2025 Winter Solstice Greeting
It was the mountains of Orezza that made me completely happy. The song of the dove and the partridge telling the whole world we held each other dearly!
Dear Esteemed Readers,
During the mid-December weeks, as the daylight hours become shorter and shorter and the winter snow starts to blanket my tiny town of Tieton, Washington, I always begin researching new and unusual music that might be appropriate to include in my annual Art Nun journal post that celebrates the winter solstice return of light. As a musician myself, I’ve always been attracted to traditional music from diverse cultures, whose sounds often embody the invisible essence of “place.”
Earlier this year in my search for new music, I discovered a live stream performance of winter-themed, folk-based vocal music presented by the New England singing group “Windborne.” I was especially mesmerized listening to the haunting quality of a Corsican song that the group featured from their repertoire. I immediately went to the Windborne website and saw that one of the group’s musical mentors was a highly-respected Corsican teacher named Jean-Étienne Langianni, who offers Corsican singing workshops throughout Europe and beyond. It was during one of these workshops that Windborne learned the Corsican song.
Windborne’s Musical Mentor
Jean-Étienne Langianni has been a well-known figure in the world of Corsican song and early music for the last twenty years, and is also a composer who is dedicated to keeping the Corsican dialect and singing tradition alive.
My Tradition for the Winter Solstice
For thousands of years, the annual winter solstice has been a milestone in many cultures, celebrated with festivals and rites. On the winter solstice (also known as midwinter), daylight, which has been growing shorter each day since the summer solstice, starts lengthening. This transformation has always been associated with rebirth.
Long ago, I left contemporary holiday commercial stress behind. In its place, I initiated a solstice gathering with a few treasured friends, which included sharing some special hot cocoa. We would always conclude these solstice celebrations with a short musical piece that I chose to accompany the festivities.
Thanks to the dedicated musicianship of Jean-Étienne Langianni, the closing music for this 2025 solstice greeting consists of a short Corsican song composed by Langianni and recorded in England’s Durham Cathedral by Windborne. Their musical interpretation is as unrestrained, in touch with the earth, and vibrant as the wild Corsican landscape itself:
With all best wishes for a light-filled solstice,
Sandra Dean, Visual Artist
Tieton, Washington USA
Windborne has a Patreon page. For less than $4.00 a month you can have access to replays of streamed concerts, downloads of complete songs, and ongoing information about the group.
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