Ian Pittaway : Like The Snow (Sydney Carter) скачать в хорошем качестве

Ian Pittaway : Like The Snow (Sydney Carter)

The words of Like The Snow are based on a poem of François Villon, not a translation, but Sydney’s own work based on the ideas in The Testament. François Villon was a 15th century French thief, killer, barroom brawler, vagabond and poet. The song, like the poem, takes true stories of history to make the point that all life is fleeting. The first in the song is Helen of Troy, the most beautiful woman in ancient Greece, abducted then rescued by her brothers. Then Pierre Abelard, 11th/12th century French theologian, expected to be celibate – as all scholars had to be, in the belief that sex addled the rational male mind – but who had a child with Heloise, his pupil, niece of the canon of Notre Dame Cathedral, who then punished Abelard with castration. The lovers became monk and nun, their bodies reunited only in the grave. Lastly, Jeanne d’Arc, 15th century Catholic visionary cross-dressing army leader, who turned the Hundred Years’ War in France’s favour, but was then burned at the stake for wearing men’s clothes and claiming authority from God rather than the Catholic Church. The point of Villon’s poem is in his asking where these famous people are now, followed by his refrain, “But where are the snows of last winter?” Sydney reflects this in his refrain, “She has” or “They have vanished like the snow.” To read an appreciation of Sydney Carter, go to http://earlymusicmuse.com/sydneycarter