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Loreena McKennitt: The Mask and the Mirror

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Quinland Road Records
Released: 1994
Time:
 52:27
Category: Celtic
Producer(s): Loreena McKennitt
Rating: ********.. (8/10)
Media type: CD
Web address: www.quinlanroad.com
Appears with:
Purchase date: 1999.02.13
Price in €: 8,99



 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s



[1] Mystic's Dream (Loreena McKennitt) - 7:40
[2] Bonny Swans (Trad. arr. Loreena McKennitt) - 7:18
[3] Dark Night of the Soul (Loreena McKennitt/St.John of the Cross) - 6:44
[4] Marrakesh Night Market (Loreena McKennitt) - 6:30
[5] Full Circle (Loreena McKennitt) - 5:57
[6] Santiago (Trad. arr Loreena McKennitt) - 5:58
[7] Ce He Mise le Ulaingt? - The Two Trees (Loreena McKennitt/William Butler Yeats/Patrick Hutchinson) - 9:06
[8] Propero's Speech (William Shakespeare/Loreena McKennitt) - 3:23

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


LOREENA MCKENNITT - Arranger, Keyboards, Voices, Dumbeg

DONAL LUNNY - Bouzouki, Drums
BRIAN HUGHES - Electric Guitar, Oud
OFRA HARNOY - Cello
HUGH MARSH - Fiddle
ANNE BOURNE - Cello, Backing Vocals
AL CROSS - Drums
PATRICK HUTCHINSON - Pipe intro on "Ce He Mise Le Ulaingt?"
GEORGE KOLLER - Bass, Tamboura
SYLVIA LANGE - Strings
RICK LAZAR - Percussion, Dumbeg
RAVI NAIMPALLY - Tabla
ABRAHAM TAWFIK - Oud, Nai

VICTORIA SCHOLARS CHOIR - Choir, Chorus
JERZY CICHOCKI - Director

JOHN WELSMAN - Arranger
ADELE ARMIN - Strings
ANDY BENAC - Strings
MARIE BERARD - Strings
HEINZ BOSHARD - Strings
NIGEL EATON - Strings
DAVID HETHERINGTON - Strings
FUJICE IMAJISHI - Strings
MORRY KERNERMAN - Strings
SUSAN LIPCHAK - Strings
DAVID MILLER - Strings
DOUGLAS PERRY - Strings
SHARON PRATER - Strings
MARK SABAT - Strings
KENT TEEPLE - Strings

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


"The Mask And Mirror" has now sold more than two million copies worldwide and was honoured with a 1995 Juno Award for Best Roots/Traditional Album. It spans Spanish, Celtic and Moroccan influences, and follows paths of inspiration from Ireland to Santiago de Compostella. Included are musical settings of poems by St. John Of The Cross and Shakespeare, as well as eclectic, richly-textured originals including a seductively dramatic "The Mystic's Dream" (as featured in the Paramount Pictures film "Jade") and "Marrakesh Night Market".

from the Label QuinlanRoad.com



Exotic world music filtered through Celtic themes and McKennitt's ethereal vocals; the performances here are steeped in a palpable sense of history and spirituality.

Roch Parisien, All-Music Guide



McKennitt's travels through Spain and Morocco flavor this album with a distinctly Mediterranean tinge, from the opening "The Mystic's Dream," with its dancing percussion arrangements, to "Marrakesh Night Market," to "Full Circle" and the instrumental "Santiago." "Marrakesh Night Market" is an especially strong performance, with an interesting musical texture; the balalaika, udu drum, and dumbek are played alongside a synthesizer. As usual, McKennitt has set a poem to music, this time Yeats's "The Two Trees," with a lovely introduction on the Uillean pipes. There's also "The Bonny Swans," a traditional lyric, and the CD closes with Shakespeare, as McKennitt sets some of Prospero's words from The Tempest to her own music. Excerpts from McKennitt's journals, included in the CD booklet, make for interesting reading as they shed some light on her source material and inspiration for writing each song.

