I started listening to Loreena's music in the 90's. When I first heard her voice I felt like the enchanting atmosphere of an ancient and unknown past was completely surronding me.
Her full name is Loreena Isabel Irene McKennitt and she was born in Morden (Canada) in 1957. She's a year younger than my mum.
The city of Morden lays on Minnewasta Lake. Now, try to imagine how it could be living in a similar area, especially in autumn when all the falls leave their branches and descend to the ground... Try to imagine a foggy dawn sitting in front of the lake... And probably you will get the same (or similar) inspirations that led Loreena singing!
During her career she recorded 10 studio albums, 6 live albums, 2 compilations and one wonderful EP called "A winter garden: five songs for the season". This is one of my favorites so far: recorded and released in 1995, it contains five tracks: three Christmas carols, McKennitt's adaptation of Archibald Lampman's poem "Snow" (also released on To Drive the Cold Winter Away), and the traditional English "Seeds of Love." When Christmas time is coming, I always listen to this album and it immediately brings me "comfort and joy".
Christmas vibes apart, one of the main things that made me fall in love with Loreena is how her words and sounds are deeply connected to Nature and its seasonal cycles. And, talking about this, here's a curious fact: despite many beliefs about her spiritual path, she's not pagan at all!
On Celticsprite's blog we can read that: "Loreena has never stated in an interview that she is a Pagan or that she participates in any Pagan religious rites. She has indicated that she knows she has a Pagan following and acknowledges that some of the images she uses in her inusic (those derived from nature or mythology) would attract those with some kind of environmental orientation to her music (and Pagans tend to have such an orientation). Loreena and her family attended the United Church of Canada (a mainline, liberal Protestant denomination) when she was young,but in reference to her current religious practices, Loreena has said that she doesn’t attend church or belong to any particular religión, but that she finds renewal in settings that bring her in closer touch to nature. It is obvious from the themes she explores on the Mask and Mirror album and things she’s said recently in interviews that Loreena spends a certain amount of time pondering spiritual matters, but I have never heard her say anything in the media like “I believe…” or “God is…” or “I am a [insert name of institutionalized religion of your choice]…. Let me add that I myself heard Loreena say she was NOT a Pagan, and somebody else posted a message about a year or so ago saying she’d asked Loreena at a promotional appearance whether she was a Pagan, and, again, Loreena said “No”.”
Here is one of my favorite songs. The lyrics are amazing and immediately bring me to a spring night, among trees, centuries and centuries ago...
THE MUMMERS DANCE
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
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
We've been rambling all the night
And some time of this day
Now returning back again
We bring a garland gay
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"
We've been rambling all the night
And some time of this day
Now returning back again
We bring a garland gay
We've been rambling all the night
And some time of this day
Now returning back again
We bring a garland gay
