FTX-128 - THE HOLY GRAIL

MATTHEW sings GEORGE SPRING

 

New Lines on Ancient Leys - 10 West Country poems by the Comish poet, George Spring, are here set to guitar accompaniment by his son, Matthew. They feature Joseph of Arimathea, King Arthur, Tintagel, the Hurlers Stones, Cornish Miners, Brunel's Tamar Bridge, Dartmoor Wish-hounds, Jay's Grave, the Witch-Hare and Lost Land of Lyonesse. Matthew's arrangements have evolved from living with the poems in the family and at the same time being influenced by contemporary folk styles within the field of acoustic guitar.

l. THE HOLY GRAIL - 4.39

"When Joseph sailed from Palestine

He crossed the wine-dark sea

He faced the wild Atlantic's roar

Until he reached Old Cornwall's shore

And so to land came he"

2. ARTHUR'S ARMY - 4.27

"Jacob's Ladder" is a rocky pathway down the steep side of Kilmar Tor.

3. TINTAGEL - 4.45

Long before the castle, connected with King Arthur, was built, there was a monastery of the Celtic Church. Here on top of the headland the monks of Tintagel sustained the Christian faith in Cornwall, while Saxon England was a pagan land.

4. THE HURLERS - 3.19

This is the name of a group of Standing Stones on the S.E. side of Bodmin Moor, near to Tregarrick Tor. Probably of neolithic origin, their name derives from mediaeval explanation of their formation. The church bells in the song are those of St. Cleer.

5. CORNISII MINER'S SONG - 4.53

Every Friday morning from 1890 to 1900 the up-train from Cornwall included carriages labelled "Southampton", the embarkation port for South Africa. This was the exodus of the young miners from the declining copper and tin mines to the gold of Johannesburg. - see: A.J.Hamilton Jenkin:"The Cornish Miner", published by Davtd and Charles, Newton Abbot, 1927.

6. BRUNEL'S BRIDGE TO CORNWALL - 2.30

'The Cornish Riviera " express train still runs over the famous bridge over the River Tamar built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

B2. THE OLD MAN IN THE CORNER - 5.50

In West Country legend "The Wish Hounds" meet in the valley of the Dewerstone and hunt all night on Dartmoor, occasionally crossing over into East Cornwall. They are fairy-hounds and the closer they run to where those who can hear them, the softer does their music become.

B3. THE PAUPER'S GRAVE - 1.47

This is "Jay's Grave", near Manaton on Dartmoor.

B4. THE WILD WHITE HARE - 3.50

In Cornish legend the shape of a white hare with burning black eyes was often assumed by a witch. (See "Vanishing Cornwall" by Daphne Du Maurier).

B5. THE LOST LAND OF LYONESSE - 6.47

"Where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow

Nor even wind blows loudly, but it lies

Deep-meadowed, happy, fair with orchard lawns

And bowery hollows crown'd with summer sea

Where I will heal me of my grievous wound" - Tennyson:The Passing of Arthur

Recorded by Peter Kennedy at Soundpost Studios, Devon on 9th August 1979. Edited by Peter Kennedy and first published on Folktrax Cassettes 1979.

GEORGE SPRING was born in 1929. His grandfather taught at Blundell's School, Tiverton for 38 years and his great-uncle was a parson in the r emote North Devon parish of Alwington. His father started and finished his career in Devonport Dockyard, but George, having previously worked abroad, has been settled in East Cornwall ever since 1964.

MATTHEW SPRING was born in Tanzania in 1957. He went to school in Liskeard and Saltash. He started composing songs and music to his father's poems while he was in the Lower Fourth at Liskeard Grammar School, and has continued ever since. He is presently studying History and Music at Keele University. Several of the songs, the combined work of Matthew and his father George, have gained awards at the Cornish Gorsedd