[Intro – Whistling Wind, Birdsong, Wooden Flute and Dulcimer Interlude] [Optional spoken chant in the distance, faint laughter of children] [Verse 1 – Female Lead, Fingerpicked Guitar & Harp] O come ye now to the old stone ring, Where the snowdrop folds and the robins sing, Bring your branch and bring your bread, To wake the fields from winter's bed. [Call & Response – Male & Female Ensemble, Handclaps & Bodhrán] Call: Who will turn the wheel again? Response: We will, we will, with sun and rain! Call: Who shall dance where seeds are sown? Response: We shall reap what we have grown! [Chorus – Full Ensemble, Choral Harmonies + Children’s Voices] O circle bright, O circle wide, Turn the earth from side to side. With ash and oak and hawthorn crown, We call the green lord rising down. [Verse 2 – Male Lead, Recorder and Tambourine Enter] The blackbird flies from bough to beam, To carry news from dream to dream. The lamb is born, the hearth is stoked, The breath of spring in chimney smoked. [Call & Response – Female Call, Mixed Ensemble Reply] Call: Who will light the Beltane fire? Response: We will leap through flame and briar! Call: Who shall wear the blossom bold? Response: We shall crown the year of gold! [Chorus – Full Ensemble, Stomps & Claps Join] O circle bright, O circle wide, Sing the songs the sun can’t hide. With fiddle’s cry and footstep round, We raise the roots beneath the ground. [Bridge – Instrumental: Wooden Flute Solo, Dulcimer Arpeggios, Natural Ambience] [Birdsong, distant drumming, footsteps in leaves] [Verse 3 – Female Lead + Child Voice Echo] Come gather round with voice and vine, The barley bends, the mead is fine. The old ones watch behind the trees, And whisper on the waking breeze. [Final Chorus – Layered Choir, Children’s Harmonies, Rising Intensity] O circle bright, O circle near, We sow with joy, we reap with fear. With honeyed cup and horn of mead, We give the gods the gift they need. [Outro – Fading Chants Over Fiddle and Wind, Child’s Whisper] Whispered (Child): Round and round the year shall go… What we planted… soon shall grow. [Natural fadeout into birdsong and breeze]
