Teaching Collections
Sassafrass has produced several Teaching Collections, which we designed for musicians and for fans of our music who want to learn our songs and sing them; to that teachable end, the collections have halves of duets, remixes of vocal harmonies and multiple recording. Every single Teaching Collection also has downloadable sheet music and lyrics, and the Norse collections contain notes by composer Ada Palmer detailing the mythological resonances and themes underlying those albums. We love the idea of our listeners understanding the thought and care put into our albums on on every level, and for those reasons it is our pleasure to offer these collections to both first-time and longtime listeners.
The Somebody Will Teaching Collection has five tracks overall, containing three live performances: a newly recorded duet version, the live chorus version performed as an encore for when the Sundown album made its debut at Balticon, and a live house concert recording of the duet with guitar. The collection also includes alternate versions of the duet; we’ve amplified the melody and harmony parts so they’re easier to learn.
This collection contains “My Brother, My Enemy” in its entirety, plus two additional tracks re-balanced to highlight each part, so you can listen primarily to Loki’s line or primarily to Odin’s, hearing subtleties and quiet harmonies that are hidden when both sing together. This collection is ideal for getting to know the song and characters better, and for learning to sing the piece yourself. Also includes a PDF of original notes by the composer explaining the mythological themes and sources of the song, as well as PDFs of the sheet music and the lyrics.
The “Abandoned” Collection, like My Brother, My Enemy, contains “Abandoned” in its entirety as well as four separated tracks: with Baldur’s part emphasized, with Hel’s part emphasized, and with Baldur’s part alone and Hel’s part alone, all containing individual subtleties not always audible in the fully mastered whole version. This also includes the sheet music, the lyrics sheet, and three pages of notes from the composer treating the song’s structure and mythological references.
Our largest and most comprehensive teaching collection, the Futhark Collection contains the original as well as over thirty separate tracks containing different combinations of vocal harmonies and different mixes of the eight vocal lines in the original song. Also included are a MIDI file of the song, plus PDF files of the sheet music, lyrics sheet, and five pages of original notes by the composer, discussing the history of the Futhark, the basics of modal music, and how modes are used in the Sundown cycle, both in the Futhark Song and in other pieces.