We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

The Ropewalk

from Set to the Music by Crosscurrents Music

/

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $1 USD  or more

     

  • Buy the Full Digital Album

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    signed by the artist on request - please make a note in Include a message to Crosscurrents Music at checkout. Apologies for the international shipping rates! Digital download is available.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Set to the Music via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 3 days
    edition of 50 

      $10 USD or more 

     

  • Full Digital Discography

    14
    releases

    Get all 14 Crosscurrents Music releases available on Bandcamp and save 25%.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Gudrid the Wanderer, Topophilia, From Boston Harbor, Saint Patrick's Day, Crossing the Bar, Set to the Music, She Drank Her Ale at the Bar, In Lilac Time, and 6 more. , and , .

    Excludes supporter-only releases.

    Purchasable with gift card

      $52.50 USD or more (25% OFF)

     

about

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow puts poetic imagination into the drawn-out, repetitive work of making rope in a long, narrow shed built for the purpose. The only standing ropewalk remaining in the United States is in the Charlestown Navy Yard, where we host the Boston Area Chantey and Maritime Sing. This setting uses the Irish tune Casadh an Tsúgáin, or Twisting the Rope, slowed to the "drowsy, dreamy sound" of the poem.

lyrics

In that building, long and low
With its windows all a-row
Like the port-holes of a hulk;
Human spiders spin and spin
Backward down their threads so thin
Dropping, each a hempen bulk.

At the end, an open door
Squares of sunshine on the floor
Light the long and dusky lane;
And the whirring of a wheel
Dull and drowsy, makes me feel
All its spokes are in my brain.

All these scenes do I behold
These and many left untold
In that building long and low;
While the wheel goes round and round
With a drowsy, dreamy sound
And the spinners backward go.

Two fair maidens in a swing
Like white doves upon the wing
First before my vision pass;
Laughing, as their gentle hands
Closely clasp the twisted strands
At their shadow on the grass.

Then a homestead among farms
And a woman with bare arms,
Drawing water from a well;
As the bucket mounts apace
With it mounts her own fair face
As at some magician's spell.

Then an old man in a tower
Ringing loud the noontide hour
While the rope coils round & round;
Like a serpent at his feet
And again, in swift retreat
Nearly lifts him from the ground.

Ships rejoicing in the breeze
Wrecks that float o'er unknown seas
Anchors dragged through faithless sand;
Sea-fog drifting overhead
And, with lessening line and lead
Sailors feeling for the land.

credits

from Set to the Music, released July 24, 2021
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow arr. Lynn Noel (air trad.)

license

tags

about

Crosscurrents Music image

Crosscurrents Music Boston, Massachusetts

Lynn Noel brings traditional song and heritage arts online to create community. Lynn has a voice of striking clarity and power, equally at home in rhythmic chanteys and flowing ballads.

Lynn is a respected song session leader on both sides of the Atlantic and the producer and host of the Mermaid's Tavern online folk club. She is currently Program Chair of the New England Folk Festival (NEFFA). ... more

contact / help

Contact Crosscurrents Music

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this track or account

If you like Crosscurrents Music, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Beans joins the show to discuss his album release, "ZWAARD".

listen now