Green print for song
The songs of Sydney Carter live a double life. Lord of the Dance is sung like a hymn in church; in a folk club it is sung another way. Sydney Carter would describe it as a carol -- 'a dancing kind of song, the life of which is in the dance as much as in the verbal statement. Carols are often, but not always, seasonal. They can be pagan, Christian, or both.' The difference between a carol and a hymn is one of many things discussed in a kind of running essay, verbal dance or commentary which keeps winding in and out between the twenty songs which are printed in this book. Much of it is autobiographical. The illuminations (what else would you call them?) are by Robert Reid, a young Australian, and they provide a visual echo to all this. Like the songs, they represent truth and structure of a kind which is not fixed or final but developing. Or, as Sydney would say, "travelling'. -- dust jacket
Musical Score, English, ©1974
Galliard : Stainer & Bell, London, ©1974