The Lord of the Dance
There are several reasons why I want to share that video with you:
- I love Irish Folk Music and I love the Dubliners. They have been on the stage since the middle of the seventies. The members of the group changed, but the quality remained.
- I love to dance. I love to dance when I am happy, so to express my joy. I also love to dance when I am sad – because the music cheers me up. And if there’s a fiddle and a guitar and a flute, nobody keeps me from tapping my feet, getting up and hopping around.
- I love this song. I didn’t know that it was a hymn (or still is?). For me it’s expressing the will to fight death, and torture with dance – not with violence.
Enjoy!
11 responses to “The Lord of the Dance”
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Ulla Hennig's Weblog 
What a wonderful way to start the day!
From one dancer to another…thank you.
Pat,
Whenever I listen to that song, I can barely keep myself from tapping my feet. It’s one of my favorites from the Dubliners.
I love Irish music too as does my partner, he put all his music on his IPOD and I got a Bose speaker stand for him…so when he is working up in our bedroom late at night, I just can hear his toes tapping as he works on his emails
Nice post and aren’t you clever to get the video up and running. Took me weeks to get my Holiday message up and running and then I had to hand it over to my IT person to finally do it.
Thank you
PS,
Sorry I haven’t been here for awhile my server was changed out yesterday – I am back in business!
Hi Ulla, I love knowing this about you! I love to dance too and you’re right it never fails to lift the spirits when down and feed them when you’re up! This is a great song too, so upbeat!
Kia ora Ulla
‘Lord of The Dance’ is an old folk song as you know. It is a song that is viewed with some controversy. Tradition has it that the voice is accompanied by a fiddle, supposedly the devil’s instrument in this context.
I like the melody, and the words fit the rhythm well. But many (I’m not among them) feel that the words are irreverent about the crucifixion.
A E Housman’s poem, ‘The Carpenter’s Son’, has been associated with this song, though Housman’s words have been viewed as more reverent. The final line of his 7 stansa poem from ‘A Shropshire Lad’ is said to carry the sentiment that some opinion maintains is found in ‘Lord of The Dance’:
“Live, lads, and I will die.”
Catchya later
from Middle-earth
Ken,
thanks for the info! I saw a video on youtube where “The Lord of the Dance” was sung like a church hymn – so I was not aware of the controversy.
Ulla,
Having been born only in ’76,’ I had not previously heard of the Dubliners, and this was the first time which I have heard this song.
I must say, however, that I thoroughly enjoyed listening to it – it has a wonderful rich texture to it, and the use of the fiddle gives it that friendly country feel.
As a further comment, I must say that in general, I have a very high respect for the Irish in terms of their music. Granted, contemporary popular music is realistically the only genre to which I have had any decent exposure, so I can’t make a great deal of informed comment about other genres of music. But even there, popular Irish artists, such as U2, The Corrs, The Cranberries, Ronan Keating and Westlife seem to have a certain quality about them which I feel has often been lacking amongst popular artists from other nations.
Dance breaks are an absolute essential. Really. 🙂 Couldn’t live without them. Yep. Big smiles you gave me here Ulla. Love it.
Karen, Andrew, Patricia and Janice,
I am glad that you enjoyed the music!
I’ve never danced, but I sure enjoy and admire the art of dance. The expression of warding off death and war with dance is a very pleasing thought.
Preston,
thanks for coming over and taking the time to comment! Yes, the expression of warding off death and war with dance impressed me very much, too.