Maintaining the spooky theme Jon says, “I came across this in the now disbanded Sheffield Folklore library in a little book called German Folk Songs. Pete Flood arranged it for Bellowhead in what is probably our most epic and difficult arrangement to date. We have performed it live a few times (I think it’s on the DVD) and it works really well, although it does feel a bit like sitting A level maths every time we play it. This is a much simplified version!” It appears, of course, on Matachin and the notes in the booklet refer both to the closure of the library and resulting loss of detail, but also to this being a C20th translation of a poem by the Austrian poet Joseph Christian Von Zedlitz. Having just played that version for a quick A-B, I can concur that the arrangement is extremely tricksy and somehow this version does more for the essential spookiness of the song for me, much as I like the CD. Frustratingly there’s little more to add and even the Wiki page is brief, although a longer German/Austrian page doesn’t seem to appear in English. Those of you who are multi-lingual might like to link here, although I note Reinhard seems to have the original here as well. Any further enlightenment will be appreciated as I really like this one.
