The Second Spring

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Introduction
1. The Windfall to the early 19th-century English melody "Here's Adieu to All Judges and Juries"
2. Joy Will Keep Us a Christmas carol
3. The Long Grass to the 19th-century Scottish lament "Mist-Covered Mountains of Home"
4. He Will Wake to the Fire to the 1835 shape-note melody "The Babe of Bethlehem"
5. The Reason for the Light adapted from the 1860 parlor song "I'll Twine 'Mid the Ringlets"
6. My House Is an Orchestra to the 1701 longways dance "The Bishop of Bangor's Jig"
7. The Faeries' Farewell to the 1803 Shetland fiddle tune "Winyadepla"
8. The Western Gate to the sentimental 18th-century Irish melody "Snowy Breasted Pearl"
9. The Rain and Wind to the 18th-century Appalachian folk tune "The Golden Vanity"
10. Suzanne Asleep a pop song
11. The Dean in the End Will Rise to the scurrilous 1720 broadside "Duke Upon Duke"
12. Dream, Pretty Baby a lullaby
13. The Only Hurry Is Our Own to Michael Praetorius' 1612 Italian dance "Courante 183"
14. My Love Sees the Rain to the 18th-century Appalachian plaint "Pretty Saro"
15. The Apple Revels to the possibly 18th-century "Gower Wassail"
16. Down by the Greenwood to the 17th-century English ballad "Henry Martin"
17. Holdin' On a country-western song
18. The Rose Once Cut for Me to the 18th-century French folk tune "Sur les Bords de la Loire"
19. Such Joys Our Savior Brings to the 1871 Christmas anthem "Listen, Lordings, Unto Me"
20. Wherever She May Be a Nashville song
21. The Children to the late-medieval English ballad "Sir Lionel and the Boar"
22. The Lilac and the Rose a ballad
23. The Second Spring to the 13th-century Galician-Portuguese cantiga "Des Oge Mais" Appendix: The Soundtracking of America

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About

In The Second Spring, the widely published author Joseph Bottum pens what may be the most original cultural undertaking in decades – an attempt to heal the damaged poetry of our time with an infusion of music, and an effort to strengthen the weak music of our age with an injection of poetry.
    Ten years ago, in the pages of the Atlantic Monthly, Bottum published an essay called “The Soundtracking of America,” a much-attacked account of the misuse of music in contemporary culture. Now, with The Second Spring, he comes at the problem from the other side, as a lyricist rather than a critic. Selecting twenty-four haunting melodies, from a 13th-century Galician-Portuguese cantiga to a modern country/western tune, Bottum composes new verses that both stand alone as poems and reach deep into the roots of the musical genres in which they stand.
    Hymns, lullabies, folk tunes, pop songs, dirges, shape-note spirituals, broadsides, and Renaissance Italian dances – The Second Spring explores all these without sarcasm or mockery, allowing each genre to express itself within its natural form.
    The Second Spring contains the lyrics, melodies, and new piano arrangements (with guitar chords) for twenty-four songs: new words to old music. With an introduction and, as an appendix, the text of “The Soundtracking of America,” this book is a vital and significant event in the nation’s artistic culture.

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