'Breeze of Love' is a love song, a lyrical weaving of beautiful memories, mixed with reminders to myself to choose to love and understand, whenever it is possible. To not let the few bad moments in a day overshadow all the many wonderful experiences. 
This song is one of my unreleased old favourite songs which I completely re-worked in 2021, originally written for voice and lyre. Now magically transformed with Paul Landry's beautiful additions.
 
Song and lyrics, piano and voice by Marianne Lihannah
Synthesizer added parts and mixed and mastered by Paul Landry

Breeze of Love

Breeze Of Love |  Marianne Lihannah

I Mine Kåte Ungdomsdagar (In my reckless youthful days).
A traditional Norwegian folk song, here sung and played by Marianne Lihannah accompanied by nyckelharpa.
This song has been made famous by the 2 groups, Tiriltunga and Trio Medieval.
The story in this song is 'modern' for it's time where it was written and quite unusual compared to many folk songs.
The young woman, who is narrating about her life, has come to the conclusion that it is better NOT to marry, but instead just lie in your lover's arms, now and then.

I Mine Kåte Ungdomsdagar

I Mine Kåte Ungdomsdagar | Marianne Lihannah | Voice & Nyckelharpa

From Elyssia's forthcoming third album - Paradise Lost
Marianne Lihannah - Vocals
Paul Landry - synths, bass guitar, electric guitar with Roland GR-55 Music by Paul Landry
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Paradise Lost

Tomorrow is Promised to no one (pt.1)

Spotify

'The Darkest Midnight in December' is an Irish traditional folk carol for Christmas night, after Fr William Devereux, 1728. It is from Fr Devereux's collection of Kilmore Christmas carols, called 'A New Garland'. These Christmas Carols are much more like folk songs.
I used to consider this beautiful Carol, as MY Christmas Carol. I have sung it as a solo during several Christmas concerts when I sang with the choir, 'Tonalis Company of Singers' and the choir 'Choros'. I have also sung it in folk clubs etc.
There are actually quite a few verses, but here I only sing verse 1, first solo acapella and then as a duet with myself with a movable drone and third time as a canon with drones.
This Christmas carol can be found in many Carol books with all the many ornaments actually written into the sheet music, true to the sean noes style from the West of Ireland.

The Kilmore Carols are found only in Wexford, and date back more than 300 years. In 1684 Luke Waddinge, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Ferns, published A Smale Garland of Pious and Godly Songs. The cover inscription continues: "Composed by a devout Man/ For the Solace of his Friends and/ neighbours in their afflictions." The book contained 11 Christmas songs, two of which are still sung in Kilmore today. The texts were new, while the melodies were drawn from various traditional sources.
Waddinge died shortly after his book appeared, but interest in the subject was revived by a Father William Devereux, parish priest of Drinagh, Wexford from 1730-1771 (the current Devereuxes in Kilmore are almost certainly related to this priest). Devereux published A New Garland Containing Songs for Christmas. This included some of his own carols along with a few from Waddinge's collection.

Father R. Ranson, who published an edition of the Devereux book in 1949, claims that "the carols were first sung in a little chapel at Killiane, and tradition seems to indicate that the choir consisted of six men." The chapel in question was "no more than a mud hut".

The carols proved very popular, and manuscript copies quickly spread to neighbouring parishes, including Kilmore. Diarmaid O Muirithe, who has assembled and edited a collection of all the Wexford Carols (The Wexford Carols, Dolmen Press, 1982) observes: "They were sung in most of the churches of south Wexford in the 18th century, and even well into the 19th century. I think it's a great pity that they're now no longer sung outside Kilmore." O Muirithe considers that the church hierarchy in Wexford is to some extent responsible for the carols' decline. "For centuries they had been regarded by the church with a kind of benign tolerance, no more than that."

One priest in Kilmore Quay in the 19th century decided to get rid of the carols altogether and replace them with Victorian hymnody. "But the people in Kilmore decided they wouldn't be banished. The priest was banished instead, because nobody came into the church the next year. The bishop had to transfer him."

The Darkest Midnight in December

The Darkest Midnight in December | Irish Traditional Folk Carol | Marianne Lihannah

As the name of the piece suggests, it was composed and written by an individual named Seikilos. 
The arrangement to Seikilos' melody played with a Nyckelharpa, lyre and Choroi flute is composed, sung and played by Marianne Lihannah
The lyrics were originally in Greek, I have made a more poetic translation, rather than exact, both in English and in Danish, of the original lyrics, which reads:
hóson zêis, phaínou
mēdèn hólōs sỳ lypoû
pròs olígon ésti tò zên
tò télos ho khrónos apaiteî.

While you live, shine
have no grief at all
life exists only for a short while
and Time demands his due.

