Moondance

Moondance is the third studio album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. After recording his commercially unsuccessful 1968 album Astral Weeks, Morrison moved with his wife to an artistic hamlet in upstate New York and began writing songs for Moondance. There, he met the musicians he would record the album with at New York City's A & R Studios in 1969.

Morrison abandoned the abstract folk compositions of Astral Weeks in favor of more formally composed songs on Moondance, which he wrote and produced himself. Its lively rhythm and blues music was the style he would become most known for in his career. The music incorporated soul, jazz, pop, and Irish folk sounds into ballads and songs about finding spiritual renewal and redemption in worldly matters such as nature, music, and romantic love.

After Moondance was released in 1970 by Warner Bros. Records, it became both a critical and commercial success, helping establish Morrison as a major artist in popular music. It has since been cited by critics as one of the greatest albums of all time. In 2013, the album's remastered deluxe edition was released to similar acclaim.

Moondance (Van Morrison song)

"Moondance" is a popular song written by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison and is the title song on his 1970 album Moondance.

Morrison did not release the song as a single until November 1977, seven and a half years after the album was released. It reached the Billboard Hot 100, charting at #92. The single's B-side, "Cold Wind in August", had been released in the same year, on his latest album at the time, A Period of Transition.

"Moondance" is the most frequently played song by Van Morrison in concert, as it is the only song known to have been played over a thousand times.

Composition and recording

"Moondance" was recorded at the Mastertone Studio in New York City in August 1969, with Lewis Merenstein as producer.

The song is played mostly acoustic, anchored by a walking bass line (played on electric bass by John Klingberg), with accompaniment by piano, guitar, saxophones, and flute with the instruments played with a soft jazz swing. It's a song about autumn, the composer's favorite season. Towards the end of the song, Morrison imitates a saxophone. The song also features a piano solo, played by Jeff Labes, which is immediately followed by an alto saxophone solo by Jack Schroer. The song ends with a trill on the Flute during the cadenza that fades out.

Moondance (film)

Moondance is a 1995 Irish drama film based on the 1936 novel The White Hare by Francis Stuart. It was directed by Dagmar Hirtz and stars Rúaidhrí Conroy, in his second feature film following Into the West. It also features Ian Shaw, Julia Brendler and Marianne Faithfull, who also provided the vocals for the song "Madam George" written by Van Morrison, who wrote the lyrics for the songs included in the soundtrack.

Plot

Moondance is the coming-of-age tale of two brothers, Patrick and Dominic who have a close relationship and live a care-free life in the countryside of Western Ireland. While their mother (Marianne Faithfull) is often away, travelling around the world, the brothers receive frequent visits from their interfering aunt, Dorothy who believes that Dominic should be receiving an education and that he should be sent to boarding school, for which Patrick doesn't agree. On one of Dorothy's visits, she brings along a young German woman named Anya, who volunteers to help Dominic with his education at home, and that it would also help her practice her English. As Anya continues to spend time with the brothers, Mother later returns home and announces that she is back to stay. She accepts Anya into her home.