The History of Sound (2025) Movie Script
1
My father said
it was a gift from God.
How I could see music.
How I could name the note
my mother coughed every morning.
What the dog across the field
was barking,
the key of the springtime frogs.
Shape,
color.
I thought everyone could see sound.
Yellow for D.
Tastes too.
My father would play a B minor,
and my mouth went bitter.
It never occurred to me
that music was only sound.
Across the rocky mountain
I walked for miles and miles
Say, I'll never forget
my mother's looks
God bless her sweetly smile
There was an old, rich farmer
Who lived in the neighborhood by
He had
One lonely daughter
On her I cast my eye...
The town's music teacher
noticed my singing.
She wrote her friend in Boston,
a professor...
which is how I left the farm.
A scholarship
to the New England Conservatory.
Across the rocky mountain
I walked for miles and miles
Lionel?
I walked for miles and miles
I'm sorry,
I know that song from home.
Excuse me.
There was an old, rich farmer
Who lived in the neighborhood by
He had one lonely daughter
On her I cast my eye
She was most tall and handsome
Blue eyes and curly hair
There's no one girl
In the wide world
With her I could compare
Where'd you learn that?
Some forest in England.
My father used to sing it
back in Kentucky.
Did he?
David White.
Lionel Worthing.
- What department?
- Voice.
Well, fa-la-la.
Composition.
- People here know songs like that?
- They don't.
This is...
a hobby in the summers.
Collecting tunes, ballads, songs.
Reminds me of home.
What else do you know?
More than you, likely.
Pretty Saro ?
Of course.
Fair Winter ?
"One went east, the other went west."
How about...
Silver Dagger ?
No, I don't think so.
Oh.
- Should I?
- Well, it's such a pretty song.
Well, come on. Let's hear it.
What key?
Come on, what key?
I don't usually sing like this,
with...
- With what?
- With everyone talking.
Oh.
Excuse me!
Quiet, please!
I'm sorry. I didn't mean that.
Now you have to sing.
You shy?
Don't sing love songs
You'll wake my mother
She's sleeping here
Right by my side
In her right hand, a silver dagger
She says that I can't be your bride
All men are false
So says my mother
They'll tell you wicked,
loving lies
The very next evening
They'll court another
Leave you alone to pine and sigh
My daddy is a handsome devil
He's got a chain five miles long
And on every link
a heart does dangle
Of another maid
He's loved and wronged
Don't sing love songs
You'll wake my mother
She's sleeping here
Right by my side
In her right hand, a silver dagger
She says that
I can't be your bride
Okay.
Sit here.
Sing me all the songs you know.
David had a thousand songs
in his head.
A photographic memory,
you might call it today.
He could play a song note-for-note
after hearing it once.
Oh, I like to rise
When the sun she rises
Early in the morning
I like to hear
them small birds singing
Merrily upon their laylums
Hurrah for the life
of a country boy
For to ramble in the new-mown hay
Another drink?
I'm tired.
Bed. Walk me home.
Come in. Have some water.
Sorry. I only have one clean glass.
Come here.
Come on.
The wind doth blow
Today, my love
With a few small drops of rain
I never had
But one true love
And she in the cold grave
was lain
- Never mind. It's too long.
- Keep singing, please.
- I'll teach you the rest later.
- What's it about?
A man,
sitting on a gravestone,
not letting his dead lover rest.
She gets annoyed by all his weeping,
tells him to just
leave her alone, let her be dead.
Oh, who is this
That sits on my grave
And will not let me sleep?
She tells him to enjoy life
while he has it, to go away.
It's a good lesson.
Where'd you learn it?
My uncle and I learned it
on one of our song-collecting
in England.
And why were you there again?
You're asking a lot of questions
so early in the morning.
I told you everything about myself.
I don't even know where you grew up.
You don't?
Newport.
After my parents died,
I lived with my uncle Silas
outside London for a few years.
I was eleven. Twelve maybe.
You were an orphan?
That's a dramatic way to put it.
I was momentarily unparented.
Silas was surprised
by his newfound fatherhood.
He was determined to make me happy,
duty and all.
The English love duty.
He noticed I was spending all day
singing the songs his maid taught me.
She must have said something to him
about my asking her for songs.
I was an obsessive boy,
severely annoying, I'm sure.
I would go around the village
asking people to sing me songs
and I'd write them in a book.
Embarrassing.
It all grew from there.
Silas taking me on trips through
the countryside, first around Surrey,
during the summers
to the Lake District.
Ireland one summer.
He started to be more interested
in song-collecting it than I was.
And where's he now?
Dead. Yes.
Fever of some kind.
Which is why I'm back here.
Inheritance of my parents'
Newport house,
a dislike of English weather,
etc., etc.
I'm sorry.
For what?
Your uncle
and your parents.
You don't have any other family?
Everyone you know is going to die,
you know that.
I have to go.
I'm busy tonight.
Next week?
- Keep it down!
- Sorry.
- Good night!
- Shh!
When the draft came
later that year,
classes were disbanded.
Maybe that was it, I thought.
A handful of nights in one season.
You're going.
That's what I've been told.
Suppose you never have to worry
about the draft,
thanks to these.
I leave this week
to war.
Write.
Send chocolate.
Don't die.
Oh, the snow it melts the soonest
When the winds begin to sing
And the corn, it ripens fastest...
And so I went back to the farm
spring of 1917,
suddenly,
regretfully.
Before we part
I'd bet a crown
He'd be fain to follow it yet
Oh
The snow it melts the soonest
When the wind begins to sing
And the swallow skims
Without a thought
As long as it is spring
But when spring blows
And winter goes
Me lad, and you'll be fain
With all your pride for
to follow me
Were it 'cross the stormy main
Get up!
What's wrong?
What?
You're unhappy.
No, I'm not.
You been like this
since you come back.
You didn't wanna come back.
I understand.
You shouldn't have gone.
If you hadn't gone,
you wouldn't have cared coming back.
You're sick.
Just sing something.
Alright.
Across the rocky mountain
I walk for miles and miles
Across the rocky mountain
I walk for miles and miles
Across the rocky mountain
I walk for miles and miles
Say,
I'll never forget my mother's looks
God bless her sweetly smile
There was an old, rich farmer
Who lived in the neighborhood by
He had one lonely daughter
On her I cast my eye
She was most tall and handsome
Blue eyes and curly hair
Oh, there's no other girl
In this wide world
With her I could compare
You ever seen this?
Let me try.
- Like this, right?
- Yeah.
Dad?
Dad?
Come all ye fair and tender ladies
Take warning
how you court young men
They're like a bright star
Of a summer's morning
They first appear
And then they're gone
They'll tell to you
some pleasing story
Declare to you they love you true
I once did meet
a fair, true lover
- A true one too,
I took him to be
Then he went away
And found him another...
You look a bit sideways.
You didn't come to the funeral.
Dead is dead.
War in Europe over yet?
No.
Did I tell you about
that charge in Antietam?
Billy Higgins was shot on his horse
must have been ten times
and kept riding?
Yeah, you told me.
What the hell was it all for?
Your grandmother
was right about that.
Said we were all fools.
- Shouldn't give her that.
- What?
Coffee.
It's bad for her heart.
"Bad for her heart."
Who the hell told you that?
Will Hall.
His dog died
from eating a bag of coffee beans.
I'll let you know
when I feed her
a bag of coffee beans.
My dear
silver-throated confederate,
I hope this note
finds its way to you.
How is life on the farm?
