Ratified Refrains

Welcome to my small corner of the web. Each day I will post one song while attempting to stick to a theme a week. I'll be affirming the greatness of the music I love. I hope you love it too. Please send in your favorite artists, songs, and albums. I'd love to hear them. If you have any themes you'd like to explore, I'd be happy to explore them to the best of my ability :) The image above is courtesy of this great artist ------ Week One: Sailing Week Two: Love Songs Week Three: Songs That Enchant Week Four: Pine Trees

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Whispering Pines - Johnny Horton

I like this song because my Nan has been singing it since my Papa passed away. I don't know if it was a special song between them, or if she brought it up from her childhood memory, but regardless I always catch her humming or singing it.

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In the Pines - Gabrielle Papillon

No one knows who wrote this song, but it dates back  to the 1870's. It is a traditional folk song, and is Southern Appalachian in origin. There have been many variants of the song, as well as many covers of it, but one thing remains constant; this song always gives me a bit of a chill.

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The Pine Tree - Johnny Cash and June Carter

A duet by one of the greatest musical couples.

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Old Pine - Ben Howard

This lovely song was released in April, 2011. I feel like it is the ultimate end of summer song. I can just feel the crisp, golden autumn evenings slowly coming towards me.

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Week Four: Pine Trees

This week, I will arbitrarily be listening to songs about pine trees. Yes, this is random. I suppose it comes from my walking through pine forests here in glorious Canada. I used to have a prejudice for coniferous trees, and I only liked deciduous ones. Now, I find that pine trees are exquisite. I guess our tastes change a lot while we grow older.

To continue with a theme of pine trees, here is one of my favorite poems:

Dirge in Woods - George Meredith (1828-1909)

A wind sways the pines,

         And below

Not a breath of wild air;

Still as the mosses that glow

On the flooring and over the lines

Of the roots here and there.

The pine-tree drops its dead;

They are quiet, as under the sea.

Overhead, overhead

Rushes life in a race,

As the clouds the clouds chase;

         And we go,

And we drop like the fruits of the tree,

         Even we,

         Even so.

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Sleepsong - Secret Garden

This lullaby makes me feel like I am a young child again, safe and protected. I often listen to it when I can't fall asleep at night...

This song comes from Secret Garden's eighth album, Earthsongs, with Fionnaula Gill on vocals.

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John Powell - Forbidden Friendship

I am a strong believer in lifelong friendships. I think that they are one of the most beautiful things that life has to offer. In How to Train Your Dragon, we witness a friendship being forged, one that overcomes great barriers and thrives against the odds.

Listen to the trust being built between two friends in the language we all understand; the language of music.

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Ilan Eshkeri - Flying Vessel

Eshkeri teamed up with director Matthew Vaughn yet again to produce a wonderful story; Stardust, written by Neil Gaiman. Eshkeri won the International Film Music Critics Association award for Best Original Score and earned a nomination for Breakout Composer of the Year for his work.

Stardust has to be one of my top favorite films of all time. It is one of the few films that is (at least in my opinion) better than the book, though I love Neil Gaiman so much that it is hard for me to admit it.

There is so much adventure in this song and it is breathtaking in its otherworldly beauty. I fall in love with the waltz-like ending, just like I did with the movie, and just like the characters do at that moment.

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Where did you get the music from Anastasia ?

Hi!

It is off the soundtrack (song number 15), but you can find it on youtube too, if you don’t want to buy the soundtrack. I’m glad to find a fellow Anastasia fan :D

Hope you are having a great week!

Jen

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Celtic Woman - Granuaile's Dance

I've always loved every member of Celtic Woman, but Máiréad Nesbitt once again shows how amazing she is in this tune. I am dumbfounded when I watch her playing so ferociously while dancing around the stage. Talk about unshakable energy!

If you're like me, you can't stop yourself from skipping and prancing around your house when you listen to this song.

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David Newman - Reminiscing With Grandma

"Reminiscing With Grandma" just oozes warmth and softness. Anastasia is a film about finding love and belonging, and although it showcases romantic love, I find that it more importantly shows the warmth of familial love and the intense sense of belonging that a family brings. This track displays the main character's excitement at finding her family, both through meeting her Grandmother and in recovering her memory of her parents and siblings. I love the refrain of the song "Journey to the Past" (in which Anastasia is expressing her desire and longing for a family) showing up in this track because it shows the fulfillment of that initial song.

David Newman, the son of Alfred Newman (you know, the guy who wrote the infamous 20th Century Fox Fanfare) and brother of Thomas Newman (one of my favorite movie composers), received an Academy Award nomination in 1997 for his "Anastasia" film score. (For more on the Newman Dynasty click here, because it is very cool).

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David Arkenstone - The Dragon's Breath

It is always wonderful to hear a song that can capture two separate and distinct tones. The Dragon's Breath encapsulates both a deep, otherworldly strength of a dragon and the fragility of a breath. Or, if thought of in another sense, it suggests the tragic aftermath of a dragon's (fire) breath.

