Persephone

Move Over, Eras Tour

In September 2024, I undertook my first solo musician tour with what is clearly a VERY popular genre: arrangements of chants by a 12th century nun. Let me tell you, the ticket scalping problem was real. Ticketmaster was a mess.

But all jokes aside, as I get older I’ve settled into the fact that I cannot escape who I am. And who I am is a weird, ethereal seeker who curls up inside religious tomes and mystic paintings and sings high notes. I’ve been happy to find that in my modest audiences, there are people who GET IT. Who vibe. Who feel the primitive cry within their breast that’s begging for transfiguration.

I chose September for a Hildegard Tour for two reasons: 1) a Hildegard-centered community outside Cleveland, OH found me on Facebook and asked for me to come present music to them for their anniversary in September, and 2) September 17th is Hildegard’s feast day. It felt apropos to take the travel opportunity to spread more seeds of Hildegard’s mysticism along the way. I had so much I wanted to share.

I blended my arrangements of good ole Hildy’s work into a program with some of my own compositions and an original melody set to some of Hildy’s poetry and letters. I’ve recently been invited to sing some of my Appalachian arrangements at a summertime concert series in June, and was going through old video footage.

I completely forgot that I did this in Louisville at The Chapel of St. Philip Neri (which is an awesome community art space and nonprofit) and knew I wanted to share it.

Daughter Dear

This is a stripped-down voice/drum take on a piece I've written called 'Persephone' about loss between a mother and a daughter. I wrote it after my mom was killed. The speaker and the perspective is intentionally skewed here; I singing as the mother to the daughter, the mother mourning the daughter rather than the other way around. I felt lost, confused, muddled up in what was already a complicated relationship. A relationship that I was actively and slowly working on, when the local Healthcare Conglomerate That’s Definitely Not Called Ballad killed her.

I’ve thought a lot about the Persephone myth over the years. Are we to sympathize with the mother? Are we to align ourselves with the daughter? Persephone has been idolized recently by those of us darker gals who prefer shadows. The Queen of the Underworld. But I have to wonder at this mythical relationship. Was Persephone intentionally easy to catch because she was attracted to the dark, or because she felt smothered by her mother? Or was it a terrible tragedy? What about Demeter’s perspective?

The beauty of myth is that we can use these stories as vehicles to explore the narratives of our own lives. I’m not sure I’m ready to put a fully personal narrative into such a public space, but as I age and age into this grief I’m gaining a deeper understanding of both women.

Anyway, here are the lyrics, because the space was echoey, this is a low-quality camera capture, etc etc:

PERSEPHONE
Moira Murphy

Deep down on the path Persephone has walked,
I find my shameless feet take me,
oh wilfully, to the void
To hear you speak to me.

I would gladly trade my life’s sun in its halcyon days
To live in shadows deep,
harvesting minutes, hours, days
Just to say bye to thee.

I am small yet I seek that stairway that leads to the skies,
Where she turns and smiles at me,
Dear Persephone.
Daughter, come to me.