As it stands, I return from my
walking tour,
you might say, in Europe.
God help me.
But the day is getting brighter.
I have a position at Bowdoin College
here in the evergreens of Maine.
The department head thought it
a fine idea if I was to
record folk songs
for department's regionalist leanings
in the boreal wilderness.
I have time off this coming winter.
I can't drag this talking
sewing machine by myself.
How about a long walk in the woods?
The journey points north.
Roaring fires, logging camps,
birch beer,
old songs.
Meet me on the 1st of January
at Augusta train station.
Bring warm clothes.
Don't dally, just come.
Yours, David.
I'm leaving.
What?
Where?
To Maine, for a music project.
A music project?
Be gone for a month or so.
Maybe longer.
Maybe the spring too.
Is that what you think?
And who's gonna keep this farm?
The farm will be fine.
You'll be fine.
Pardon me?
I'll be fine? Until the spring?
You come in
with potatoes to tell me this?
I'm not leaving right now.
I can't stay here alone.
Grandfather's here.
And there's food
for weeks in the cellar.
Grandpa?
What use is he?
Some, maybe.
I'm just leaving for a while.
You already said that.
Sorry, excuse me.
Thank you.
Welcome back.
Yeah, well...
Welcome to Maine.
- That's all you brought?
- Mm-hmm.
Don't have much.
And a pillow.
It was a long trip.
I have the tent.
We need a few cooking pots.
I hope you like oats.
- We're sleeping outside?
- It'll be fine.
We need more blankets.
I told you to bring warm clothes.
You look the same.
You look a little less thin.
You didn't get shot.
Yes, well, not yet.
You never sent chocolate.
My apologies,
I was somewhat distracted.
What now?
We have 36 cylinders,
the ancient machine
the department sent me with.
First, we head north,
then east,
then south to the sea,
along the coast to Augusta.
Around a hundred miles in all.
And you just walk up to someone
and ask them for a song?
I'll teach you to use this.
I'll transcribe the lyrics.
What we're looking for
isn't in towns.
You'll find it out there.
First, we have to catch a train.
- Grab that.
- Now?
Now! Your train was late.
Where are we going?
Up north, out of the city.
Well, I thought you said
we needed to buy food.
We got enough for a few days,
then we'll figure it out.
I haven't eaten today.
See this?
It's made of wax,
kind of like your candles there.
And this goes on here
and it spins around.
Sound comes down this big horn here
and it shakes this needle
which cuts a line in the wax.
How's that catch the sound?
Well...
The sound is invisible, right?
But it can be physical.
It can touch something,
it can make an impression.
If you had a magnifying glass,
you'd see ridges in the wax like...
like small hills.
Hills don't make sound.
Um...
Put your hand on your throat,
now hum.
Can you feel something?
Like a vibration?
- A little tickle.
- Right.
That's sound.
Something shaking the air,
shaking something else.
- Shaking the air?
- Uh-huh.
When you wanna play the sound back,
just have another needle on here,
jumps over the ridges of sound
and amplifies through this tube.
Will I feel something?
You won't feel a thing.
- It's on?
- It is.
Come, my soul, and let us try
For a little season
Every burden to lay by
Come, and let us reason
What is this that casts thee down?
Who are those that grieve thee?
Speak, and let the worst be known
Speaking may relieve thee
What is this that casts thee down?
Who are those that grieve thee?
Speak, and let the worst be known
Speaking may relieve thee
What do you do?
In April I open my bill
In May, I sing night and day
In June, I change my tune
In July, far, far I fly
In August
Away
I must
My grandfather once said
that happiness isn't a story.
So there isn't much to say
about those first weeks.
We'll be alright
If the wind was in our sails
We'll be alright
If the wind was in our sails
And we'll all hang on behind
We'll roll the old chariot along
Go to sleep.
Hope you like climbing.
May I ask you something?
Why haven't you said anything
about the war?
Spent a long time in the trench,
it was boring.
Felt worse for the horses.
Saint Francis was nowhere to be
found.
My grandfather talks about the war
like it was the greatest time
of his life.
I wouldn't say that.
What would you say?
It made everything dimmer,
cold.
Where are we walking now?
Towards the sea.
What's there?
Malaga Island.
It's been in the newspapers.
I read about it before you came.
Settled by slaves generations back.
Then Irish.
The governor's evicting them.
How so?
State wants the land.
Why are we going?
Poor immigrants
and former slaves
would make for strange old music, no?
That doesn't make you
feel uncomfortable?
Why?
Where I come from, you don't walk
into a place like that.
You don't have to do anything.
I'll talk.
Don't you get nervous?
I just make myself
into what someone wants me to be.
It's what Silas did.
You see a Bible on a woman's lap
and you want her to sing you a song,
you're now collecting songs
in God's name.
You see a half-empty bottle on the
table and a man who hasn't shaved in
a week,
get him to talk about his trouble.
I once saw Silas
invent a stable of horses
because a farmer was sad
about his dead nag.
So it's like lying then?
Making it easier
for someone to be generous.
An invitation.
Works in all ways, not just songs.
Lying, if you want to call it that.
Oh, thank you.
- David White.
- Will Swain.
And he, Lionel Worthing.
Musicians collecting songs.
Thank you, Will.
Who are you?
David White.
This is Lionel Worthing.
Academics
on a song-collecting mission.
This is not the time.
We were just looking
to record a song or two,
posterity.
We have no songs for you.
What is it you do here?
A schoolteacher.
Lucky us! We'll be publishing
the songs in a booklet
for schoolchildren.
Preserve America's heritage
all together.
A booklet?
Well, we could include your class.
I bet you have
some fine young singers.
Here in the vineyard
Of my Lord
I hope to live and labor
And be obedient to my God
Until my dying hour
I love to see the lilies grow
And view them all a-standing
In the right place while here below
Just as the Lord commanded
Can I get some information?
Full name?
Thankful Mary Swain.
Born?
And song title?
Here in the Vineyard.
Come
Come with me to the old churchyard
I so well know these paths
'Neath the soft green sward
Friends slumber there
That we once did regard
We will trace out their names
In the old churchyard
Mourn not for them
For their trials are over
Why weep for those
Who will weep no more?
For sweet is their sleep...
Good morning.
The ground is frozen.
Sorry?
I got two children,
three grandchildren
buried out there
in that graveyard.
And my wife.
I thought it would all just go away,
the governor would find
another project.
I wake up every morning,
look across there,
and I see nothing.
Same trees,
same rocks,
nothing coming.
But when they come,
they'll be coming from there.
Thank you, Will.
We shouldn't have left.
Wasn't right.
What would you have done?
Don't you feel bad?
We didn't say anything,
we just walked away.
The law is bigger than us.
- But it's wrong.
- I know this.
Maybe you don't understand.
- I don't understand?
- You didn't grow up where I did.
Step in front of the police,
they hurt you, kill you.
What does it matter
where you grew up?
Maybe you don't always know
how things work is all I'm saying.
You have no idea what I know,
what I've seen,
about how things work.
You did that?
I did.
Why?
Thanks.
You're going home after we finish?
I'd go anywhere else,
but I don't have any money.
You could go back
to the Conservatory.
Teach, I'm sure.
Lessons.
There's an ocean of parents in Boston
with too much to spend.
Is there any jobs at your college?
You'd hate it there. Small town.
Well, I could help
catalog the cylinders.
I'll just get a student
to do it for me.
You got a whole life ahead of you.
A bigger life.
Why do you want to stay here anyway?
If I had what you had, I'd leave.
