Code of Music
En Gallop
The harpist/singer/composer Joanna Newsom is mainly known for long, winding compositions and dense lyrics rife with allegory that passionate listeners need a dictionary and encyclopedia to unpack.
While I’ve long loved the uncompromising challenge of her most intricate works, (e.g. the 17-minute “Only Skin” and 8-minute “Go Long”), it happens to be this quiet, relatively straightforward song, “En Gallop”, buried in the back half of her first LP, The Milk-Eyed Mender that I always return to. Just Newsom and her harp, it is among her most direct and personal works. She depicts the terrors of an unforgiving world that she neither knows or can prepare for. In the final verses she switches into the second person tense and addresses the listener directly (or perhaps herself) telling us that though we can dream or dedicate our lives to some higher power, we mustn’t ever forget our basic bodily/societal needs. We still gotta pay rent, buy groceries, and get out bed in the morning.
One really should listen to the whole song - It’s so patiently paced, it likely loses its calming effect in small doses. But, if I’d have to choose a key section, I’d suggest her final verse leading into the long instrumental outro (2:59–3:29).
A blog for displaying Willie Payne’s progress in the NYU ITP Course “The Code of Music.”