(My favourite track)
I wanted to take the concept of a wedding night and split it into two - in the first half we see the desperation, love and desire of the first times they slept together; while in the second half we see their actual wedding night, with Evangeline pregnant and tired and scared, and her new husband on leave from the trenches. They have lost each other - despite the fact that they are now married, their bodies feel unfamiliar and strange, and fear overcomes their previous hope. Then, in the darkness, they find a little of what they have lost, and we end on Evangeline's desperate calls - that he will promise to return, that they will love one another again, even as the future relentlessly unfurls.
lyrics
You touched me first like you didn't know what touching was
Like you'd never touched before
Reverent and slow
I touched you like I was a drowning beast
Like I would die
If I let go
We fell in love so sweetly! Like children do
Your ears would bloom (peonies and sugared plums)
When you saw me
Then I held a man between my legs and teeth
Down at the riverside
Blossom in the trees
Love, hope and fear!
And the greatest of these is love
Feel me near
Pressing in like a homing dove
When we move together I find my words too rough
To speak of love
I need another tongue
Do not fret for where the little birds will go
I will call you home
When the war is won
Love, hope and fear!
And the greatest of these is love
Feel me near
Pressing in like a homing dove
What a fine thing it is, to be a wife! If this is wedding
What a fine thing, this bedding
Clawing like we're dying
Like the whole world is on fire
Like if we just climbed one rung higher
We could a-wing and fly away
Look now and see my skin is a swollen fish
Hid best I can
An unholy thing
I can only half recall how I touched you then
My hand's grown heavy
My glinting ring
Shines out to me that this is sanctified
What we bound in flesh
Is writ in law
But we move like players at a funeral
You (gone by dawn)
Me (drowned once more)
Love, fear and hope
And the greatest of these is fear
Touch my thrumming throat
Feel the drums drawing near
In the dark, the beat returns to me in waves
The heat, the shuddering
Your little sigh
The moonlight slithers in through a windowpane
I lick the teardrops
From your eye
Love, fear and hope
And the greatest of these is love
"The greatest of these is love!"
Coos your homing dove
Before the night is done
Invoke my name and let it stand as testament
(These ritual invocations)
To what we've done and that you will return
(Are my darling's declarations)
And call again to me:
Evangeline!
The cause is affecting, the effects are unseen
Evangeline!
The trenches are refilled, the land returned to green
Evangeline!
The babes are all unborn, some are unconceived
Evangeline!
All wars are called the last for worse cannot be believed
credits
from Evangeline,
released June 5, 2020
Written by Bethan le Masurier.
Vocals, piano, organ, harp, cello and guitar performed by Bethan le Masurier.
Drums performed by Ben Hughes.
Produced by Bethan le Masurier.
I am a British singer-songwriter, playing piano, guitar, cello,Celtic harp, ukulele, and whatever else I can get my hands on. Livestreaming on twitch.tv/cornyears
Recorded live at St Buryan Church, the latest from Sarah McQuaid is a showcase for the simple power of voice & guitar. Bandcamp New & Notable Oct 16, 2021
