Unlike the other Horslips albums I have reviewed on Amazon, this album gains force from its accrued impact, rather than its individual tracks. Like "Táin," "Book" is meant to work as a unified single piece of music, as the subtitle defines it. Songs are chapters in a book, verses of a poem.
Instrumental and sung passages alternate in the three movements of the album from Geantrai--cheerier songs-- to Goltrai-- laments--to Suantrai-- songs of sleep or dreams. These unify as in storytelling various "branches" of the tale and classify them in ancient Irish categories of narrative craft and intent. It's a "Celtic symphony," therefore, in the ebbs and crests of the musical representation and the lyrical explanation of the energetic clashes and couplings the Book of Invasions (Leabhar Gabhala) relates-- the tribes who landed in pre-Christian Ireland successively to fight over its land and its wealth.
More at the link.
3 comments:
Dear Miss Templeton, as a lifelong fan of Horslips, I was delighted to find your blog thanks to Technorati. I took the liberty of putting a link to your site up on mine hope you don't mind. I don't write a whole pile about music only occasionally. I have I believe all of Horslips catalog on cassette CD and DVD, my collecting days started alas after the great days of Horslips and I have only seen them on screen as a group. Their contribution along with Rory Gallagher, and Lizzy to modern Irish rock is incalculable. Keep up the great work.
Tims!
I would love to visit your site, but there's no link that I can see. If you stop by again drop me a line at
comebackhorslips at yahoo dot com (converting the at and dot to their appropriate symbols)
Thanks for the kind words
Miss T.
Thanks for the good word in getting the word out. Word up!
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