Loreena Mckennitt - The Book of Secrets
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Free Music Notes for The Book of Secrets
Free Music Review: love it
Hit: 5 Stars
It is very relaxing. I have listened to it over and over again in my classroom.Free Music Review: One of the Best New-Age Albums of All Time
Hit: 4 Stars
McKennitt brings new life to the Celtic genre with her dreamy lilting voice and haunting melodies. Book of Secrets was inspired by her journeys through the world and many of the songs call upon ancient tunes and traditions. The music is simple but not boring and carries a nice blend of Celtic and middle-eastern influences.
Prologue is mainly instrumental, though Loreena uses her voice to impose a countermelodious "la" sound. The sound is very slow and dark, using a deep bongo drum (though that may not be the right word) to provide the beat and what sounds like a finger-plucked mandolin. Perhaps an oboe in the background? The sounds are nothing like the things most Americans are used to; she uses instruments from many different cultures.
The Mummer's Dance is based on the historical "mummers" who dressed up in straw masks and ribbons and carried greenery to homes as they sang. It was an action associated with springtime and fertility, but this song is not the typical happy springtime song. The lyrics are about nature.. "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." but the tune carries the same instruments as the Prologue and is somewhat dark.
Skellig begins with a lonely violin that is gradually joined by the rest of the strings and then a wood (tin?) flute. The story tells of Irish monks who often lived in remote places such as the Skellig Islands in Ireland, copying texts and striving to reach closer to God. Reading the lyrics ("I'd hear the ocean breathe/Exhale upon the shore/I knew the tempest's blood/Its wrath I would endure"), I can almost smell the salt water and see the lonely monk walking barefoot along the rocky cliffs.
Marco Polo is another almost entirely instrumental song that distinctly conjures up images of a harem and belly dancers. It's what I would have referred to as "snake charmer music" a few years ago. I find myself irrepressibly swaying to the beat of the drums and I must say that if I were a snake, I'd definitely be charmed!
The Highwayman is my favorite song from this CD. Based upon Alfred Noyes' poem of the same name, McKennitt does an amazing job of setting the words to music and her wistful voice tells the sad tale ("The wind was a torrent of darkness/Among the gusty trees") of a highwayman who had fallen in love with the landlord's daughter ("Bess, the landlord's daughter/Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair"). The highwayman leaves to perform his questionable job, assuring Bess that he will come back that night ("Watch for me by the moonlight/I'll come to thee by the moonlight, though Hell should bar the way").
Unfortunately, an old man listening at the gate overheard this exchange and warned the lawmen, who sent troops to hide in the cottage and wait for the highwayman. They tied up Bess, roping a musket to her side, next to the window so that she would see him approaching his death. Bess, though, refused to let that happen and twisted her hands around until she grasped the musket trigger ("Shattered her breast in the moonlight and warned him with her death"). The highwayman quickly turned around, for he knew he was in danger. He found out in the morning what Bess had done and flew off in a rage ("Back he spurred like a madman, shrieking a curse to the sky/With the white road smoking behind him and his rapier brandished high!") but the troops were still alert and shot him down ("Down like a dog on the highway").
The tale says that his angry ghost still haunts the inn where his now-dead love once lived ("When the road is a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor... A highwayman comes riding up to the old inn-door").
A very sad tale, with Noyes' fantastic words and McKennitt's voice that is so well-suited to storytelling, this is an amazing song.
La Serinissima is purely instrumental, with mainly a string quartet and a plucked acoustic guitar. It is, as the name implies, extremely serene and is a nice come-down after the intense emotion of the previous song. It turns to a major key for its melody and eases the transition from depressing love song back to stories of nature.
Night Ride Across the Caucasus returns to the minor key and middle-eastern instruments with a slow, introspective melody about the human desire to learn the secrets of the world, and the lengths to which a curious mind will go to find them.
Dante's Prayer, the last song, begins with a cathedral-ish chant but quickly gives way to a soft piano/violin combination as Loreena wraps up her journeys with a quiet melody about rising to a higher level of life. Her voice fades out and the cathedral tune comes back briefly then fades as well.
This is one of the few albums that I can actually listen to while going to sleep. It's conducive to meditation and a relaxed state of mind.. another good "bathtub album" if you will. It's also enjoyable to listen to this CD through an open door while you sit on the porch with your soda/beer/cigarette/other vice and contemplate the stars. This CD is a great introduction to Celtic-style music and I'm glad Loreena shared her journey's book of secrets with us. I'll end with a quote from the liner notes.. "Music and singing do not produce in the heart that which is not in it." Ponder at will, and enjoy the album.
Free Music Review: A moving musical voyage.
Hit: 4 Stars
I happened upon Loreena McKennitt's music purely by accident - a very happy accident indeed. One listen to the song 'The Mummers' Dance' and I was as good as a fan. After failing to find her albums in any music stores, I ordered 'The Book of Secrets' online. Quite a hasty decision by my standards, but I had to have it.
'The Book of Secrets' has a wonderfully rich sound, drawing musical influences from many eras and cultures, and the result works incredibly well: a pigeonhole-defying blend of folk, New Age, Celtic and world music with an occasional Renaissance twist. Though the comparisons to Enya are frequent, Loreena McKennitt is quite a different artist in my eyes. Loreena's work is darker, deeper, more poetic and complex - though I'm a great fan of Enya, her music seems like frivolous, fluffy ear-candy in comparison. This artist is almost in a genre of her own.
If you're expecting an album of upbeat Mummers' Dances (which I confess I was) you may be initially disappointed, but after a couple of listens I appreciated it more. From the exotic rhythms of 'Marco Polo' to the haunting ballad 'Dante's Prayer', there's not one weak track on here. Other favourites include the touching, melancholy 'Skellig', the beautiful harp instrumental 'La Serenissima', and Ms McKennitt's adaptation of the tragic poem 'The Highwayman' by Alfred Noyes.
'The Book of Secrets' isn't so much a series of songs as a musical journey across continents - lovingly made, life-affirming music, though I have little experience of McKennitt's previous work to say how it compares. A truly talented singer, songwriter and musician who deserves to be heard. Though her CDs are mind-bogglingly hard to find, it's worth the effort just to relax and soak in the sound. Recommended.
Free Music Review: Tripping into the mystic
Hit: 4 Stars
Written as something of a travelogue, Loreena Mckennitt best selling album (it was recently certified platinum) is one of the best of its kind. Originally issued in 1997, the kick-in point was when an edit/remix of "The Mummer's Dance" cracked the top 20. It characterizes much of Mckennitt's work; strong melodies, lush harmonies and a deep Celtic bent. Mining the same ground Clannad did for Macalla, and to a lesser extent, Enya, this is music for those intimate nights when you're feeling mystical. As good as "Mummer's" is "The Highwayman," where the classic poem by Alfred Noyes is set to music.
Also recommended: The Mask and Mirror
Free Music Review: just good, not great
Hit: 4 Stars
My least favorite of the four Warner-label studio albums, Book of Secrets drags at times. McKenna's voice is beautiful, but you will find songs like The Highwayman, which repeats its chorus line every 30 seconds for 11.5 minutes, a little much to swallow. There are some gorgeous moments, as with all of McKennitt's albums, but if you're coming here from Mask and the Mirror and expecting that level of excellence, you'll be disappointed. 3 1/2 stars.