The Mummer's Dance

Album

Book of Secrets , The

Label

Warner Bros. Records

Genre

Celtic music

Duration

1:00

Composer(s)

Loreena McKennitt

Entered Chart

Mar 7, 1998

Peak Date

Mar 21, 1998

Released

November 1997

Recorded

Unknown

Catalog #

Warner 17241

B-Side

"The Mystic's Dream"

Although this is an original song composed by Loreena McKennitt, it has its roots in a centuries old tradition. Mummers and mumming can be dated to at least the 14th Century, although the form varies. The most famous mummer-related event in North America is the annual Mummers Parade which is held on New Year's Day in Philadelphia. Mummers also went door to door, as indicated here. This song though is not so much a tribute to mumming as a celebration of nature. McKennitt first learned about mummers when she read about a mumming troupe that traveled to a Polish ship that had been stranded in a Newfoundland harbor on New Year's Eve, 1984. The mummers boarded the ship to entertain the crew. This led her to a book called The Golden Bough, which explained more about the mummers. This is Loreena McKennitt's most popular song, but it's far from her favorite. "'The Mummers' Dance' wasn't anything too spectacular," she told Songfacts. "It was kind of written in a more traditional format in a way. Not incredibly sophisticated, lyrics or ideas." Asked for a song that stands among her best work, she cites "Dante's Prayer," another track from The Book Of Secrets album. Celtic-inspired folk music doesn't usually do well on the pop charts, but "The Mummers' Dance" made a strong showing, reaching #18 on the Hot 100 and #16 on the Canadian singles chart. This was used as the theme song for an American TV series, the Western Legacy, which aired for one season starting in 1998. It was also used in the Brazillian soap opera Corpo Dourado. In addition to the studio version, which was recorded for the 1997 album The Book Of Secrets, there is a live version from McKennitt's Nights From The Alhambra album which was recorded in September 2006, on which she is accompanied by a full band playing modern and not-so-modern instruments; she plays piano accordion and also sings. >>

When in the springtime of the year
When the trees are crowned with leaves
When the ash and oak, and the birch and yew
Are dressed in ribbons fair

When owls call the breathless moon
In the blue veil of the night
The shadows of the trees appear
Amidst the lantern light

CHORUS
We've been rambling all the night
And some time of this day
Now returning back again
we bring a garland gay

Who will go down to those shady groves
And summon the shadows there
And tie a ribbon on those sheltering arms
In the springtime of the year

The songs of birds seem to fill the wood
That when the fiddler plays

All their voices can be heard
Long past their woodland days

And so they linked their hands and danced
Round in circles and in rows
And so the journey of the night descends
When all the shades are gone

"A garland gay we bring you here
And at your door we stand
It is a sprout well budded out
The work of Our Lord's hand"