Welcome to Multe Music! If you're new to listening to audio online, here's how to get started, so check it out and then pick a show and listen! You can also hear the show "live" on Fridays at 1 p.m. CT and Mondays at 7 p.m. CT on air or online at KYMNRadio.net.
As the frost comes, winter cannot be far behind and it seems appropriate to be in a melancholy mood.
Today's selection is a version of the haunting Icelandic folk song, Móðir mín í kví kví, done by Seth Sharp and the Black Clock.
One person explained the song this way:
In the old days in Iceland, unwanted newborns were carried outside to freeze to death. The story behind this song is of a young mother who sacrificed her baby this way. Months later she is invited to a local dance, but she can't go because she doesn't have a dress. On the night of the dance she goes outside, hears singing and finds a floating white figure — the ghost of her newborn singing to her. The song drives her insane with grief and guilt — and she never recovers. This is the song she heard.
Seth Sharp himself explains:
This song is on our first album, "A Song For You". I was learning Icelandic (at the time of the recording) so my pronunciation is not perfect, but I love the emotional quality of this song.
I have to agree. The Icelandic words are:
Móðir mín í kví, kví,
kvíddu ekki því, því;
ég skal ljá þér duluna mína
duluna mína að dansa í,
ég skal ljá þér duluna mína
duluna mína að dansa í.
and a translation in English:
My mother in the pen, pen
don't you worry for, for
I shall loan you these rags of mine,
rags of mine to dance in.
I shall loan you these rags of mine,
rags of mine to dance in.
Seth Sharp and Black Clock is:
- Seth Sharp, vocalist
- Jon Elisson, piano
- Valtyr Sigurdsson, drums
- Hallgrimur Jonas Jensson, cello
