[Immediate start at 0:00 - No drone, no fade-in, instantaneous attack] [Intro - Intricate Folk Fingerpicking - 4 Bars] (Warm steel-string acoustic guitar strikes downbeat one with an immediate, rapid Travis-picking roll in D Dorian) (Upright bass plucks a soft, warm root note on beat 1) [Verse 1 - The Task and The Hillside] [Acoustic fingerpicking stays tight and circular in 3/4 waltz time] [Lead Vocal: Clear, resonant 1960s tenor, pure vibrato-free delivery, upfront center] [Counter Vocal: Soft dry baritone, murmuring counter-melody tucked behind] Lead: Are you walking along the frozen ridge? Counter: (Snow covers the iron gate) Lead: Cedar, willow, elder and pine. Lead: Bring me a coat that was spun from the mist, Counter: (A child sleeps under the cedar shade) Lead: Before you can answer that name of mine. [Interlude - 2 Bars] (A lone cello enters with a low, warm sustained line beneath the rolling acoustic guitar) [Verse 2 - The River and The March] [Second acoustic guitar adds a delicate high drone chime] [Bassline walks down gracefully on the downbeats] Lead: Find me an acre of barren slate, Counter: (Banners flutter along the crest) Lead: Cedar, willow, elder and pine. Lead: Sown in the salt of the rising tide, Counter: (A soldier polishes up his blade) Lead: Before you can claim that this heart was mine. [Bridge - Overlapping Vocal Counterpoint] [Fingerpicking accelerates slightly with driving, urgent thumb strikes] [Both vocals weave across each other in dynamic harmony]: Lead: Tell him to reap it with a silver horn! Counter: (Sleep unaware of the gathering storm!) Lead: Bind it in sheaves with a single thorn! Counter: (A fallen horse upon the plain!) Lead: Cedar, willow, elder and pine! Both: (Washed in the cold November rain!) [Verse 3 - The Departure] [Arrangement strips down to a single acoustic guitar and soft bowed cello] [Lead Tenor: intimate, quiet, right on the microphone] [Counter Baritone: hushed, conversational whisper] Lead: If you cannot fashion the winter coat, Counter: (Tread softly down the mountain path) Lead: Cedar, willow, elder and pine. Lead: Then leave the dry wood upon the hearth, Counter: (The horn has sounded across the frost) Lead: And walk the long boundary line. [Outro - Dry Acoustic Resolution] [Acoustic guitar plays a delicate, descending Travis-picking cadence] (Cello sustains the low D root) (Beat 3: Hand dampens guitar strings completely - instant clean silence, no reverb tail) [End]
