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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MavrickWeirdo" data-source="post: 2603670" data-attributes="member: 107">In the spirit of Goblin MarketWedding DanceLyrics © 1996 by Catherine Fabermelody by Catherine Faber and Arlene Hills,based on "Old Man From the Barrow" by Heather AlexanderJenny wouldn't tell me why she lay awake last night,But I saw her wide eyes glisten in the candle's gauzy light;When I felt her body tremble to the pounding of her heart,I reached to touch her shoulder, and I heard the music start.I sat right up in bed and flung the window shutter wideMy sister's flesh was icy as she shivered at my sideThe chestnut cast a shadow as I'd often seen beforeBut I saw Jenny's eyes and she saw something more--There is something by the chestnut tree that from the barrow came;It is singing to my sister, it is courting her by name.She says that she must marry him the night he comes again;I'll be rolled in flour and fried before he'll have our Jen! The flute's my only sweetheart; if this spirit fey and fellThinks that music is his power, he may find it's mine as well.So I told her "Courage Jenny, for I think we have a chance;Though I cannot stop the wedding, let me play the wedding dance."It was an eerie wedding night, with no one there to seeA shadow, and a shadow, and my sister there, and meAnd when the words were spoken and the spirit turned away,I lifted flute to lip, and I began to play.Instrumental break:flute plays jig melody then chorus melody, as singer liltsThe flute spoke air and dancing; it was all that I could hear,And the starry sky above us made an icy chandelierMy sister took the hand of someone almost in my viewAnd drew him, half against his will, till he was dancing too.Jenny stepped and swirled with a shadow in the gloomLeading out the dancing, as they must as bride and groomAnd shadow doubled shadow, till apparent to my glance,The kinsmen of the groom were come to join the dance.I play their dance for hours in the melody entwinedTill Jenny's passing feet are leaving tracks of blood behind.I see I have accomplished all I hoped I would achieve;They are captive to the dance, and while I play they cannot leave.But I cannot play forever here beneath the freezing skiesMy arms are made of lead, my hair is hanging in my eyesMy fingers start to falter and to lose their strength and graceAnd the look of terror deepens on my sister's face--(extended instrumental break here)should sound like flutist is tiring, stumbling, but never quite losing it, always managing to twist it back into a tune--medley of snatches of various dance tunes; bodhran to keep beat goingI force my hands to melody; I know I must prevailFor but a dozen minutes now--the sky is growing pale.The sun puts forth his finger as a soul in terror moansAnd the groom and all the wedding guests are only standing stones...Jenny crumples suddenly and all my strength is doneAnd we laugh and cry together and we bless the rising sunAnd turn to eye the barrow, for the treasure it may hold--For Jen's the Master's widow, heir to all his gold!This is the last song on the Echo's Childern CD: "Under the Gripping Beast".</blockquote>

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