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Maisie's Dream

 
uploaded: Sun, Nov 16, 2014 @ 3:52 AM
bygurdonark
FeaturingLoveshadow
length5:33
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Music connects us through shared stories and through melodies without a narrative.

Mary Emma Jones, a 19th Century Stage actress, performed as Miss Clive.
Histories remember her as the companion of English artist Frederick Sandys, a Pre-Raphaelite painter. Mr. Sandys gave her the nickname
Proud Maisie, as in the (now public domain) poem of that title by Sir Walter Scott:

542. Proud Maisie

PROUD Maisie is in the wood,
Walking so early;
Sweet Robin sits on the bush,
Singing so rarely.

‘Tell me, thou bonny bird,
When shall I marry me?’
—’When six braw gentlemen
Kirkward shall carry ye.’

‘Who makes the bridal bed,
Birdie, say truly?’
—’The grey-headed sexton
That delves the grave duly.

‘The glow-worm o’er grave and stone
Shall light thee steady;
The owl from the steeple sing 15
Welcome, proud lady!’

She served as the model for what is perhaps Frederick Sandys’ best-known painting. Its title is “Love’s Shadow” (1867). My song is the soundtrack to one of Mary’s imagined dreams.

I tried to take the music to an other, dream-like place, where everything is too simple and not simple at all.

I felt almost intimidated when I drew Loveshadow, whose skill, great ear and finesse stand in sharp counterpoint to my non-musician bluntness. I thought I’d have to reach for a mix at a different place than my music travels. But then I realized that I could not create a Loveshadow piece. I decided to create a Gurdonark piece instead.

Mary Emma Jones and the artist Sandys had at least ten children together.
Art history records that he painted versions of “Love’s Shadow” at least 11 times. He titled at least one of those subsequent versions “Proud Maisie”. Here are the images of both:
http://www.tumblr.com/tagge... Here is a bit of the story:
http://preraphaelitepaintin...

I like the way that music, art and story all connect us to people far away and even long ago—even if the connection is sometimes vicarious or imagined. These ethereal connections sometimes seem the most real of all to me.
 

"Maisie's Dream"
by gurdonark

2014 - Licensed under
Creative Commons
Attribution Noncommercial (3.0)



Click here for how to give credit and other conditions.

Editorial pick

Gurdonark takes us on a journey as he follows the thread of inspiration from the rich musical catalog of Loveshadow into entertainment history as he uses the story of Mary Emma Jones, a 19th century stage actress, to illustrate how music connects us through shared stories and through melodies without a narrative. (I strongly encourage you to read Gurdonark’s notes.) Unique weirdbient sounds from one of ccMixter’s most inconclastic remixers.

SackJo22