him into the water - I love it. I also love the conflicting emotions that come out of Ceridwen's situation. She hates Gwion Bach, he has stolen from her, he has taken her son's chance at life... But once she has borne him 9 months, she has that motherhood thing happening, he is a beautiful, she can't kill him, so she throws him into the sea - "to the mercy of God".

So here is a lullaby from her perspective, which is called "As the Story Says" which I didn't actually write down until after I'd recorded it (so it isn't a part of the grad project), but which is pitch pipe multiphonics and an improvised melody that after I'd recorded it a couple of times and layered it sounded sort of neat. When I did end up writing it down, I did it as an alto solo with A drone and "contrasting improvisation for any group of instruments". There is a video of my friends Jess, Andrew, and Nathan performing it here.

Here is what it sounds like:
As the Story Says

As the Story Says

If you are a thief
I shall chase you
If you are a hare
I shall be a hound
If you are a fish
I shall swim an otter-bitch
And if you are a bird
I shall fly a hawk
And give you no rest in the sky

If you become a grain
I shall swallow you
and bear you
and deliver you

But if you are beautiful
I will not kill you
I'll cast you into the sea
To the mercy of God