A "folk recitative", invoking a passionate love of the mountains of Wales and Scotland.
Lyrics, production: Somhairle Kelly
Music, vocals: Elly Hadaway
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This was the first track of my 2015 EP, "Tell Me Where the Ocean Went". The poem by my partner and collaborator Somhairle Kelly was not originally written to be set. It was one of the first of his that I read after we got together, and it spoke to me intensely, for our shared longing for mountains, the glorious images, and the quite deliberate invocation of the "Song of Amergin". I briefly entertained the idea of going back to my classical roots, and setting it as a choral piece. The first phrase of what ended up as this song kept banging around my head as a solo soprano or alto recitative before everyone else came in. At some point - I can't even remember when - I realised that no one else was going to come in, so the whole thing just started to take shape as a "mezzo folk recit", and came together pretty much as it is now.
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I am the mountain.
I am the river that flows down its flanks.
I am the wind that dances through the peaks.
I am the buzzard who drifts on the wind.
I am the rowan and the hawthorn,
the gorse bush green and golden-scented.
I am the road through the mountains -
the high pass and the broad highway.
I am grey rock and warm earth,
bracken and springy heather.
I am the rain and the daylight,
the tall hills that cradle us.
I am the mist lifting, and the cloud coming down;
I am a cold hard wind, and a warm homecoming.
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