re: some questions

["Alan Chamberlin" <xxxxabckid@ix.netcom.com>]

Patricia Ritter <pattypat@worldnet.fr> wrote in article
<339E8810.958@worldnet.fr>...
> Hi! 
> I'm just a newbie. I only discovered Kate's music last year... so could
> somebody answer to my questions?
> I was wondering if "Waking the witch" has to be seen in parallel with
> "The witches of Salem" by Arthur Miller. Moreover, one of my friend told
> me that a part of "Nosferatu" soudtrack has been used in "The Ninth
> Wave": is it right?
> Finally does "Under Ice" refer to something particular?
> Thaks for your help and answers!
> 
> Patricia
> -- 
> +-----------------------------------------------------------------+
> | Patricia Ritter (mailto:pattypat@worldnet.fr) - Pulnoy - France |
> +-----------------------------------------------------------------+
> 
> 

The Ninth Wave (a conceptual pieces) is composed of all the songs on the
second side of HOL.  The piece was inspired by a true event where a woman
fell into icy water and was there overnight until her rescue.

The Ninth Wave begins with the woman already in the water (Dream of Sheep,
"Little light shining/ Little light will guide them to me/ My face is all
lit up/ My face is all lit up/ If they find me racing white horses/ They'll
not mistake me for a buoy.")  What follows is what Kate has imagined runs
through the mind of this woman until her rescue.  In "Under Ice" she
dreams (in a quite surrealistic fashion) her fall through the ice -
"There's something moving under/ Under the ice/ Moving under ice - through
water/ Trying to get out of the cold water/ 'It's me' / Something, someone
- help them/  'It's me'."

In the next songs her past, present and future come to her.  In Waking the
Witch (not about the Salem witch trials) she is confronted by accusations
of her past.  Her accuser (herself?, her religion?, authority in general?)
confronts her with her "sins" and demands a confession before she is be
drowned.  (This is by the way one of my favorite Kate moments, the segue
from Under Ice to Waking the Witch - "Wake up dear, look who's here to see
you.")

She then imagines what life will be out for her husband/lover/signifcant
other in "Watching You Without Me."  In "Jig of Life" she is confronted by
her future, specifically the old woman she is to be who chides her with
"Never, never say goodbye/ To my part of your life/ No, no, no,/ Oh, oh,
oh, / Let me live/ She said c'mon let me live/ She said c'mon let me live
girl"  And later, "This moment in time / It doesn't belong to you / It
belongs to me / And to your little boy and to your little girl . . ."

In Hello Earth she ponders the grand perspective of things "With just one
hand held up high / I can blot you out/ Out of sight / Peek-a-boo /
Peek-a-boo little Earth"

In the Morning Fog she has been rescued and vows to declare her love to
those around her.

Even as I've been writing this I've been listening to an interview of Kate
who summed up Ninth Wave as about a woman in the water overnight.  During
the night her past present and future come to her to keep her awake until
she is rescued.

That said pay close attention to the themes of being awake and going to
sleep that pervade the songs.  In Dream of Sheep she wishes she had a radio
to keep her awake but only wants to go to sleep.  In Under Ice I surmise
she is dreaming while asleep.  Waking the Witch begins with "Wake Up."  If
the first visitor in Waking the Witch is a bit rough it is perhaps because
her survival is vital and she must stay awake.  There are more but they
don't immediately leap to my mind.

The Tennyson quote, per Kate, has nothing to do with the piece.  She needed
a title for the piece and the quote fit.

Some of my favorite Kate music is in the Ninth Wave.  Hope this helps.


-- 
Alan Chamberlin
----

"Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it."
Santayana