Genevieve Williams, Amazon.com essential recording



Loreena McKennitt drew her inspiration for this album from 15th century Spain, where the cultures of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam coexisted uneasily, tied together by a common tradition of religious mysticism. McKennitt reflects the multi-culturalism in arrangements that mix the half-tone intervals and familiar instruments of the Aryan north with the quarter-tone intervals and dumbeg, oud, and tamboura of the Semitic south. The results are often intoxicating, even if the composer consistently prefers slow-moving tempos. There's a tension and density to this music that safely removes it from the new- age category. McKennitt's attempts to evoke medieval mysticism in her lyrics are less successful. She fares best when she draws her texts from other sources: Prospero's closing speech from Shakespeare's "The Tempest," Yeats's "The Two Trees," "The Dark Night of the Soul" by the medieval Spanish mystic St. John of the Cross, and the traditional narrative ballad, "The Bonny Swans." One these numbers, the shadowy, mesmerizing atmospheres conjured up by McKennitt's music are enhanced by the words rather than spoiled by them.

Geoffrey Himes, Amazon.com
 

 L y r i c s


THE MYSTIC'S DREAM

A clouded dream on an earthly night
Hangs upon the crescent moon
A voiceless song in an ageless light
Sings at the coming dawn
Birds in flight are calling there
Where the heart moves the stones
It's there that my heart is calling
All for the love of you

A painting hangs on an ivy
Nestled in the emerald moss
The eyes declare a truce of trust
And then it draws me far away
Where deep in the desert twilight
Sand melts in pools of the sky
When darkness lays her crimson cloak
Your lamps will call me home

And so it's there my homage's due
Clutched by the still of the night
And now I feel you move
Every breath is full
So it's there my homage's due
Clutched by the still of the night
Even the distance feels so near
All for the love of you.


THE BONNY SWANS

A farmer there lived in the north country
a hey ho bonny o
And he had daughters one, two, three
The swans swim so bonny o
These daughters they walked by the river's brim
a hey ho bonny o
The eldest pushed the youngest in
The swans swim so bonny o

Oh sister, oh sister, pray lend me your hand
with a hey ho a bonny o
And I will give you house and land
the swans swim so bonny o
I'll give you neither hand nor glove
with a hey ho a bonny o
Unless you give me your own true love
the swans swim so bonny o

Sometimes she sank, sometimes she swam
with a hey ho and a bonny o
Until she came to a miller's dam
the swans swim so bonny o

The miller's daughter, dressed in red
with a hey ho and a bonny o
She went for some water to make some bread
the swans swim so bonny o

Oh father, oh daddy, here swims a swan
with a hey ho and a bonny o
It's very like a gentle woman
the swans swim so bonny o
They placed her on the bank to dry
with a hey ho and a bonny o
There came a harper passing by
the swans swim so bonny o

He made harp pins of her fingers fair
with a hey ho and a bonny o
He made harp strings of her golden hair
the swans swim so bonny o
He made a harp of her breast bone
with a hey ho and a bonny o
And straight it began to play alone
the swans swim so bonny o

He brought it to her father's hall
with a hey ho and a bonny o
And there was the court, assembled all
the swans swim so bonny o
He laid the harp upon a stone
with a hey ho and a bonny o
And straight it began to play lone
the swans swim so bonny o

And there does sit my father the King
with a hey ho and a bonny o
And yonder sits my mother the Queen
the swans swim so bonny o
And there does sit my brother Hugh
with a hey ho and a bonny o
And by him William, sweet and true
the swans swim so bonny o
And there does sit my false sister, Anne
with a hey ho and a bonny o
Who drowned me for the sake of a man
the swans swim so bonny o


THE DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL

Upon a darkened night
the flame of love was burning in my breast
And by a lantern bright
I fled my house while all in quiet rest

Shrouded by the night
And by the secret stair I quickly fled
The veil concealed my eyes
while all within lay quiet as the dead

CHORUS
Oh night thou was my guide
of night more loving than the rising sun
Oh night that joined the lover
to the beloved one
transforming each of them into the other

Upon that misty night
in secrecy, beyond such mortal sight
Without a guide or light
than that which burned so deeply in my heart
That fire t'was led me on
and shone more bright than of the midday sun
To where he waited still
it was a place where no one else could come