I'd go sing somewhere...
New York.
Europe, Paris, Rome.
I'd go far away, flee.
Make money.
Money's good.
This summer?
Sure.
Really?
Sure.
In case you need anything.
That was a nice way to explain it.
What?
Sound.
I sent David a letter every month
since our trip ended.
They all went unanswered.
I stopped writing
sometime in spring of 1921.
Ciao.
Ciao.
That's it.
They aren't
the right songs.
I don't know why.
Just sing the songs.
You coming to Venice this weekend?
I need to tell Luisa.
I don't think so. No.
Why not?
I'll show you the Venice I know.
Come.
I don't know.
Maybe.
What's wrong?
You seem distracted.
I'm bored.
- I'm boring you?
- No, not you.
I'm just bored with this work.
This choir.
You're in the most prestigious choir
in the most beautiful city.
- So?
- What do you mean, "so"?
I've been offered
a position in England.
England?
Mm-hmm.
I think I might take it.
I... I've been here too long.
You think you might take it?
Yeah, I've said yes.
Summers are too hot here and...
and it's a good offer.
Summers are too hot?
Mm-hmm.
Where are you going?
You're telling me
you want to move away?
Yes.
Good luck.
Beware of the American.
- Beautiful work. Tremendous.
- Thank you.
That was beautiful, Mr. Worthing.
- You've quite a throng of admirers.
- Thank you, darlin'.
You jealous?
Obviously.
- Anyway, I've made a lunch for us.
- Oh, yes?
- What's the occasion?
- No occasion. A picnic lunch.
Sounds nice.
Oh!
You are a pig!
I'm a rural farm boy.
It's part of my charm.
I want to go to America one day,
see this farm.
No, you don't.
See,
every European thinks
that they want to
go to America, but...
believe me, things are better here.
Maybe they're just better for you.
I was thinking...
Mm-hmm?
...how about coming
to my family's home?
Next weekend.
My parents are dying to meet you.
It's a pretty little place
in the countryside.
Mm-hmm.
I'm imagining a hovel
with ivy and cobwebs.
Ghastly.
Old, drafty, but
it's home.
And I love it.
Meeting your parents?
Mm.
Well, I do think it's time, yes?
Alright, sure.
I'd love to.
This way.
I thought you said
your parents were Bohemians?
They are, in spirit.
Hello?
- Mummy?
- Darling, they're here!
Such a pleasure to finally meet you.
- The American songster.
- It's a pleasure.
No, no.
We are informal here.
Clarissa said so many
sweet things about you.
Yes, you too.
- Hello.
- So naughty. Hello.
Come here.
- Come in, please.
- Thank you.
I abandoned my only child
to greet you.
Really horrible, isn't it?
I love that.
It's Orpheus.
Uh-huh.
Your patron saint.
Would you sing
your way into hell for me?
Of course.
Would you
forgive me for looking back?
Course not!
That's typical man, distrustful,
ruining things for the woman.
Is that the story?
It is.
- Wait, is it?
- Uh-uh.
No?
I thought he turned around
to offer her a hand...
help her out of the cave.
It was an honest mistake, punished.
No.
No, he doesn't trust Hades
to keep the promise.
Oh.
I think they like you.
Who?
My parents.
I like them too.
Good.
Can I ask you something?
Mm-hmm.
Do you ever think about...
how you want your life to look?
Look? Like with music?
No, like, like...
wife, kids, family.
I like kids.
Seems like it's what people do.
That's what you want? Family?
I guess. I don't know.
You worry at all, what we're doing?
What we're doing?
You know, this.
No.
I don't worry.
I think I admire you.
Can I speak with you?
You're so handsome
when you're out of breath.
My mother, she's sick.
Sick? What do you mean?
She's dying.
My grandfather wrote.
I have to go home and see her.
I'm leaving.
When?
Going tonight, or the next day.
I'm sorry,
I can't leave her alone again.
University ends in a month.
I'll come with you.
Let's go together.
It's just one month more.
I'm not staying.
I see.
You're leaving, leaving?
Yes.
Well...
tell me why.
- I'm sorry, I...
- No, I don't want an apology.
You know what my mother wrote
after we left the house?
What?
She said I should leave you...
before you left me.
I want you to go.
Mother?
I had
A bottle of burgundy wine
My true love, she did not know
Was there I murdered
That dear little girl
Down by the banks below
I drew my saber through her
Which was a bloody sight
Can I help you?
Just out for a walk.
It's Lionel.
Gosh.
Lionel Worthing?
It's been ten years.
This is Lionel from over the hill.
We went to school together.
Thought you lived in the north.
And Europe, did I hear?
Yes, both.
Isabelle, this is a famous singer.
What are you doing back?
My mother died.
Yes, I'm sorry.
Please, keep singing.
No.
Now I'm embarrassed.
Why don't you sing? Let's hear you.
No, I just wanna listen.
I like your voices.
Okay then.
Down in the willow garden
Where me and my love did meet
There we set a-courtin'
My love fell fast asleep
I had a bottle of burgundy wine
My true love, she did not know...
Let me get this straight,
you left a fancy job
where all you had to do was open
your mouth and squawk a few notes,
you come back to Kentucky
to pick apples?
Something is not adding up.
I guess not.
Whatever paints your fence,
friend, but...
I'd leave the farm
if I could do what you do.
I guess I feel like
I'm at the end of something.
- The end of something?
- Mm.
What was the beginning?
I don't know.
Probably when I was younger,
in college up in Boston.
I don't think I've been that happy
in a long time.
My mother always used to say,
"Life's only troubles.
"You could get sad,
or you could sing about it."
What else did your mama say?
Hmm...
"Don't marry that son of a bitch,
Nathan McCloud."
- Can I help you?
- I'm looking for
the music department?
Are you a tutor?
No. A friend of mine works there.
Just upstairs, second floor,
down the hall.
Thank you.
'Scuse me.
I'm looking for a friend.
David White,
he's an instructor here.
- And who are you?
- Lionel Worthing.
We were at the Conservatory together.
- You know David?
- I did.
What?
Oh.
Well.
He passed away,
years ago.
His...
second year of teaching, I think.
That would've been 1920.
When did you last see him?
It was on a song-collecting trip
that... the department organized.
- Song collecting?
- Mm-hmm, yeah.
Folk songs.
Recordings for the college.
I'm sorry, I'm not sure
what you're referring to.
The department commissioned David
to do a song-collecting trip.
I don't think so.
I was department head for years,
I would've--
What about the cylinders?
- Cylinders?
- Yeah.
Maybe Belle could tell you more.
- Who's Belle?
- His wife.
Ex-wife.
Or widow, I mean.
I'm sorry to be the one
to deliver the news.
Thank you.
I'm sorry,
I think I have the wrong house.
I'm looking for Belle White.
Who are you?
Are you Belle?
Yes, I'm Belle Sinclair.
I'm a friend of David's.
Who's that?
It's a friend of David's.
Yes.
My shift's soon.
Is dinner ready?
Yes.
This is a bad time.
Come in.
I need to feed Henriette.
No, no, thank you.
I was just looking
for a box of wax cylinders.
Belle, I have to leave
in 20 minutes.
Come in.
What are you looking for?
We made recordings of songs,
on cylinders.
Trying to find them for research.
He didn't tell me much
about his work.
- Check with the college, I'd say.
- I did.
What sort of research is that?
I just keep a record
of the songs people are singing.
Paid to have people yell down a tube.
Bob.
Seems like a nice life.
