Vesta (December) 1997.

Artist of the Month

Loreena McKennit

The Visit [1991]
The Mask and the Mirror [1992]
Elemental [1994]
Parallel Dreams [1994]

Warner Bros. Recording

Canadian-born, multi-faceted musician and recording artist Loreena McKennit is a gifted writer and performer who focuses on neo-classical folk and pagan themes. Her hauntingly beautiful rendition of Alfred Lord Tennyson's "The Lady of Shallot" (1843) from THE VISIT brings to life the plight of a daemonic lady doomed by her love for the mortal Lancelot; the eternal longing of Psyche for her beloved Eros, the desperate spiritual longing that makes physical manifestation possible, and its promise so seldom fulfilled. As with many of McKennit's works, The Lady of Shallot is woven with strains of ethereal sadness, a mystic musing that succeeds in both charming and ennobling the listener.

But in her web she still delights
To weave the mirror's magic sights,
For often thro' the silent nights
A funeral with plumes and lights
And music went to Camelot;
Or when the moon was overhead,
Came two young lovers lately wed.
'I am half sick of shadows,' said
The Lady of Shallot.

On THE MASK AND THE MIRROR McKennit's "The Dark Night of the Soul" is an exquisite translation and musical rendition of an untitled poem by the Christian mystic St. John of the Cross (1542-91).

She captures the underlying, close to erotic longing of the poet for his daemon, his Christ.

I lost myself to him
And laid my face upon my lover's breast
And care and grief grew dim
As in the morning's mist became the light.

Two selections from ELEMENTAL, folk traditional "She Moved Through The Fair," and the enchanting poem "Stolen Child" by W.B. Yeats, blend one into the other stylistically and musically. "Through the Fair," combines the natural sound of songbirds with the eerie peeling of church bells and/or Tibetan gong, suggesting the theme of ambiguous or ghostly love; leading into "Stolen Child" with its opening and closing theme mingled with the naturalistic, ambient sound of sea lions which is both pleasing, yet somehow slightly threatening at the same time.

From "She Moved Through The Fair":

She stepped away from me
And she moved through the Fair
And fondly I watched her
Move here and move there
And she went her way homeward
With one star awake
As the swans in the evening
Move over the lake...

I dreamed it last night
That my true love came in
So softly she entered
Her feet made no din
She came close beside me
And this she did say
It will not be long love
Till our wedding day.

In "Stolen Child" transcendentalist-inspired poet William Butler Yeats [1865-1939], a leader of the Irish Renaissance Movement, describes the daemonic stealing of a mortal child by the "little folk"--legend of The Changeling. In the refrain, the fairy folk try to console the child, assuring him that losing the security of mortal ways and surroundings is justified due to the many cruelties of human existence.

Come away oh human child
To the waters and the wild
With a faery hand in hand
For the world's more full of weeping
Than you can understand

As a lyricist, McKennit often composes love poems of mystical and mythic depth, such as "Samhain Nights" from PARALLEL DREAMS:

When the moon on a cloud cast night
Hung above the tree tops height
You sang me of some distant past
That made my heart beat strong and fast
Now I know I'm home at last.

You offered me an eagle's wing
That to the sun I might soar and sing
And if I heard the owl's cry
Into the forest I would fly
And in its darkness find you by.

And so our love's not a simple thing
Nor our truths unwavering
But like the moon's pull on the tide
Our fingers touch our hearts collide
I'll be a moon's breath by your side.

On the same recording McKennitt illustrates a politically relevant compassion in "Breaking The Silence":

I hear some distant drumbeat
A heartbeat pulsing low
Is it coming from within
A heartbeat I don't know
A troubled heart knows no peace
A dark and poisoned pool
Of liberty now lost
A pawn an oppressors tool

Oh my heart be strong
And guide when eyes grow dim
When ears grow deaf with empty words
When I know there's life within

A gunfire shatters silence
Where birds once sweetly sang
A mother cradles a child now dead
Now death where life began

From the troubled heart of South Africa
Nicaragua’s festering sore
The turmoil on the streets of China
Death crying out for more

A change is slow in coming
My eyes can scarcely see
The rays of hope come streaming
Through the smoke of apathy

But oh my heart be strong
And guide when eyes grow dim
When ears grow deaf with empty words
When I know there's life within

May the spirit never die
Though a troubled heart feels pain
When this long winter is over
It will blossom once again

Loreena McKennit's brilliance and versatility is complimented by accompanying guest musicians. Her work has also graced PBC's production THE BURNING TIMES, a fascinating and troubling view of the witchcraft persecutions.