CHORUS

Within my pounding heart
which kept itself entirely for him
He fell into his sleep
beneath the cedars all my love I gave
From o'er the fortress walls
the wind would his hair against his brow
And with its smoothest hand
caressed my every sense it would allow

CHORUS

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
There they dimmed amongst the lilies fair
there they dimmed amongst the lilies fair
there they dimmed amongst the lilies fair


MARRAKESH NIGHT MARKET

They're gathered in circles
the lamps light their faces
The crescent moon rocks in the sky
The poets of drumming
keep heartbeats suspended
The smoke swirls up and then it dies

Would you like my mask?
would you like my mirror?
cries the man in the shadowing hood
You can look at yourself
you can look at each other
or you can look at the face of your god

The stories are woven
and fortunes are told
The truth is measured by the weight of your gold
The magic lies scattered
on rugs on the ground
Faith is conjured in the night market's sound

Would you like my mask?
would you like my mirror?
cries the man in the shadowing hood
You can look at yourself
you can look at each other
or you can look at the face of your god

The lessons are written
on parchments of paper
They're carried by horse from the river Nile
says the shadowy voice
In the firelight, the cobra
is casting the flame a winsome smile

Would you like my mask?
would you like my mirror?
cries the man in the shadowing hood
You can look at yourself
you can look at each other
or you can look at the face of your god


FULL CIRCLE

Stars were falling deep in the darkness
as prayers rose softly, petals at dawn
And as I listened, your voice seemed so clear
so calmly you were calling your god

Somewhere the sun rose, o'er dunes in the desert
such was the stillness, I ne'er felt before
Was this the question, pulling, pulling, pulling you
in your heart, in your soul, did you find rest there?

Elsewhere a snowfall, the first in the winter
covered the ground as the bells filled the air
You in your robes sang, calling, calling, calling him
in your heart, in your soul, did you find peace there?


SANTIAGO

Instrumental)

CE HE MISE LE ULAINGT? / THE TWO TREES

Beloved, gaze in thine own heart
The holy tree is growing there;
From joy the holy branches start
And all the trembling flowers they bear.
The changing colours of its fruit
Have dowered the stars with merry light;
The surety of its hidden root
Has planted quiet in the night;
The shaking of its leafy head
Has given the waves their melody.
And made my lips and music wed,
Murmuring a wizard song for thee,
There the Loves a circle go,
The flaming circle of our days,
Gyring, spiring to and fro
In those great ignorant leafy ways;
Remembering all that shaken hair
And how the winged sandals dart
Thine eyes grow full of tender care;
Beloved, gaze in thine own heart.

Gaze no more in the bitter glass
The demons, with their subtle guile,
Lift up before us when they pass,
Or only gaze a little while;
For there a fatal image grows
That the stormy night receives,
Roots half hidden under snows,
Broken boughs and blackened leaves.
For all things turn to bareness
In the dim glass the demons hold,
The glass of outer weariness,
Made when God slept in times of old.
There, through the broken branches, go
The ravens of unresting thought;
Flying, crying, to and fro,
Cruel claw and hungry throat,
Or else they stand and sniff the wind,
And shake their ragged wings: alas!
Thy tender eyes grow all unkind:
Gaze no more in the bitter glass.
Beloved, gaze in thine own heart,
The holy tree is growing there;
From joy the holy branches start,
And all the trembling flowers they bear.
Remembering all that shaken hair
And how the winged sandals dart,
Thine eyes grow full of tender care;
Beloved, gaze in thine own heart.


PROSPERO'S SPEECH

And now my charms are all o'erthrown
And what strength I have's mine own
Which is most faint; now t'is true
I must here be released by you

But release me from my bands
With the help of your good hands
Gentle breath of yours my sails
Must fill, or else my project fails,
Which was to please. Now I want
Spirits to enforce, art to enchant
And my ending is despair,
Unless I be relieved by prayer

Which pierces so that it assaults
Mercy itself and frees all faults
As you from your crimes would pardon'd be
Let your indulgence set me free.

 M P 3   S a m p l e s


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