the Alchemist
Long, long ago I formed a band with fellow singer-songwriter Sean O'Leary; we did some good stuff and some not-so-good stuff; we would have been better if we'd had the nerve to sack the rather terrible third singer. But you live and learn! Sean moved north, and we collaborated on a few more projects, but eventually lost touch.
I was completely delighted to hear from him again earlier this year, and fascinated to discover that in the intervening years we have both "discovered" Gerard Manley Hopkins. I teach on the poetry of Coleridge, Tennyson and Hopkins from a theological point of view; Sean, meantime, has set Hopkins' poetry to music. 'Poetry was originally meant for either singing or reciting,' Hopkins wrote in a letter to Everard Hopkins in 1885. But being hopelessly prone to the idea that his poetry was an indulgence, not a gift, I daresay Hopkins himself would be amazed (and probably filled with self-doubting anxiety!) to come across Sean's settings.
Never mind Hopkins' self-doubt; rush out and buy this music. The Alchemist is a two-disc CD, and
Sean's music is completely sympathetic to the complex rhythms of Hopkins poetry. Musically, if you like Dylan, Bruce Cockburn, Jonny Cash, you'd be likely to fall in love with O'Leary too. The world is charged with the grandeur of God is usually to be heard recited in rather posh, distant tones; Sean sings it in a kind of gentle acoustic-rap and it absoultely comes to life. Glory be to God for dappled things gives an appropriately country touch to this pastoral reflection.
The Wreck of the Deutschland is a less famous story than the sinking of the Titanic, but similarly shocking to the readers of the headlines in 1875, when an apparently unsinkable ship went down in stormy seas, and many were drowned. Hopkins engages the story as a metaphor for the human race afloat on the seas of life in a long, narrative poem; Sean O'Leary replays it as a kind of folk-epic, building the tension and the angst as the story progresses.
From what I remember of working with Sean, he is an absolutely instinctive musician, feeling his way right into the rhythms of words and music and matching them up. Never a forced lyric for Sean: the music and the words always fitted hand in glove. (Incidentally, Sean also gave me some of my scariest-ever moments on stage, as he had the extraordinary ability just to make up an extra verse of a song on the spot, and often did so, live!!! Whenever he started composing in public, all you could do was abandon the script and watch and listen to go where he was going. We flew by the seat of our pants, but we rarely crashed!) His instinct for rhythm and language makes this setting of Hopkins a complete treat for the ear. What more can I say? Go here and buy it immediately.
Good to see this review on Sean's latest album. It really is strange in this day and age to see somebody like Sean working in such a dedicated way to produce albums of quality like this one. The fact that he's been making good music and writing top notch material over many many years without getting the recognition he deserves I think points more to the times we live in than to Sean's obvious gifts as a songwriter and muscian. The Alchemist is full of lovely songs and really does bring Hopkins' verse into a new domain.
Some years ago I wrote some material which Sean transformed into an album which was called Songs of Experience (2001) this gave me some insight into his working methods, and the scope of his abilities. I'm sure we wish him well.
Posted by: Martin Beek | 12/10/2005 at 09:10
THE ALCHEMIST SONGS SONG BY SONG
The album opens with, I Wake And Feel The Fell Of Dark, Not Day, this is a moving introduction to the thoroughly captivating first disc of this double album. Sean's tone immediately invites one into the poetic space. This song definitely grows in stature with each hearing. This song has an emotional insistence with the vocals well to the fore, with the addition of some pleasing guitar instrumentation. It is a song of self- examination. The voice cracks here and rather reminds me of some of the intensity found in some of Cat Stevens' songs from "Catch Bull at Four" in its confessional tone, mercifully the words are Hopkins' and of an entirely different order to that of “pop song” and are full of complexity and beguiling intricacy. Here one first glimpses Sean’s art in turning Hopkins’ complex rhythmic poems into intelligible song material.
