The Colour of Amber - Elsa & Will

The traditional English Romany song ‘The Colour of Amber’, sung by me and @elsafield.

The tune is strange, which fits well the cryptic lyric. When shall oranges grow on an apple tree? I wonder if this refers to the geographical unlikeliness of the Garden of Eden’s fruit of temptation having been an apple. Apparently the original Hebrew word more generically meant ‘fruit’, but St Jerome in the 4th century translated it as apple because it sounded similar to the Latin for ‘evil’.

Perhaps this song prophecies a return to innocence when such biblical misinterpretations have been remedied? The English Romany Christian tradition does seem to have been a distinct sub-culture - they apparently believed that Gypsies made the nails that pinned Christ to the cross, so it is forbidden to handle iron at Easter. There seems to be a depth of sub-story to many of the Roma trad songs I know, but it is often hard to unpluck, as if there was a societal need to conceal the overt beliefs of this culture, even (especially?) in public acts like song.

Anyway, I really like singing this song, especially with harmonies. A harmony can make a weird melody even weirder.

If you enjoy delving into traditional songs, their meanings and echoes, and love singing them in the landscape, do please join Elsa and I for a song pilgrimage! We have a few spaces left for our Sept and Oct events in Somerset, when we re-wild ‘The Seeds of Love’, taking it home to where it was first collected, while exploring relationship patterns through the guidance of the song.

Come along! willwalking.com/events

See you on the path, and walk well.

#Pilgrimage #tradition #England #traditional #folksong #pilgrim #trad song