The lyrics for Written on Water are finished now, so I thought I would share them with you. Please don’t send them anywhere; they won’t be performed until June, when a 30 voice children’s choir accompanied by a small orchestra will sing them in the Abbey. The children are young, so the lyrics have to be simple. In the first, introductory lyric, we introduced the idea of the history of Bath as a sacred place – not just the Abbey – beginning with the hot springs; the fusion of fire and water. And the second song celebrates our Iron Age ancestors and their worship of the Water Goddess, eventually Sulis. (Of course, as with all of them, the music makes it.) The simplest form of religion; a child in the night crying for its mother.
PAGAN SONG
Mother! Mother! Hear us! Hear us! Hear us!
Mother! Mother! Hear us! Hear us! Hear us!
O Mother! Mother! Mother! Hear us! Hear us! O Mother!
Fire in water, Water in fire!
Hear us as we sing to thee! Hear us as we dance!
Hear us as we sing to thee!
Fire in water, Water in fire!
Mother! Mother! Hear us! Hear us! Hear us!
O Mother! Mother! Mother! Hear us! Hear us! O Mother!
Bring the sun up when the night dies.
Bring the grass back when the snow melts.
Bring the sun up when the night dies.
Bring us life!
Fire in water, Water in fire!
Mother! Mother! Hear us! Hear us! Hear us!
O Mother! Mother! Mother! Hear us! Hear us! O Mother!
Mother! Mother! Hear us! Hear us! Hear us!
Mother!
Mother!