#shapenote

A while back I decorated both my Sacred Harp and my Shenandoah Harmony, because why not. It's nice to sing from a book that you've marked as your own.

Poem: The Road Goes On (McKenna/Warchus)

Tune: 51 Star in the East (2025 revision)

Composer: R. Herron, 1826 (alto part from Harmonia Sacra, 1866)

This is the first of three songs I've thrown together for this year's LOTR-musical-at-the-Watermill anniversary fest, aka the ephemera extravaganza! The prompt was to create something which could have been made in-universe, so in each of these, I've taken song lyrics from the musical, set them to a Sacred Harp tune, and come up with a scenario in which the characters might sing them.

These lyrics were originally sung by the Rangers of the Shire in the London production, during The Road Goes On (otherwise sung by Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin). Here, I've imagined that this is a popular Ranger walking song, reimagined by Aragorn's Ranger comrades into a choral piece to be sung at his wedding with Arwen. I'm picturing them singing it as he walks into the room for the first time.

Lyrics below the cut:

So I wasn't going to lead at the all-day singing in Indianapolis today, but then I accepted an invitation to pair-lead "Kedar," and you know I love "Kedar."

And then at the next break, a nice man approaches me and says, "I like your shoelaces."

And he was @trambrosia !!

It was the nicest surprise.

Also the altos hold literally one note for the whole song. We decided that they play yhe part of the corpse!

Like many Brits, I'm a sucker for versifications of Psalm 23, because of all of the shepherding that dominates a sizeable part of Britain's rural economy. This one's got a pretty unique set of words that don't seem to be too common, especially in the UK, but it works well with the strong sense of momentum in T.B. McGraw's music; you'd never have thought music constructed almost entirely out of arpeggios would have such life to it.