Seikilos epitaph is the oldest surviving complete musical composition, including musical notation, from anywhere in the world. The epitaph has been variously dated, but seems to be either from the 1st or the 2nd century CE. The song, the melody of which is recorded, alongside its lyrics, in the ancient Greek musical notation, was found engraved on a tombstone (a stele) from the Hellenistic town of Tralles near present-day Aydın, Turkey, not far from Ephesus. A town that was part of Ancient Greece but is now part of Turkey.
While older music with notation exists (for example the Hurrian songs), all of it is in fragments; the Seikilos epitaph is unique in that it is a complete, though short, composition.
This gives us a glimpse as to what the music of Ancient Greece was truly like and the piece is still being performed today. As the name suggests, the piece itself is an epitaph, probably written to honor the composer's deceased wife or the muse of music. 


The Stele is now kept in a museum in Denmark, where I come from, so I thought it fun to translate the beautiful words into a poetic Danish translation as well. Each verse is sung in a slightly different way. As there is a debate as to where the emphasis is in the meter, each verse has a different emphasis because of the different translations in 2 languages.
A possible alternative way of rhythmizing the Seikilos song, in order to preserve the iambic ('rising', di-dum) feel of the rhythm, was suggested by Armand D'Angour, with the barlines displaced one quaver to the right. When I sing the song a second time in Danish, I am using this alternative way.
The verse in English, which I sing first, I sing using the more well-known way of putting the emphasis.
It is a Hellenistic Ionic song in either the Phrygian octave species or Iastian tonos.

In addition to the lyrics, another piece of the puzzle is the inscription engraved on the stele that reads, “I am a tombstone, an image. Seikilos placed me here as an everlasting sign of deathless remembrance

 it, which reads in Greek:
eikṑn ḗ líthos eimí. títhēsí me Seikílos éntha mnḗmēs athanátou sêma polykhrónion.
A free translation of this reads: "I am a tombstone, an image. Seikilos placed me here as a long-lasting sign of deathless remembrance."

Dedication
The last two surviving words on the tombstone itself are (with the bracketed characters denoting a partial possible reconstruction of the lacuna or of a possible name abbreviation)
Σεικίλος Εὐτέρ[πῃ]
Seikílos Eutér[pēi]

meaning "Seikilos to Euterpe"; hence, according to this reconstruction, the tombstone and the epigrams thereon were possibly dedicated by Seikilos to Euterpe, who was possibly his wife. (Euterpe is also the name of the Muse of music). Another possible partial reconstruction could be
Σεικίλος Εὐτέρ[που]
Seikílos Eutér[pou]

meaning "Seikilos of Euterpes", i.e. "Seikilos, son of Euterpes"

Seikilos Epitaph

Seikilos Epitaph | Song of Seikilos | Oldest complete song | arrang. by Marianne Lihannah

Gjendines bådnlåt is a traditional Norwegian folk lullaby which can be traced back to Kaia Gjendine Slålien (1870-1971), a milkmaid from the Jotunheimen area. Well known for her repertoire of songs, she met Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) on several occasions. Many of her ballads and lullabies formed the basis for his 1896 collection of “19 Norwegian Folk Songs – Op.66” which he arranged for the piano. Gjendines bådnlåt is the last piece in the collection. My version of the lullaby is mixing up various versions of the lullaby, as well as including a nyckelharpa solo and my arrangement for nyckelharpa.

Lyrics:

Bånet legges i vuggen ned
stundom gråter, stundom ler (x2)
sove nå sove nå, I Jesu namn
Jesus bevare bånet (x2)

Min mor ho tok meg på sitt fang
dansa med meg fram og tilbake
Min mor ho tok meg på sitt fang
dansa med meg att och fram
Danse så med de små, danse så
så skal borna danse (x2)

Translation:
The child is placed in the crib
Sometimes crying, sometimes smiling
Sleep now, sleep now, in the name of Jesus
Jesus keep the child safe

My mother takes me in her arms
danced with me back and forth
Dance with the little ones, dance
So shall they dance

Gjendine's Lullaby

Gjendine's Lullaby | Norwegian Folk Trad. | Marianne Lihannah

'Eunoia' (meaning: beautiful thinking) is sung, arranged and played on nyckelharpa by Marianne Lihannah.
The melody is an old German folk tune. (Ich stund an einem Morgen)
The lyrics by Marianne Lihannah and Anon.

I fell in love with this song with Swedish lyrics  (Hemlig stod jag en morgon) and learned that initially. After getting inside the Swedish text I realized I couldn't make myself record that kind of story.
I began to research the song and discovered that it originally had German words (Ich stund an einem Morgen), with a completely different story from the Swedish version. 

Because I loved the old folk tune so much, I decided to re-write the lyrics completely and arrange it for nyckelharpa.

Eunoia

Eunoia |  Marianne Lihannah

The Wrong Turn pt.1  Classical guitar with cello
Paul Landry - Yanaha electro classical guitar and VSTi cello
Composed and performed by Paul Landry

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The Wrong Turn pt. 1

The Wrong Turn pt.1

Elyssia (Paul Landry and Marianne Lihannah), an Anglo - Danish duo creating new age music, ambient music and progressive rock with beautiful female vocals.
This channel also features songs by Marianne Lihannah in various genres

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