What's your line of work, Bob?
Fire.
Fire.
My family's been fighting fires
since the town was founded.
Well.
- It was good to meet you.
- Yes, you too.
You okay here alone?
Of course.
Don't do anything with my wife.
- I'm going to put Henriette to bed.
- I should go.
No, don't go, please.
- You're busy. I should go.
- Stay.
I...
I haven't had company in months.
Just... stay a little longer, okay?
You don't have to do that.
I'm sorry I never...
wrote you back.
What?
Years ago, all those...
letters you sent to David
from Italy.
You read them?
I read all of David's mail
after he died.
You're a fine writer.
Have you ever heard that before?
Are you gonna ask me how we met?
You haven't asked me anything
about me and David, I noticed.
I understand,
I just thought you'd be more curious.
Well...
I'm sorry.
How did you two meet?
It was before
he went to Conservatory.
It was when I was 13.
We had a house in Newport
next to David's parents' house
and he became friends
with my brother, Henry.
Of course I was just
obsessed with David.
Charming friend who lived alone
in a seaside home.
But you know David,
the world loved him.
And then he went
to your school in Boston.
And then
he came back for Thanksgiving,
after...
my brother had died in Ypres.
He came back to console my parents.
He said he had a teaching position
in Maine.
And a few days after arriving,
he asked me to marry him.
I don't know why he did.
I was 18,
I was a child compared to him.
He'd seen so much
and I'd never left Newport.
He was...
I didn't see anything but him.
He was everything, I mean.
Then we moved here,
but...
things were not... fine.
Shell shock, you know.
It's only, I noticed it too late.
He didn't sleep, he didn't...
talk to me for days, sometimes.
And of course, that's the winter
you went off on your trip.
And then he...
then he was just gone.
He left me here.
What were the circumstances
of his death?
You must know.
No, I don't.
He did it up there in his office.
I should probably go.
You wait here for a minute.
You can have these back.
And I'll write to you
if I find those cylinders.
Write your address here.
If you could live anywhere,
where would it be?
Sounds pretty nice
where you were with your uncle.
I'll take you there one day.
The Lake District.
I think you'd die, it's so pretty.
The mountains...
Best voice I ever heard was there.
That's including yours, by the way.
This boy...
Town called Brackish, I think.
This boy's voice was fit
for the Pope and all the angels,
fit for God.
No, strike that.
It was God.
Where would you go?
Can't imagine I'll move again.
I suppose I like it where I am.
Hello.
I'm sorry,
I think I'm lost.
Lost?
- Where you headed?
- Brackish.
That's 20 miles from here.
You're walking north, you know.
I'm sorry to disturb you both.
I don't know how I got so lost.
I didn't make a plan.
I just got off the train
and I started walking.
I thought I was going
in the right direction.
I thought I could sleep outside,
but it's cold.
Do you have family?
Won't they be worried
about where you are?
No.
No, I'm...
I'm here alone.
A friend, a long time ago,
said that I would like it, so...
I just guess I feel embarrassed,
you know, getting lost.
Mostly I'm just tired,
and hungry and cold.
Ah.
What's it about?
A man sitting on a gravestone,
not letting his dead lover rest.
She gets annoyed by all his weeping,
tells him to just let her be dead.
Oh, who is this
That sits on my grave?
She tells him to enjoy life
while he has it, to go away.
It's a good lesson.
The stalk is withered and dry
Sweetheart
And the flower will never return
And since I lost my own true love
What can I do but mourn?
Mourn not for me, my own true love
Mourn not for me, I pray
For I must leave you
And all the world
And go into my grave
So much of this book
is not just about music,
but about the musicians,
their lives, journeys.
How did you start
song-collecting that way?
I've heard your father
had a significant influence on you.
I suppose that...
yeah, that's partly true,
about my father.
It was a friend,
really, to be honest.
- A musician?
- Yeah.
He and I were students together
at the Conservatory,
back in 1917.
I went on a collecting trip with him.
That was his passion,
finding old songs.
There was a moment,
decades ago, when I realized that
I had probably never been as
happy as I was when...
collecting songs.
Do you have a favorite
passage in the book?
Something you could share with us?
Um... yeah.
I think the introduction's
worth reading here.
"I was recently asked
by one of my students,
"what I liked about folk songs,
"the ballads especially.
"And I found myself saying
that they were
"the most warm-blooded
pieces of music.
"And I didn't quite know
what I meant when I said it,
"but I think I do now.
"These are songs
filled with the voices of thousands
"who've sung and changed them,
"and of the people
in our communities,
in our lives."
"These are not songs of divinity,
"angels, spirits.
"They're songs of people.
"Songs my father sung,
songs my grandfather knew.
"They're songs from experiences,
"stories with sadness so great
"that they were turned to songs,
"as if melody
could make hardship lighter.
"Orchestral music sharpens the mind,
"sometimes the soul.
"And choral music
"makes you feel a depth of thought
and spirituality.
"The ballads in this book are messy,
"human experiences,
"events we might like to avoid:
"heartbreak, death, jealousy.
"And put a lump in your throat
just by the melody.
"Emotion in song,
"nothing fancy,
"and that's why I love them."
That's beautiful.
Well, my guest this hour has been
ethnomusicologist, professor,
writer, performer,
Dr. Lionel Worthing.
His new book,
Roots and Branches
of American Ballads ,
explores stories in song.
...In silence
Don't turn away
In silence
Your confusion
My illusion
Worn like a mask of self-hate
Confronts and then dies
Don't walk away
"I found this in the attic
"years ago,
after we bought the house.
"I saw you on television last week.
"What a coincidence."
Here in the vineyard
Of my Lord, I
Hope to live and labor
And be obedient to my God
Until my dying hour
Nineteen-twenty.
Hello, Lionel.
I hope this finds its way to you.
I suppose I should explain.
I just feel like there's...
like there's something in me
that's not...
that's not going away,
like a false note...
You've been very good to me, Lionel.
Thank you for coming north.
Sorry,
I don't know what to say anymore.
Really.
Don't sing love songs
You'll wake my mother
She's sleeping here
Right by my side
In her right hand,
a silver dagger
She says that I
can't be your bride
All men are false
So says my mother
They'll tell you wicked,
loving lies
The very next evening
They'll court another
Leave you alone to pine and sigh
My daddy is a handsome devil
He's got a chain five miles long
And on every link
a heart does dangle
Of another maid
He's loved and wronged
Don't sing love songs
You'll wake my mother
She's sleeping here
right by my side
In her right hand, a silver dagger
She says that
I can't be your bride
I feel I've missed something.
How to put this?
It's not nostalgia,
it's not grief.
It's the... hardness of a fact
that I should've stayed in Maine.
Would I feel differently
if we hadn't met?
Would I feel now,
that I had missed something?
But we did meet.
And what do I want now?
I want the sound of my life, I think.
What happens to it all,
all the sounds
released into the world,
never captured?
I want all of it.
The history of sound.
Lionel Worthing.
David White.
Here in the vineyard of my Lord
I hope to live and labor
And be obedient to my God
Until my dying hour
I love to see the lilies grow
And view them all a-standing
In the right place while here below
Just as the Lord commanded
We ofttimes meet,
both night and day
A faithful band of pilgrims
We read, we sing,
we preach and pray
And find the Lord most precious
But while we sing our song of love
Our hearts are deeply wounded
Perhaps we all will meet no more
Here in a congregation
But if on earth we meet no more
We hope to meet in heaven
Where congregations ne'er break up
But dwell in sweet communion
My father said
it was a gift from God.
