maybe-synesthesia:

“The Silver Swan,” Orlando Gibbons.

I have such great memories of this peice… I learned the cantus/soprano part for it during the summer before I went to uni, while one of my good friends, her parents and her grandfather, took the other parts. Her grandfather told us that he used to sing it with a friend of his, taking the baritone and bass parts, sitting on a wall near King’s College… My friend knows the quintus/alto part, and during those last few weeks of school, we would sit outside during lunch, and sing it together. I still sing it to myself a lot, though it really isn’t the same without at least one of the other four voices.

I took a jewelry class that summer, and I actually made my friend’s graduation present there: I made her a sort of abstract (art nouveau, in retrospect) swan, about the size of my fist. She put it on a white ribbon and uses it as a sort of keychain, which is probably the best use for it— she doesn’t really wear pins or brooches, and it’s too big to do anything else, really. But yes. It’s become a pretty meaningful thing between us, this peice.

bluedogeyes:

Rosemary Clooney - Mambo Italiano (via songbirdsandnightingales)

chaboneobaiarroyoallende:

“A NEW ENGLAND” written and performed by BILLY BRAGG (1983)

I was twenty one years when I wrote this song
I’m twenty two now, but I won’t be for long
People ask when will you grow up to be a man
But all the girls I loved at school
Are already pushing prams

I loved you then as I love you still
Tho I put you on a pedestal,
They put you on the pill
I don’t feel bad about letting you go
I just feel sad about letting you know

I don’t want to change the world
I’m not looking for a new England
I’m just looking for another girl
I don’t want to change the world
I’m not looking for a new England
I’m just looking for another girl

I loved the words you wrote to me
But that was bloody yesterday
I can’t survive on what you send
Every time you need a friend

I saw two shooting stars last night
I wished on them but they were only satellites
Is it wrong to wish on space hardware
I wish, I wish, I wish you’d care

I don’t want to change the world
I’m not looking for a new England
I’m just looking for another girl