Nature's Bonfire (That Nature Is A Heraclitean Fire); is the most melodically captivating of the album, its insistent chorus rings in ones mind long after its fulsome strains die away. Natures Bonfire, part spoken alliteration over liquid organ and insistent guitar building layers like autumn leaves upon an autumnal sacrificial bonfire of this passing world. Sean's voice seems to break and refract into multiple facets like the "immortal diamond" of the song. The vocal introduction and descending baseline somewhat reminds me of the stately introduction to "Knockin' On Heaven's Door",
The Mind Has Mountains (No Worst, There Is None) has a bluesy beat that seems to follow the pace of the poem in a way that must be unique in any adaptation of Hopkins work. The flattened sevenths in this bluesy tinged riff parry well against the clock-like beat, perhaps here there's want for a heavier drum or bass electric guitar figure. The circularity of the tune echoes the dark struggle of the soul. This heart-rendering song charts the very depths of the soul's dark wrestling with the nature of existence, of Hopkins own state of mind "mind has mountains..." it is the inner landscape echoing Job or David or Christ's. This is real, an unavoidable part of every pilgrim's experience, happiness is not something the bible talks about. Such deep musings are found in the remarkable songs of Hank Williams' and particularly his alter ego of Luke The Drifter; he was one American who failed to find any measure of happiness in life. Although Hopkins and Williams came from very different places and lived almost sixty years apart there is something strangely recognizable about the way each man used poetry to expiate their difficulties and eventually turned them to benefit all who heard or read their poems and songs.
Felix Randal has a raucous country choir like quality. There is something of The Carter Family or perhaps the Stanley Brothers mountain gospel here. Setting Hopkins in this way is highly original. this noble farrier who was "hardy- handsome" than with those academics and theologians he met at throughout his sojourn . In this touching song it is the life of Felix Randal that is important, his death is met with an "O is he dead then?" As if greatness and noble character like that of Christ and His saints can ever really die or be dead. The poet is touched by the suffering of the farrier, perhaps this man had shod one of his horses which he rode around his parish on some errand of mercy, I don't know. I'm not aware of the circumstances surrounding the genesis of the work, but Sean's rendering of the piece makes it a fitting epitaph for the man Felix Randal or any unsung hero, who has gone before, to a place where we must all eventually retire.
In, Spring, there is a cheerful awakening joy in one of Hopkins most mesmerizing poems, it is reverently sentimental in the best sense of that word, probably these stanzas took little coaxing to become a song, the melody suits Hopkins' words one feels the airy spaces between them, the cool air, the colour and light of the season which is somehow expressed in the simple guitar instrumental approach, behind this there are Belinda Evan’s lovely vocals and spoken recitation which work well with Sean’s voice. Few who have been out during this season would disagree with Hopkins in this his most Keatsian sentiment. This resurrection of nature in our temperate climbs echoing the unwritten gospel of beauty that suffuses the fabric of the universe, it takes us to Eden itself and to the world reborn and made new in Christ, the hope of all who believe6
The Leaden Echo And The Golden Echo is largely one such meditation upon beauty, a paean of spiritual sadness, a plaintive cry from the heart as if to catch the ear of God. In instrumentation this song resembles some of the style of songs Sean worked on five years ago with its insistence supported by a folk violin, the fiddle's tremolo and trill reminding one of the affinities this instrument has with the human voice and its accuracy in expressing deep emotion. It was in this song that I felt some of the struggle Sean must have had in adapting these words into song and keep its structure and meter, he's done a fine job. "Give beauty back, beauty, beauty, beauty, back to God, beauty's self and beauty's giver. See; not a hair is, not an eyelash, not the least lash lost; every hair
Is, hair of the head, numbered." Wonderful sentiments indeed! In these mysterious ballads, there is an approach to Hopkins' work I particularly respond to, it is conspiratorial and private, the beat moves gently and sympathetically with Hopkins' text and does not overwhelm it or set boundaries to the mysterious quality of the work. "Give beauty back to God." The poet’s questioning seems somehow resolved in the song.
God's Grandeur It begins with a solemnity, a quality distinctly lacking in "folk music This is no Wordsworthian allegory, no frippery extolling the beauty of nature or of God revealed in nature..."all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil". Those lines stick in my mind its truth seems so relevant to our dark and dangerous world now, where we are caught by the frightening and awful results of man's recklessness and his lust for power and trade that has scarred our world as if it were the very body of the Christ. And yet the world itself bears witness to renewal to God's unfailing promise to His love and his presence in and through nature. Unlike some "doom laden" environmentalist Hopkins is a man of faith, and believes in nature's renewal of its ultimate care and protection by a loving God. Sean's working of this is clever but not as in an academic exercise.
Let Me Be To Thee As The Circling Bird is as perfect a song as you’ll find on this album a gem among jewels. Sean’s lightness of touch here and ability to squeeze the meaning from Hopkins luscious text, makes this for me one of the most enduring songs of the entire album.