How I could see music.
How I could name the note
my mother coughed every morning.
What the dog across the field
was barking,
the key of the springtime frogs.
Shape,
color.
I thought everyone could see sound.
Yellow for D.
Tastes too.
My father would play a B minor,
and my mouth went bitter.
It never occurred to me
that music was only sound.
Across the rocky mountain
I walked for miles and miles
Say, I'll never forget
my mother's looks
God bless her sweetly smile
There was an old, rich farmer
Who lived in the neighborhood by
He had
One lonely daughter
On her I cast my eye...
The town's music teacher
noticed my singing.
She wrote her friend in Boston,
a professor...
which is how I left the farm.
A scholarship
to the New England Conservatory.
Across the rocky mountain
I walked for miles and miles
Lionel?
I walked for miles and miles
I'm sorry,
I know that song from home.
Excuse me.
There was an old, rich farmer
Who lived in the neighborhood by
He had one lonely daughter
On her I cast my eye
She was most tall and handsome
Blue eyes and curly hair
There's no one girl
In the wide world
With her I could compare
Where'd you learn that?
Some forest in England.
My father used to sing it
back in Kentucky.
Did he?
David White.
Lionel Worthing.
- What department?
- Voice.
Well, fa-la-la.
Composition.
- People here know songs like that?
- They don't.
This is...
a hobby in the summers.
Collecting tunes, ballads, songs.
Reminds me of home.
What else do you know?
More than you, likely.
Pretty Saro ?
Of course.
Fair Winter ?
"One went east, the other went west."
How about...
Silver Dagger ?
No, I don't think so.
Oh.
- Should I?
- Well, it's such a pretty song.
Well, come on. Let's hear it.
What key?
Come on, what key?
I don't usually sing like this,
with...
- With what?
- With everyone talking.
Oh.
Excuse me!
Quiet, please!
I'm sorry. I didn't mean that.
Now you have to sing.
You shy?
Don't sing love songs
You'll wake my mother
She's sleeping here
Right by my side
In her right hand, a silver dagger
She says that I can't be your bride
All men are false
So says my mother
They'll tell you wicked,
loving lies
The very next evening
They'll court another
Leave you alone to pine and sigh
My daddy is a handsome devil
He's got a chain five miles long
And on every link
a heart does dangle
Of another maid
He's loved and wronged
Don't sing love songs
You'll wake my mother
She's sleeping here
Right by my side
In her right hand, a silver dagger
She says that
I can't be your bride
Okay.
Sit here.
Sing me all the songs you know.
David had a thousand songs
in his head.
A photographic memory,
you might call it today.
He could play a song note-for-note
after hearing it once.
Oh, I like to rise
When the sun she rises
Early in the morning
I like to hear
them small birds singing
Merrily upon their laylums
Hurrah for the life
of a country boy
For to ramble in the new-mown hay
Another drink?
I'm tired.
Bed. Walk me home.
Come in. Have some water.
Sorry. I only have one clean glass.
Come here.
Come on.
The wind doth blow
Today, my love
With a few small drops of rain
I never had
But one true love
And she in the cold grave
was lain
- Never mind. It's too long.
- Keep singing, please.
- I'll teach you the rest later.
- What's it about?
A man,
sitting on a gravestone,
not letting his dead lover rest.
She gets annoyed by all his weeping,
tells him to just
leave her alone, let her be dead.
Oh, who is this
That sits on my grave
And will not let me sleep?
She tells him to enjoy life
while he has it, to go away.
It's a good lesson.
Where'd you learn it?
My uncle and I learned it
on one of our song-collecting
in England.
And why were you there again?
You're asking a lot of questions
so early in the morning.
I told you everything about myself.
I don't even know where you grew up.
You don't?
Newport.
After my parents died,
I lived with my uncle Silas
outside London for a few years.
I was eleven. Twelve maybe.
You were an orphan?
That's a dramatic way to put it.
I was momentarily unparented.
Silas was surprised
by his newfound fatherhood.
He was determined to make me happy,
duty and all.
The English love duty.
He noticed I was spending all day
singing the songs his maid taught me.
She must have said something to him
about my asking her for songs.
I was an obsessive boy,
severely annoying, I'm sure.
I would go around the village
asking people to sing me songs
and I'd write them in a book.
Embarrassing.
It all grew from there.
Silas taking me on trips through
the countryside, first around Surrey,
during the summers
to the Lake District.
Ireland one summer.
He started to be more interested
in song-collecting it than I was.
And where's he now?
Dead. Yes.
Fever of some kind.
Which is why I'm back here.
Inheritance of my parents'
Newport house,
a dislike of English weather,
etc., etc.
I'm sorry.
For what?
Your uncle
and your parents.
You don't have any other family?
Everyone you know is going to die,
you know that.
I have to go.
I'm busy tonight.
Next week?
- Keep it down!
- Sorry.
- Good night!
- Shh!
When the draft came
later that year,
classes were disbanded.
Maybe that was it, I thought.
A handful of nights in one season.
You're going.
That's what I've been told.
Suppose you never have to worry
about the draft,
thanks to these.
I leave this week
to war.
Write.
Send chocolate.
Don't die.
Oh, the snow it melts the soonest
When the winds begin to sing
And the corn, it ripens fastest...
And so I went back to the farm
spring of 1917,
suddenly,
regretfully.
Before we part
I'd bet a crown
He'd be fain to follow it yet
Oh
The snow it melts the soonest
When the wind begins to sing
And the swallow skims
Without a thought
As long as it is spring
But when spring blows
And winter goes
Me lad, and you'll be fain
With all your pride for
to follow me
Were it 'cross the stormy main
Get up!
What's wrong?
What?
You're unhappy.
No, I'm not.
You been like this
since you come back.
You didn't wanna come back.
I understand.
You shouldn't have gone.
If you hadn't gone,
you wouldn't have cared coming back.
You're sick.
Just sing something.
Alright.
Across the rocky mountain
I walk for miles and miles
Across the rocky mountain
I walk for miles and miles
Across the rocky mountain
I walk for miles and miles
Say,
I'll never forget my mother's looks
God bless her sweetly smile
There was an old, rich farmer
Who lived in the neighborhood by
He had one lonely daughter
On her I cast my eye
She was most tall and handsome
Blue eyes and curly hair
Oh, there's no other girl
In this wide world
With her I could compare
You ever seen this?
Let me try.
- Like this, right?
- Yeah.
Dad?
Dad?
Come all ye fair and tender ladies
Take warning
how you court young men
They're like a bright star
Of a summer's morning
They first appear
And then they're gone
They'll tell to you
some pleasing story
Declare to you they love you true
I once did meet
a fair, true lover
- A true one too,
I took him to be
Then he went away
And found him another...
You look a bit sideways.
You didn't come to the funeral.
Dead is dead.
War in Europe over yet?
No.
Did I tell you about
that charge in Antietam?
Billy Higgins was shot on his horse
must have been ten times
and kept riding?
Yeah, you told me.
What the hell was it all for?
Your grandmother
was right about that.
Said we were all fools.
- Shouldn't give her that.
- What?
Coffee.
It's bad for her heart.
"Bad for her heart."
Who the hell told you that?
Will Hall.
His dog died
from eating a bag of coffee beans.
I'll let you know
when I feed her
a bag of coffee beans.
My dear
silver-throated confederate,
I hope this note
finds its way to you.
How is life on the farm?
As it stands, I return from my
walking tour,
you might say, in Europe.
