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The Spaniards' Graves at the Isles of Shoals

from Set to the Music by Crosscurrents Music

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about

In January, 1813, the Spanish vessel Sagunto, or as some say the Concepcion, sailing north from Hispaniola, was caught in a fierce winter gale. As snow and ice blinded the pilot, violent winds drove the vessel into the rocks on the southeast end of Smuttynose, also known as Haley’s Island. Celia Thaxter's father Thomas Laighton later bought the Island from Sam Haley, and Celia's well-known poem enshrined Haley's tale of the shipwreck in Isles of Shoals history. Maritime music holds many rollicking versions of "Farewell and Adieu Ye Fine Spanish Ladies," so it seemed natural to match and modulate the familiar tune to meet the mournful mood of the Spanish ladies and their storyteller. In the process, I discovered that the poem itself contains subtle flamenco dance rhythms that emerge like a grave rubbing when set to music.

lyrics

O sailors, did sweet eyes look after you
The day you sailed away from sunny Spain?
Bright eyes that followed fading ship and crew,
Melting in tender rain?

CHORUS
Farewell and adieu, you fine Spanish ladies
Farewell, ye ladies of Spain
Bright eyes that follow the fading ship and crew
Melting in tender rain.

Did no one dream of that drear night to be,
Wild with the wind, fierce with the stinging snow,
When on yon granite point that frets the sea,
The ship met her death-blow?

Fifty long years ago these sailors died:
(None know how many sleep beneath the waves)
Fourteen gray headstones, rising side by side,
Point out their nameless graves,-

Lonely, unknown, deserted, but for me,
And the wild birds that flit with mournful cry,
And sadder winds, and voices of the sea
That moans perpetually.

Wives, mothers, maidens, wistfully, in vain
Questioned the distance for the yearning sail,
That leaning landward, should have stretched again
White arms wide on the gale,

To bring back their beloved. Year by year,
Weary they watched, till youth and beauty passed,
And lustrous eyes grew dim and age drew near,
And hope was dead at last.

Still summer broods o'er that delicious land,
Rich, fragrant, warm with skies of golden glow:
Live any yet of that forsaken band
Who loved so long ago?

Oh Spanish women, over the far seas,
Could I but show you where your dead repose!
Could I send tidings on this northern breeze
That strong and steady blows!

Dear dark-eyed sisters, you remember yet
These you have lost, but you can never know
One stands at their bleak graves whose eyes are wet
With thinking of your woe!

credits

from Set to the Music, released July 24, 2021
Celia Laighton Thaxter arr. Lynn Noel (air trad.)

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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

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