The Windhover the persistent melodic figure of the organ and keyboards drives this folky song along. Once again the song benefits from the shared vocals which swoop like the falcon . It fades away into the breezy morning mists and evaporates in a dazzle of notes.
My Own Heart Let Me More Have Pity On, is another of what some refer to as Hopkins’ dark sonnets. Poems, and particularly Hopkins’ poems do not necessarily follow the formulaic song structure favoured by most song writers –verse one-verse two-chorus-verse three middle eight chorus verse or combinations. Sean’s own songs have often be greatly strengthened by the unpredictable quality of the middle eight. To overcome this technical conundrum in the case of these poetic adaptations Sean uses the contrast between spoken, semi spoken and sung to give clarity to the poem rather than treating all the poems with the same delivery. For the most part in the songs I’ve heard there are no long instrumental interludes; the shift in mood therefore depends largely upon Hopkins’ poetic devices and Sean’s nuanced response to them.
At The Wedding March is a song that has a hymn like structure, here the backing and additional vocals are at their most successful and the light piano helps the song move on like a sparkling stream catching the light at every turn. Van Morrison used this device on his album "Hymns To The Silence" Sean has used this technique to great credit here.
The Woodlark" which turns the poem into a country tinged part Irish jig. Incidentally it reminds me of a sanctified version Charlie Daniels Band's of "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" an FM friendly song of the 1970's. The sound of birdsong introduces "The Woodlark" whose tones as I write mingle with the call of birds outside my window. Even here in our urban century we are still never very far away from the evidence of God in nature's handiwork. This song tests Belinda Evan’s vocal ingenuity, it has a joyfulness that counterbalances some of the sadder songs in a sensitive way.
Side two opens with Pied Beauty it sounds not the least bit Victorian rather more like an old Ralph Stanley Ballad from an Appalachian country congregation standing in some wayside chapel deep within the woods, “Glory be to God for dappled things”…a chugging shuffle pierced and pinned with an electric guitar and vocals. On further hearings the proximity of voice instruments and multiple overlays seem to create their very own pied beauty, each part being illumined like rays of brilliant sunlight dappled and fragmented as if through a painted glass window.
The Starlight Night, in this song there is a sense of wonder and reverence toward nature. This is a work of mature song-writing, at no point, did I feel the words were bent beyond recognition to fit the demands of the tune, nor did the melody obliterate the poet’s meaning . Interestingly I did not feel that one is engaging with a works written well over a century ago, somehow with this “roots” style Sean has given these poems a new sort of energy that a more formal approach could well have lost in overworking or in physical remoteness.
Inversnaid brings Hopkins prophetic concern for the weeds and wilderness…what would the world be bereft of these? The question is posed again a century later with ever greater intensity.
Heaven-Haven, undeniably a beautiful marriage of words, concept and tune, immediately it reminded me of something I couldn't quite put my finger on. All folk music is built like a ladder upon tradition tunes and most poetry so they say can be subdivided into seven main themes so it is hardly surprising .If there are echoes of a Sinead O'Connor here or perhaps a guitar picked ballad with a melodic figure close to Bob Dylan's 1963 "Ballad of Donald White," the loveliness of the disguise is welcome and its structure suits the words well, a song about a nun's marriage to Christ.
To R. B. has a contemplative quality with a slow paced rhythmic figure enhanced by the sweetness of a mandolin and guitar.
Thee, God, I Come From this song is shared with Belinda, it has a hymn like structure that works well, and may not be too distant from Hopkins' original conception of the work were it to be set to music one hundred years ago.
Harry Ploughman; Suddenly a whistle blows a full stop to an organ lead introduction and we rapidly move into a celli, this is again an original non reverential approach to the poetry which is peculiarly refreshing. However to my mind it is a song that does not bear too many hearings unlike many of its companions on this disc.
To Seem The Stranger Lies My Lot, My Life is another intimate song. One of Sean's unique gifts is that of identification, much as an actor , a great actor becomes fully a part this song like no other is a song where Sean and Hopkins seem at one. A poem of struggle of loneliness in the path towards the divine. The arrangement is simple, picked guitar and subtle breezy keyboards the vocals are sincere and heartfelt, I could feel it and find and identify with this song to some measure. The path of the pilgrim in this world, the artist the actor the poet and the priest.