God help me.
But the day is getting brighter.
I have a position at Bowdoin College
here in the evergreens of Maine.
The department head thought it
a fine idea if I was to
record folk songs
for department's regionalist leanings
in the boreal wilderness.
I have time off this coming winter.
I can't drag this talking
sewing machine by myself.
How about a long walk in the woods?
The journey points north.
Roaring fires, logging camps,
birch beer,
old songs.
Meet me on the 1st of January
at Augusta train station.
Bring warm clothes.
Don't dally, just come.
Yours, David.
I'm leaving.
What?
Where?
To Maine, for a music project.
A music project?
Be gone for a month or so.
Maybe longer.
Maybe the spring too.
Is that what you think?
And who's gonna keep this farm?
The farm will be fine.
You'll be fine.
Pardon me?
I'll be fine? Until the spring?
You come in
with potatoes to tell me this?
I'm not leaving right now.
I can't stay here alone.
Grandfather's here.
And there's food
for weeks in the cellar.
Grandpa?
What use is he?
Some, maybe.
I'm just leaving for a while.
You already said that.
Sorry, excuse me.
Thank you.
Welcome back.
Yeah, well...
Welcome to Maine.
- That's all you brought?
- Mm-hmm.
Don't have much.
And a pillow.
It was a long trip.
I have the tent.
We need a few cooking pots.
I hope you like oats.
- We're sleeping outside?
- It'll be fine.
We need more blankets.
I told you to bring warm clothes.
You look the same.
You look a little less thin.
You didn't get shot.
Yes, well, not yet.
You never sent chocolate.
My apologies,
I was somewhat distracted.
What now?
We have 36 cylinders,
the ancient machine
the department sent me with.
First, we head north,
then east,
then south to the sea,
along the coast to Augusta.
Around a hundred miles in all.
And you just walk up to someone
and ask them for a song?
I'll teach you to use this.
I'll transcribe the lyrics.
What we're looking for
isn't in towns.
You'll find it out there.
First, we have to catch a train.
- Grab that.
- Now?
Now! Your train was late.
Where are we going?
Up north, out of the city.
Well, I thought you said
we needed to buy food.
We got enough for a few days,
then we'll figure it out.
I haven't eaten today.
See this?
It's made of wax,
kind of like your candles there.
And this goes on here
and it spins around.
Sound comes down this big horn here
and it shakes this needle
which cuts a line in the wax.
How's that catch the sound?
Well...
The sound is invisible, right?
But it can be physical.
It can touch something,
it can make an impression.
If you had a magnifying glass,
you'd see ridges in the wax like...
like small hills.
Hills don't make sound.
Um...
Put your hand on your throat,
now hum.
Can you feel something?
Like a vibration?
- A little tickle.
- Right.
That's sound.
Something shaking the air,
shaking something else.
- Shaking the air?
- Uh-huh.
When you wanna play the sound back,
just have another needle on here,
jumps over the ridges of sound
and amplifies through this tube.
Will I feel something?
You won't feel a thing.
- It's on?
- It is.
Come, my soul, and let us try
For a little season
Every burden to lay by
Come, and let us reason
What is this that casts thee down?
Who are those that grieve thee?
Speak, and let the worst be known
Speaking may relieve thee
What is this that casts thee down?
Who are those that grieve thee?
Speak, and let the worst be known
Speaking may relieve thee
What do you do?
In April I open my bill
In May, I sing night and day
In June, I change my tune
In July, far, far I fly
In August
Away
I must
My grandfather once said
that happiness isn't a story.
So there isn't much to say
about those first weeks.
We'll be alright
If the wind was in our sails
We'll be alright
If the wind was in our sails
And we'll all hang on behind
We'll roll the old chariot along
Go to sleep.
Hope you like climbing.
May I ask you something?
Why haven't you said anything
about the war?
Spent a long time in the trench,
it was boring.
Felt worse for the horses.
Saint Francis was nowhere to be
found.
My grandfather talks about the war
like it was the greatest time
of his life.
I wouldn't say that.
What would you say?
It made everything dimmer,
cold.
Where are we walking now?
Towards the sea.
What's there?
Malaga Island.
It's been in the newspapers.
I read about it before you came.
Settled by slaves generations back.
Then Irish.
The governor's evicting them.
How so?
State wants the land.
Why are we going?
Poor immigrants
and former slaves
would make for strange old music, no?
That doesn't make you
feel uncomfortable?
Why?
Where I come from, you don't walk
into a place like that.
You don't have to do anything.
I'll talk.
Don't you get nervous?
I just make myself
into what someone wants me to be.
It's what Silas did.
You see a Bible on a woman's lap
and you want her to sing you a song,
you're now collecting songs
in God's name.
You see a half-empty bottle on the
table and a man who hasn't shaved in
a week,
get him to talk about his trouble.
I once saw Silas
invent a stable of horses
because a farmer was sad
about his dead nag.
So it's like lying then?
Making it easier
for someone to be generous.
An invitation.
Works in all ways, not just songs.
Lying, if you want to call it that.
Oh, thank you.
- David White.
- Will Swain.
And he, Lionel Worthing.
Musicians collecting songs.
Thank you, Will.
Who are you?
David White.
This is Lionel Worthing.
Academics
on a song-collecting mission.
This is not the time.
We were just looking
to record a song or two,
posterity.
We have no songs for you.
What is it you do here?
A schoolteacher.
Lucky us! We'll be publishing
the songs in a booklet
for schoolchildren.
Preserve America's heritage
all together.
A booklet?
Well, we could include your class.
I bet you have
some fine young singers.
Here in the vineyard
Of my Lord
I hope to live and labor
And be obedient to my God
Until my dying hour
I love to see the lilies grow
And view them all a-standing
In the right place while here below
Just as the Lord commanded
Can I get some information?
Full name?
Thankful Mary Swain.
Born?
And song title?
Here in the Vineyard.
Come
Come with me to the old churchyard
I so well know these paths
'Neath the soft green sward
Friends slumber there
That we once did regard
We will trace out their names
In the old churchyard
Mourn not for them
For their trials are over
Why weep for those
Who will weep no more?
For sweet is their sleep...
Good morning.
The ground is frozen.
Sorry?
I got two children,
three grandchildren
buried out there
in that graveyard.
And my wife.
I thought it would all just go away,
the governor would find
another project.
I wake up every morning,
look across there,
and I see nothing.
Same trees,
same rocks,
nothing coming.
But when they come,
they'll be coming from there.
Thank you, Will.
We shouldn't have left.
Wasn't right.
What would you have done?
Don't you feel bad?
We didn't say anything,
we just walked away.
The law is bigger than us.
- But it's wrong.
- I know this.
Maybe you don't understand.
- I don't understand?
- You didn't grow up where I did.
Step in front of the police,
they hurt you, kill you.
What does it matter
where you grew up?
Maybe you don't always know
how things work is all I'm saying.
You have no idea what I know,
what I've seen,
about how things work.
You did that?
I did.
Why?
Thanks.
You're going home after we finish?
I'd go anywhere else,
but I don't have any money.
You could go back
to the Conservatory.
Teach, I'm sure.
Lessons.
There's an ocean of parents in Boston
with too much to spend.
Is there any jobs at your college?
You'd hate it there. Small town.
Well, I could help
catalog the cylinders.
I'll just get a student
to do it for me.
You got a whole life ahead of you.
A bigger life.
Why do you want to stay here anyway?
If I had what you had, I'd leave.
