Bardic Circle Featuring Polly Moller...
'Three Quarters (Nubanusit & Contoocook)
(by Polly Moller)
Audience Count: 6,454
  The Story...
In Peterborough, New Hampshire there's a river confluence, where the Nubanusit meets the Contoocook and flows on past the music school where Polly spent a week taking a flute masterclass in July of 2000. By night, the stars were plentiful and the moon bright. These provided the only light when Polly walked back from the music school to the inn where she was staying. Exploring the riverbank and leaning on the railings of the bridge that crossed the river, she started to wonder about the river deities and what it might be like for them to meet. While she was still in Peterborough she wrote the lyrics to the song, telling the story of the two rivers taking human form, and the one seducing the other. She also worked out most of the flute part. After returning home to the San Francisco Bay Area she programmed the drums and bass and wrote the bass guitar part.
In late 2000 and 2001 Polly's chronic injury to her left forearm and shoulder worsened. She had to leave off playing the flute for months while drugs, physical therapy, and cortisone shots were given a chance to solve the problem. Her forearm healed, but the shoulder stubbornly continued to hurt. She played a few gigs in 2001, and did some recording sessions at Lucky Dog Studio in September of 2001 (experiencing the Sept. 11 disaster while far from home), but shortly had to take time off from the flute again in the face of debilitating pain. It was only in May of 2002, when she began acupuncture and Chinese herbal treatments with Dr. Shao-Zhou Gao, that the shoulder started to improve and she could finish writing the flute solo and head for Eugene, OR to finish recording the song.
Now it's the second track on her soon-to-be-released third album, "Diogenes".
Recorded: Recorded at Lucky Dog Studio, Eugene, OR
Guests/Players: Polly Moller played flute, guitar, and bass, programmed the drums/bass, and did the vocals.
Technical Notes: Hofinger flute made of cocus wood, made in Brussels, Belgium around 1900; Zoom Rhythmtrak drum machine; Fender jazz bass; and mahogany Martin acoustic guitar.
Artist Profile: San Francisco Bay Area artist Polly Moller has been variously admired as a rock poet, urban assault flutist, and postmodern-rock songwriter. In 1995 she began exploring rock, ambient, and Celtic influences upon her original music and incorporating effects processing, spoken and sung lyrics, and electronic drums into live flute performance. Two albums, "Taste the Wall" and "Summerland" resulted, and a third, "Diogenes", will be released on February 4, 2003.
New sounds crop up everywhere on "Diogenes". Polly took up the guitar as a songwriting tool after her flute-induced shoulder injury become too painful -- adding a tightness, accessibility, and radio-friendliness to several new songs: 'Synaesthesia', 'Cellular Hill', 'John Mockingbird', and 'Three Quarters (Nubanusit & Contoocook)'. Polly also included the disturbingly traditional sound of the autoharp on two tracks -- the dark and driving 'Stark Weather' and the atmospheric 'Plaquemine Brulée'.
Polly’s path through music has merged with her path through life. A voracious reader of Celtic myth and the mysticisms of many lands, she juxtaposes the ancient world with the modern world through songwriting, integrating the words and inspiration of the past with the musical forms of the 21st century.
Her twenty years of classical training prepared her well for a swerve into uncharted musical waters, but also gave her the determination to survive a struggle for recognition after creating a hybrid style never heard before in rock OR the avant-garde. A cadre of intelligent DJs, eclectic concert bookers, and loyal fans propelled her music out of obscurity and into a place where it stands poised to take over the minds of true conoisseurs everywhere.
Website: http://www.silverwheel.com
Email: music@silverwheel.com
LINK to the mp3 File: Click HERE
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'Three Quarters (Nubanusit & Contoocook)
(words & music by Polly Moller)
Oppressive day relieved by night
Secretive thoughts mused out of sight
Long curling hair coming unbound
In my fingers' memory, a thrilling persistent sound
Swing and promenade and see
Three-quarters of a dance with me
Woods and mist too thick to see
this modern world
and my victory is short-lived, for you won't give the gift I wish of you
I won't take more than I deserve
and to give to me would seal your union with all particles of me
each one begun within the sun to light your way
Gaze upon the river and its trees
see how the stones lie still while waters travel by eternally
In this universe only I can see
I shifted you and the water swerved to flow by crookedly
Show me your spear-hand's strength
Breathe in my scent and understand
Meet me in uncertain time
Three-quarters of a glass of wine
Three-quarter moon shines down
In dappled white and shade, look down, perceive the road
Lilies burn in the darkness of the wood
floating above the silence, singing stars
Perfection's sphere is formed round you and me
The road leads on, but before you go, dance with me
copyright 2003 Silver Wheel Music
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