This song comes from David Arkenstone's first Celtic album "The Celtic Book of Days", which was released in 1998. He was inspired by J.R. Tolkien, whose influence can certainly be heard in this music. I can't help but picture scenes from the Hobbit as I listen.

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John Powell - Romantic Flight (How to Train Your Dragon Soundtrack)

How to Train Your Dragon was John Powell's first solo animation soundtrack. He infused this soundtrack with many Celtic and Nomadic influences, and his work earned him widespread praise along with a BAFTA and Oscar nomination.

In this piece, I can almost feel myself being lifted up and released from gravity. I sense the freedom and excitement of soaring above rosy clouds, completely boundless. I don't think I've ever heard a song that captured these feelings so well. And there is a sweetness to the song, as if there was a taste of deep, deep friendship in the song's notes.

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Week Three: Songs That Enchant

This week I am inspired by songs that take me to a place of enchantment. For me that means songs that take me back to my childhood. I was one of those kids that believed in mystical creatures in the forest and who played imaginary games more than I stayed focused on reality. Aside from these make believe games, I loved watching Riverdance on television with my Mom. I guess we have a bit of Celtic blood in us, but not a whole lot. Somehow we still watched Scottish and Irish history documentaries more than any other educational program.

This week, I'm going to transverse back into those warm roots through secret gardens and deep into that feeling of belonging.

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I'm Back. . .

I would be coming back to my blog tail-between-my-legs and ashamed for abandoning it and all of you dear, devoted followers. But (although I do feel very apologetic for leaving you all without notice) I come back with excitement. The truth is that I have recently come out of . . . something. I'm not sure what it was, except that it was confusing and lonely, yet had a bright, happy home waiting at the end of it all.

For quite some time now, I've been feeling strange, sad, and lonely. Looking back, I suppose it was because I had lost my most constant companion -myself.

I guess I started down the lonely road in high school, when all of those vast and exciting choices began to be placed in front of you. I can tell you right away that I was pretty terrified by the responsibility. I thought these choices would determine my future, determine my happiness.

Some people had advised me to pursue certain careers, careers that were respected and prosperous. And I listened to them earnestly, because I wanted them to think I was living life well and that I was going to do something of value. But I never asked myself what it meant to live life well or what it meant to do something of value. What are these things? I am a person who wants people to look on me in a good light, and this trait can cause many huge and vast problems (though I believe it is inherently a good trait to have if one is aware of the problems it brings). Anyways, people told me how to live a good life, and I shut out who I was and what I thought was valuable. I figured that they knew better and that what I valued was probably not best.

I forgot so quickly that people are wonderfully different and that we are created so beautifully unique. I believe that God created us in his image, but he made each of us special; he gave each of us little pieces of himself as gifts. To say that certain gifts are more important than others is surely folly. I sadly let go of who I was and ignored the gifts God gave to me, I ignored the passions and desires that he placed in my heart with tender care. I saw my desire to discover things in life, specifically beautiful stories, pictures, places and sounds, and to have excitement for my desires, as wrong or less important because other people's gifts and desires were the “right” ones to seek.

But that is no way to live. It had brought me only to despair and sadness, and a loss of hope for a future of joy. I had turned my back on my desires.

But I am turning back around. God has spoken to me and reminded me of who he made me to be, even in the pit of my confusion and chaos. I want to follow and live out the gifts God gave me, though they are probably mediocre in the world's eyes. What matters most is that someone enjoys it, even if it is just myself. I desire not only to find beauty in these forms, but I truly desire to give such discoveries to others. If just one person sees, reads, or hears my work and finds something beautiful or suddenly feels connected and not alone, it will be more than worth it.

So, I will stop following other people's dreams and follow the one God set inside me. I will continue with what I am discovering despite the voice in my head that tells me I am not good enough to be writing, drawing, or composing in the first place; I will just do it because I enjoy it, as I did as a child. Who cares how good those around me find it? After all, there are authors who have brought more meaning, beauty, and joy to my life than the great artists I've studied (not to belittle the greats, because they truly are... well... great).

I'm coming back to myself, to the person I was as a child but who I thought was wrong in some way and hid under a bush. I desire to share what I find and I hope that someone out there feels connected to something bigger than all of us, something that can hardly be expressed when looking up at the night sky.

Well, this has been a big confession on a blog that is not supposed to be anything near to a diary. But I figure, I exist, you exist, we might as well know each other a little bit more as we listen to some incredible music.

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Natalie Cole - This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)

The very song that skyrocketed Natalie Cole to fame, though she was already well known as Nat King Cole's daughter. This song came out in 1975 and became one of her biggest hits, reaching number one as an R&B single.

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Charlie Winston - I Love Your Smile

This song is one of the classics. Ironically, I often find that I can't stop myself from smiling listening to it. Charlie Winston is an English songwriter-performer, though he has gained most of his success while being based in France. "I Love Your Smile" has one of those music videos that perfectly complements the song. It is a joy to watch.