Music: Photosynthesis: A Love Song, and Samhradh, Samhradh

 

Photosynthesis: A Love Song

(sung to Samhradh Samhradh) ¾ 120

 

By Bette Korber c 2022. 

(Pleaes feel free to sing this live anywhere you would like.

If you would like to record it, please contact me.)

 

Chorus (A part)

D                        A

Air and Water asleep, ‘til light touches leaf

          D             A7                    D                    G

Life woven by trees  from the stream and the breeze 

      A7                     D                 A             G

In Sun’s warm embrace Earth spins her grace 

        A           A7             D     G        A     A

All life, all dreams born in simple things.                   

Verse (B psrt)

  D              G                                              

Meadow, grassland and forest deep,        

 A                       A              G                         A

Woodland and tundra keep...      our planet breathing.            

Repeat Chorus

 

Verse 2:

D                        G                                                                  

Walk now in beauty you’ll find your home,

 A                                               G                A

Rise up from the broken stone...      into all wonder.         

 

Chorus, variation 

D                        A

Air and Water asleep, ‘til light touches leaf

          D             A7                    D                     G

Life woven by trees from the stream and the breeze 

      A7                     D                 A             G

In Sun’s warm embrace Earth spins her grace 

        A           A7             D     G    A    G A   G A    G A   A

All life, all dreams born in the green

 

Outro

   A  Em                A             A                       G

Samhradh    Samhradh   Summer   Summertime.      

A  Em             A       A    Em         A

Samhradh Samhradh. Air water sunshine.

   A  Em                A             A                             G

Samhradh    Samhradh.  Summer  Summertime

A  Em      A             A       G          D  

Samhradh Samhradh. Air water sunshine. 

 Thanks to Nancy Ullmann for helping me write down the melody as I played it.

Notes:

About Samhradh Samhradh, the tune borrowed  for this song:

 

I have loved this ancient Irish melody long before I knew it had words song to it. This tune was played at our wedding when James and I spoke our vows under a Sycamore by Millard Creek. A quartet: fiddle, bodhran, dancing water, and leaf song. If you’d like to listen to this ancient song of Beltaine sung in Irish, try this exquisite version on YouTube: “The Gloaming: "Samhradh" (Live in Cork)”. Or for the just melody as I first learned it, try the Chieftains – Derek Bell’s harp!

 

It’s a very old piece and different recordings have different nuance in terms both the tune and the melody.

 

Notes from Gaol Naofa, via “Songs in Irish”, the melody’s origin is lost in time…

“Thugamar Féin An Samhradh Linn is a traditional Irish tune sung on May Day (Lá Bealtaine). Edward Bunting—a 19th century music collector—said this song “is probably extremely ancient” and was sung in the Dublin area around 1633. Even so, Pádraigín Ní Uallacháin says it dates back to 1745, yet Mary Devlin (author of The Lost Music of Ireland) claims it was 1726, so the origin is rather vague.”

 

 -- bette

 

For those of you who are traditionalists, and may not take kindly to messing with this old Irish piece, please forgive me, and please know I only mean to honor the beauty that came before.

 

Here are the lyrics from: Submitted by ColmSagCeo

https://songsinirish.com/samhradh-samhradh-lyrics/