On Patreon I suggested an old Scottish folksong’s tune. Here is my somewhat mediocre attempt to set the words to the tune.
Does anyone else have a different tune that they think fits? Is anyone else willing to embarrass themselves by trying to demonstrate?
People actually pay me not to sing, so I’m going to leave this up to you guys. But voting on who can do the creepiest and most authentic recording of this lullaby would be pretty cool if anyone else wants to give it a try!
I kinda heard it in my head with a cadence/tune similar to this: TikTok - Make Your Day
Slow, haunting, alternating stressed and unstressed syllables in a way similar to common metre,
Edit: My allergies have been horrible today, so forgive the stuffed up nose and weird mouth noises, but this was my attempt at what it was in my head, just a haunting steady rhythm, and just generally creepy.
Some of it doesn’t work all that well when I try it though.
If you want an effect more like the TikTok video, you should use reverb. That will emulate the impact of the stairwell on her voice.
I thought about using overtones to be singing an octave apart from myself. But chose not to because it doesn’t sound very good. However the chapter specifies that she sounded “strange and warbling”. That suggests vibrato. But I’ve never liked the sound of a man’s voice doing vibrato, so I didn’t try to do that.
I always think of warbling either like phase shifting or that “fan warble” effect you might create with an LFO. for this, I guess I’m typically imagining the doppler sound; i.e. like an old B3 organ cabinet.
While writing my latest speculation at What is the nature of the Plane of Darkness? I thought about this lullaby again.
A lullaby from her mother. Connecting creatures with wicked stares from the land of nightmares to lost souls. With said creatures having to stay in darkness. Using images from the thing sealed in her mind to conjure up the wicked stare. A thing that I suspect has been stealing souls.
Am I overthinking? Read the words again:
Hush now, child, do not weep.
Close your eyes and sink to sleep.
In slumber’s realm, you may roam,
But heed me, child, stay close to home.For should you wander far and wide,
Your soul may find a place to hide.
In the realm of dreams, beware,
Dark creatures roam with wicked stare.For if you stray too far, too deep,
In the land where nightmares sleep,
Your soul may wander, lost and torn,
And those you’ve left behind, forlorn.Secrets in the darkness keep,
For with the dawn, all shadows flee.
Sleep now, child, do not fear.
Morning comes soon, bright and clear.
I’m commenting here to avoid providing a spoiler there. But wow does it all fit…
Could be warning against Shamanism in general.
So, I did some syllable counting and thinking, and this one is a little tricky to set to more typical folk music, because it’s not like a normal ABACA rhythmically. Assuming that Siobhan sung it straight through.
But. The phrases in Brahms’ Lullaby seems like it might work pretty well because it would account for the larger number of syllables in the second stanza, although it didn’t try to sing it.
That tune, however, may be one of the least creepy pieces of music ever written.
Can we transfer this out of restricted? It hasn’t been a spoiler for a bit.
Absolutely. Send me a PM next time? I didn’t see this until now.