The Wreck Of The Deutschland - Part The First
Sean's tour de force on the Album it starts portentously emerging in its minor key as if a boat spied on the distant horizon. The melody although simple is strong and matches the words perfectly, indeed for me the first part brings this long and complex poem alive in a way I'd never have imagined likely.This song is the place where Sean has tuned in and felt afresh the power of events from 1875, but like the poem its solemn prophetic power is vital as a lungful of air to a pearl diver who breaks to the surface after minutes beneath the icy sea. I oddly felt this song contrasted nicely with Gordon Lightfoot’s 1975 epic “The Wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald” a somewhat more “secular” meditation upon shipwreck and fate. What interests me most about this work, and perhaps other poems that I’ve been unable to engage with is how well Sean has brought the spirit of these poem alive, none better than in The Wreck of The Deutschland.
The Wreck Of The Deutschland - Part The Second relating the events of 1875 but this is no mere documentation, here we are invited into those most private places of surrender to God to fate and somehow through these events if they touch us like they touched Hopkins (and Sean) then we see the world afresh see God in it. The same melodic structure is there the crash of the minor chords and the repeated melodic strain, "Let him Easter in Us", I felt there could have been a valid case for a woman's voice at some point here, particularly where there was a chorus...towards the end of the long piece there is some delightful acoustic guitar work, this sporadically appears at other points on the double album, it makes for more space for thought and reflection somehow rather like the use of the fiddle in places. One can tell that Hopkins who had not written any poetry of substance for seven years previous to this was bursting with divine inspiration, some of that inspiration comes through one hundreds and thirty years later.
After this epic the album closes with The Alchemist In The City which is a delightfully breezy ballad it paints a great self portrait of the poet, it leads to Sean's own poem The Alchemist a spoken over a sound-scape. It is a reflection on Hopkins and makes a worthy conclusion to an album full of surprise and delight. For those who may find reading poetry something difficult to engage with, this album would be a wonderful introduction to both Hopkins, and also the magic of language and its ability to reawaken the dormant spirit. This album, and a long one too, speaks as if from another age, like a parallel universe we only sometimes glimpse if we look into the flickering flames or under the fallen leaves of the elm or ash, or if we train our eyes to that distant ocean, these words rise up, they dwell in the mystery of song. This is only temporal beauty and as Hopkins work constantly reminds us it is through the fallen beauty of this world that we may perceive the unchanging beauty of the new creation.
Sean works away from public gaze, alone with his music, his work is un-conventional, his musicality is diverse, his pre occupations and concerns may seem strange to the mainstream, but it is through these distillations that new springs begin to flow to mighty rivers and The Alchemist is in the best sense a journey, his own, a mirror both personal and universal, at present Hopkins is his fellow traveller. The colours of nature are caught in each facet and every syllable, as the poet declares “Give beauty back to God.”
Martin Beek - Oxford 2005
Posted by: Martin Beek | 13/10/2005 at 18:38
If, after reading Maggi's and Martin's praise for Sean's "Alchemist," you are not dying to listen to this album, it might be that you don't think of yourself as a fan of folk. But Sean's music transcends today's easy folk style. Instead you might call it human music, as real and necessary as breathing. As soon as I heard Sean perform "Felix Randal" live at the International Hopkins Summer School in Ireland last summer, I knew I was listening to something about which Hopkins would say: "Yes, that's exactly what I meant." Listen to the mp3s on Sean's website and decide for yourself (you'll need to set Windows Media as default). http://www.gerardmanleyhopkins.net/demo/index.html
If you like what you hear, then by all means, support this great work as others are beginning to do. St Beuno's, the seminary in Wales where Hopkins wrote his most beloved poems, has ordered many copies of "The Alchemist" for its shop. Gonzaga University's library in Washington State, where many of Hopkins' original manuscripts are kept, has ordered a copy for its permanent Hopkins Collection. The fact that Hopkins institutions are scooping it up is wonderful, but as Martin says, this CD is not a purely academic, heady approach to Hopkins' work. It is more of a heart and guts approach. It has as much beauty and sadness and grace as Hopkins' own poems contain, and more, since the words now are filled with music. "The Alchemist" needs to be given to people who don't yet know how grateful they would be to hear it.
Posted by: Margaret Smith | 21/10/2005 at 04:39