I'd go sing somewhere...
New York.
Europe, Paris, Rome.
I'd go far away, flee.
Make money.
Money's good.
This summer?
Sure.
Really?
Sure.
In case you need anything.
That was a nice way to explain it.
What?
Sound.
I sent David a letter every month
since our trip ended.
They all went unanswered.
I stopped writing
sometime in spring of 1921.
Ciao.
Ciao.
That's it.
They aren't
the right songs.
I don't know why.
Just sing the songs.
You coming to Venice this weekend?
I need to tell Luisa.
I don't think so. No.
Why not?
I'll show you the Venice I know.
Come.
I don't know.
Maybe.
What's wrong?
You seem distracted.
I'm bored.
- I'm boring you?
- No, not you.
I'm just bored with this work.
This choir.
You're in the most prestigious choir
in the most beautiful city.
- So?
- What do you mean, "so"?
I've been offered
a position in England.
England?
Mm-hmm.
I think I might take it.
I... I've been here too long.
You think you might take it?
Yeah, I've said yes.
Summers are too hot here and...
and it's a good offer.
Summers are too hot?
Mm-hmm.
Where are you going?
You're telling me
you want to move away?
Yes.
Good luck.
Beware of the American.
- Beautiful work. Tremendous.
- Thank you.
That was beautiful, Mr. Worthing.
- You've quite a throng of admirers.
- Thank you, darlin'.
You jealous?
Obviously.
- Anyway, I've made a lunch for us.
- Oh, yes?
- What's the occasion?
- No occasion. A picnic lunch.
Sounds nice.
Oh!
You are a pig!
I'm a rural farm boy.
It's part of my charm.
I want to go to America one day,
see this farm.
No, you don't.
See,
every European thinks
that they want to
go to America, but...
believe me, things are better here.
Maybe they're just better for you.
I was thinking...
Mm-hmm?
...how about coming
to my family's home?
Next weekend.
My parents are dying to meet you.
It's a pretty little place
in the countryside.
Mm-hmm.
I'm imagining a hovel
with ivy and cobwebs.
Ghastly.
Old, drafty, but
it's home.
And I love it.
Meeting your parents?
Mm.
Well, I do think it's time, yes?
Alright, sure.
I'd love to.
This way.
I thought you said
your parents were Bohemians?
They are, in spirit.
Hello?
- Mummy?
- Darling, they're here!
Such a pleasure to finally meet you.
- The American songster.
- It's a pleasure.
No, no.
We are informal here.
Clarissa said so many
sweet things about you.
Yes, you too.
- Hello.
- So naughty. Hello.
Come here.
- Come in, please.
- Thank you.
I abandoned my only child
to greet you.
Really horrible, isn't it?
I love that.
It's Orpheus.
Uh-huh.
Your patron saint.
Would you sing
your way into hell for me?
Of course.
Would you
forgive me for looking back?
Course not!
That's typical man, distrustful,
ruining things for the woman.
Is that the story?
It is.
- Wait, is it?
- Uh-uh.
No?
I thought he turned around
to offer her a hand...
help her out of the cave.
It was an honest mistake, punished.
No.
No, he doesn't trust Hades
to keep the promise.
Oh.
I think they like you.
Who?
My parents.
I like them too.
Good.
Can I ask you something?
Mm-hmm.
Do you ever think about...
how you want your life to look?
Look? Like with music?
No, like, like...
wife, kids, family.
I like kids.
Seems like it's what people do.
That's what you want? Family?
I guess. I don't know.
You worry at all, what we're doing?
What we're doing?
You know, this.
No.
I don't worry.
I think I admire you.
Can I speak with you?
You're so handsome
when you're out of breath.
My mother, she's sick.
Sick? What do you mean?
She's dying.
My grandfather wrote.
I have to go home and see her.
I'm leaving.
When?
Going tonight, or the next day.
I'm sorry,
I can't leave her alone again.
University ends in a month.
I'll come with you.
Let's go together.
It's just one month more.
I'm not staying.
I see.
You're leaving, leaving?
Yes.
Well...
tell me why.
- I'm sorry, I...
- No, I don't want an apology.
You know what my mother wrote
after we left the house?
What?
She said I should leave you...
before you left me.
I want you to go.
Mother?
I had
A bottle of burgundy wine
My true love, she did not know
Was there I murdered
That dear little girl
Down by the banks below
I drew my saber through her
Which was a bloody sight
Can I help you?
Just out for a walk.
It's Lionel.
Gosh.
Lionel Worthing?
It's been ten years.
This is Lionel from over the hill.
We went to school together.
Thought you lived in the north.
And Europe, did I hear?
Yes, both.
Isabelle, this is a famous singer.
What are you doing back?
My mother died.
Yes, I'm sorry.
Please, keep singing.
No.
Now I'm embarrassed.
Why don't you sing? Let's hear you.
No, I just wanna listen.
I like your voices.
Okay then.
Down in the willow garden
Where me and my love did meet
There we set a-courtin'
My love fell fast asleep
I had a bottle of burgundy wine
My true love, she did not know...
Let me get this straight,
you left a fancy job
where all you had to do was open
your mouth and squawk a few notes,
you come back to Kentucky
to pick apples?
Something is not adding up.
I guess not.
Whatever paints your fence,
friend, but...
I'd leave the farm
if I could do what you do.
I guess I feel like
I'm at the end of something.
- The end of something?
- Mm.
What was the beginning?
I don't know.
Probably when I was younger,
in college up in Boston.
I don't think I've been that happy
in a long time.
My mother always used to say,
"Life's only troubles.
"You could get sad,
or you could sing about it."
What else did your mama say?
Hmm...
"Don't marry that son of a bitch,
Nathan McCloud."
- Can I help you?
- I'm looking for
the music department?
Are you a tutor?
No. A friend of mine works there.
Just upstairs, second floor,
down the hall.
Thank you.
'Scuse me.
I'm looking for a friend.
David White,
he's an instructor here.
- And who are you?
- Lionel Worthing.
We were at the Conservatory together.
- You know David?
- I did.
What?
Oh.
Well.
He passed away,
years ago.
His...
second year of teaching, I think.
That would've been 1920.
When did you last see him?
It was on a song-collecting trip
that... the department organized.
- Song collecting?
- Mm-hmm, yeah.
Folk songs.
Recordings for the college.
I'm sorry, I'm not sure
what you're referring to.
The department commissioned David
to do a song-collecting trip.
I don't think so.
I was department head for years,
I would've--
What about the cylinders?
- Cylinders?
- Yeah.
Maybe Belle could tell you more.
- Who's Belle?
- His wife.
Ex-wife.
Or widow, I mean.
I'm sorry to be the one
to deliver the news.
Thank you.
I'm sorry,
I think I have the wrong house.
I'm looking for Belle White.
Who are you?
Are you Belle?
Yes, I'm Belle Sinclair.
I'm a friend of David's.
Who's that?
It's a friend of David's.
Yes.
My shift's soon.
Is dinner ready?
Yes.
This is a bad time.
Come in.
I need to feed Henriette.
No, no, thank you.
I was just looking
for a box of wax cylinders.
Belle, I have to leave
in 20 minutes.
Come in.
What are you looking for?
We made recordings of songs,
on cylinders.
Trying to find them for research.
He didn't tell me much
about his work.
- Check with the college, I'd say.
- I did.
What sort of research is that?
I just keep a record
of the songs people are singing.
Paid to have people yell down a tube.
Bob.
Seems like a nice life.
What's your line of work, Bob?
