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32. Seed Song
Song Seed Song
Words & Music by Barbara McAfee
Words & Music by Barbara McAfee
Lyrics
Oh the darkness has swallowed me whole,
and I cannot remember the light.
Oh, I feel I am losing my soul to the night, to the night.
You are a seed.
This is the waiting time.
You hold a dream of green that will call you to the sky.
Oh the darkness has swallowed me whole,
and I cannot remember the light.
Oh, I feel I am losing my soul to the night, to the night.
You are a seed.
This is the waiting time.
You hold a dream of green that will call you to the sky.
Notes: A song with two voices, in a way -- the cry of the heart which feels swallowed by darkness and lost, and the response or presence of a wisdom -- an angel, or ancestor, or Yoda?! -- who sees the seed inside the darkness that holds the dream of green during the waiting time. I love the way this song lets me give voice to different experiences. Barbara has given us an extremely satisfying lift on the "call to the sky" line... and a lovely low rumble for "cannot remember", and "to the night." In western classical baroque times, that was called word painting... a wonderful way of yoking different parts of our brains into a whole, connected intent.
Songwriter Info: Barbara McAfee is a master voice coach, singer/songwriter, song leader, and river walker who lives an hour outside of Minneapolis/St. Paul in St Croix Falls, Wisconsin.
Links:
Barbara's website is at www.barbaramcafee.com
Barbara's Tedx talk on the Full Voice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ze763kgrWGg
Song Learning Time Stamps:
Start time of teaching: 00:02:16
Start time of reprise: 00:13:34
Nuts & Bolts: 4:4, minor, 3 layers, 2 with the same words.
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Exchange energy with A Breath of Song with dollars at the Gratitude Jar (whoo-hoo!!!!), or by making comments, leaving reviews, suggesting songs or songwriters (including yourself) ..... your participation matters!
Songwriter Info: Barbara McAfee is a master voice coach, singer/songwriter, song leader, and river walker who lives an hour outside of Minneapolis/St. Paul in St Croix Falls, Wisconsin.
Links:
Barbara's website is at www.barbaramcafee.com
Barbara's Tedx talk on the Full Voice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ze763kgrWGg
Song Learning Time Stamps:
Start time of teaching: 00:02:16
Start time of reprise: 00:13:34
Nuts & Bolts: 4:4, minor, 3 layers, 2 with the same words.
Join the A Breath of Song mailing list to receive a heads up as a new episode is released, plus a large version of the artwork, brief thoughts from my slightly peculiar brain... and occasional extras when they seem vitally important! No junk -- I will never sell your address. I read out all your names into my living room when I send new mailings... I appreciate the connection to you who are listening and singing these songs with me.
Exchange energy with A Breath of Song with dollars at the Gratitude Jar (whoo-hoo!!!!), or by making comments, leaving reviews, suggesting songs or songwriters (including yourself) ..... your participation matters!
8 Comments
OMG Patricia I am new to your podcasts but love Juneberry and Pocket Songs. The Seed Song is just what I needed today, to acknowledge the depression, and it helped me lift out of it. Several years ago I completed training as a therapeutic musician but have not been able to be with patients since COVID. That feeling of helplessness is just as sad, because I believe music can heal the world. Thank you for reminding me that I can use music to heal myself as well!
Resa, I'm so glad you're using music to heal yourself... and I'm sure there will come a time when you're bringing it back into the community as a therapeutic musician.... I just love the sound of those two words together!!! I'm so glad Seed Song was right for today, and thank you for writing to say...
Love this beautiful song, your gentle singing of it, your vulnerable sharing. So grateful for you Patricia, for a Breath of Song, for Barbara McAfee.
That's absolutely lovely to read, Wendy Luella... thank you. I love the way singing can gently encourage us to feel what's really going on inside...
Such a sad song
Ah, Herb... yes. It is sad in some ways. The fear of the darkness and the sense of losing one's soul... yet there's also the awareness of a seed of green at the same time, and that voice has a rising, lifting line -- so there is happiness, too. Complex, like life, right?
I love this one and do not really feel it's sadness, just a subtle reality which is then uplifted by the second verse. Just wish I had the range to sing the higher notes of the second verse, but even singing the first, I can hear and feel that second verse along with its seed gathering in the darkness. Thank you.
Thank you so much for writing, Stephanie! I'm so glad you love this song -- it is endlessly fascinating to me how songs land different ways for different people -- and even simply on different days. The humming sliding sighs we do when warming up may help your voice gently discover those higher notes? And I love the way you hear and feel the higher notes even as you sing the lower ones. That's brilliant!