Fire.
Fire.
My family's been fighting fires
since the town was founded.
Well.
- It was good to meet you.
- Yes, you too.
You okay here alone?
Of course.
Don't do anything with my wife.
- I'm going to put Henriette to bed.
- I should go.
No, don't go, please.
- You're busy. I should go.
- Stay.
I...
I haven't had company in months.
Just... stay a little longer, okay?
You don't have to do that.
I'm sorry I never...
wrote you back.
What?
Years ago, all those...
letters you sent to David
from Italy.
You read them?
I read all of David's mail
after he died.
You're a fine writer.
Have you ever heard that before?
Are you gonna ask me how we met?
You haven't asked me anything
about me and David, I noticed.
I understand,
I just thought you'd be more curious.
Well...
I'm sorry.
How did you two meet?
It was before
he went to Conservatory.
It was when I was 13.
We had a house in Newport
next to David's parents' house
and he became friends
with my brother, Henry.
Of course I was just
obsessed with David.
Charming friend who lived alone
in a seaside home.
But you know David,
the world loved him.
And then he went
to your school in Boston.
And then
he came back for Thanksgiving,
after...
my brother had died in Ypres.
He came back to console my parents.
He said he had a teaching position
in Maine.
And a few days after arriving,
he asked me to marry him.
I don't know why he did.
I was 18,
I was a child compared to him.
He'd seen so much
and I'd never left Newport.
He was...
I didn't see anything but him.
He was everything, I mean.
Then we moved here,
but...
things were not... fine.
Shell shock, you know.
It's only, I noticed it too late.
He didn't sleep, he didn't...
talk to me for days, sometimes.
And of course, that's the winter
you went off on your trip.
And then he...
then he was just gone.
He left me here.
What were the circumstances
of his death?
You must know.
No, I don't.
He did it up there in his office.
I should probably go.
You wait here for a minute.
You can have these back.
And I'll write to you
if I find those cylinders.
Write your address here.
If you could live anywhere,
where would it be?
Sounds pretty nice
where you were with your uncle.
I'll take you there one day.
The Lake District.
I think you'd die, it's so pretty.
The mountains...
Best voice I ever heard was there.
That's including yours, by the way.
This boy...
Town called Brackish, I think.
This boy's voice was fit
for the Pope and all the angels,
fit for God.
No, strike that.
It was God.
Where would you go?
Can't imagine I'll move again.
I suppose I like it where I am.
Hello.
I'm sorry,
I think I'm lost.
Lost?
- Where you headed?
- Brackish.
That's 20 miles from here.
You're walking north, you know.
I'm sorry to disturb you both.
I don't know how I got so lost.
I didn't make a plan.
I just got off the train
and I started walking.
I thought I was going
in the right direction.
I thought I could sleep outside,
but it's cold.
Do you have family?
Won't they be worried
about where you are?
No.
No, I'm...
I'm here alone.
A friend, a long time ago,
said that I would like it, so...
I just guess I feel embarrassed,
you know, getting lost.
Mostly I'm just tired,
and hungry and cold.
Ah.
What's it about?
A man sitting on a gravestone,
not letting his dead lover rest.
She gets annoyed by all his weeping,
tells him to just let her be dead.
Oh, who is this
That sits on my grave?
She tells him to enjoy life
while he has it, to go away.
It's a good lesson.
The stalk is withered and dry
Sweetheart
And the flower will never return
And since I lost my own true love
What can I do but mourn?
Mourn not for me, my own true love
Mourn not for me, I pray
For I must leave you
And all the world
And go into my grave
So much of this book
is not just about music,
but about the musicians,
their lives, journeys.
How did you start
song-collecting that way?
I've heard your father
had a significant influence on you.
I suppose that...
yeah, that's partly true,
about my father.
It was a friend,
really, to be honest.
- A musician?
- Yeah.
He and I were students together
at the Conservatory,
back in 1917.
I went on a collecting trip with him.
That was his passion,
finding old songs.
There was a moment,
decades ago, when I realized that
I had probably never been as
happy as I was when...
collecting songs.
Do you have a favorite
passage in the book?
Something you could share with us?
Um... yeah.
I think the introduction's
worth reading here.
"I was recently asked
by one of my students,
"what I liked about folk songs,
"the ballads especially.
"And I found myself saying
that they were
"the most warm-blooded
pieces of music.
"And I didn't quite know
what I meant when I said it,
"but I think I do now.
"These are songs
filled with the voices of thousands
"who've sung and changed them,
"and of the people
in our communities,
in our lives."
"These are not songs of divinity,
"angels, spirits.
"They're songs of people.
"Songs my father sung,
songs my grandfather knew.
"They're songs from experiences,
"stories with sadness so great
"that they were turned to songs,
"as if melody
could make hardship lighter.
"Orchestral music sharpens the mind,
"sometimes the soul.
"And choral music
"makes you feel a depth of thought
and spirituality.
"The ballads in this book are messy,
"human experiences,
"events we might like to avoid:
"heartbreak, death, jealousy.
"And put a lump in your throat
just by the melody.
"Emotion in song,
"nothing fancy,
"and that's why I love them."
That's beautiful.
Well, my guest this hour has been
ethnomusicologist, professor,
writer, performer,
Dr. Lionel Worthing.
His new book,
Roots and Branches
of American Ballads ,
explores stories in song.
...In silence
Don't turn away
In silence
Your confusion
My illusion
Worn like a mask of self-hate
Confronts and then dies
Don't walk away
"I found this in the attic
"years ago,
after we bought the house.
"I saw you on television last week.
"What a coincidence."
Here in the vineyard
Of my Lord, I
Hope to live and labor
And be obedient to my God
Until my dying hour
Nineteen-twenty.
Hello, Lionel.
I hope this finds its way to you.
I suppose I should explain.
I just feel like there's...
like there's something in me
that's not...
that's not going away,
like a false note...
You've been very good to me, Lionel.
Thank you for coming north.
Sorry,
I don't know what to say anymore.
Really.
Don't sing love songs
You'll wake my mother
She's sleeping here
Right by my side
In her right hand,
a silver dagger
She says that I
can't be your bride
All men are false
So says my mother
They'll tell you wicked,
loving lies
The very next evening
They'll court another
Leave you alone to pine and sigh
My daddy is a handsome devil
He's got a chain five miles long
And on every link
a heart does dangle
Of another maid
He's loved and wronged
Don't sing love songs
You'll wake my mother
She's sleeping here
right by my side
In her right hand, a silver dagger
She says that
I can't be your bride
I feel I've missed something.
How to put this?
It's not nostalgia,
it's not grief.
It's the... hardness of a fact
that I should've stayed in Maine.
Would I feel differently
if we hadn't met?
Would I feel now,
that I had missed something?
But we did meet.
And what do I want now?
I want the sound of my life, I think.
What happens to it all,
all the sounds
released into the world,
never captured?
I want all of it.
The history of sound.
Lionel Worthing.
David White.
Here in the vineyard of my Lord
I hope to live and labor
And be obedient to my God
Until my dying hour
I love to see the lilies grow
And view them all a-standing
In the right place while here below
Just as the Lord commanded
We ofttimes meet,
both night and day
A faithful band of pilgrims
We read, we sing,
we preach and pray
And find the Lord most precious
But while we sing our song of love
Our hearts are deeply wounded
Perhaps we all will meet no more
Here in a congregation
But if on earth we meet no more
We hope to meet in heaven
Where congregations ne'er break up
But dwell in sweet communion