Radio Show – Episodes 9, 10, 11 – Mid-July through August, 2016

Wow, something mysterious happened, and my posts regarding these three episodes have vanished from WordPress. Here are the play lists, but, alas, I don’t think I can recreate the program notes.

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July 17th, 2016 – Episode 9 – Island Life

12:00: Harper Tasche – Nostalgia
12:04: Solas – Crested Hens
12:09: Forest Halls Celtic – Live
12:10: Lunasa – Morning Nightcap
12:15: Silly Wizard – Isla Waters
12:19: Forest Halls Celtic – Live
12:22: Seumus Gagne – O Is Toil Agus Gu Ro Thoil Leam
12:25: The Owner’s Daughter – Blow the Candle Out
12:29: Forest Halls Celtic – Live
12:31: Afro Celt Sound System – Eireann
12:36: Maire Brennan – Against the Wind
12:41: Enya – Athair Ar Neamh
12:45: Forest Halls Celtic – Live
12:46: Sakaue Masume – Rosemary
12:52: Mary Jane Lamond & Wendy MacIsaac  – If You were Mine
12:55: Spookytree (Deb Knodel & Jane Valencia) – Lochaber No More
12:56: Cossu, Scott – Vashon Poem

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August 7th, 2016 – Episode 10 – First Harvest

In the Celtic Wheel of the Year, this is time of the First Harvest – the beginning of the harvest season, and of the gathering of community in various ways: through festivals, markets, and so on. In this episode we’ll be enjoying a kind of musical gathering, in which various musical styles, from traditional to modern, intermingle. So, I invite you to listen today for elements of jazz, rock, folk, and ballad, and more in our wanders through the forest. We’ll also stepping outside the Celtic realm of the forest into a neighboring area of myth and magic, with that of a pair of folk-indie-pop songs from Iceland.

12:01: Catriona McKay & Chris Stout – Smugglers Set
12:08: Andy M. Stewart, Phil Cunningham, Manus Lunny – Nil Si I nGra
12:12: Tristan Le Govic – Jag tanker sa titt
12:14: Johnnie Lawson – Excerpt 5
12:18: Live – Forest Halls Celtic
12:18: Plethyn – Breuddwyd Glyndwr
12:21: Golden Bough – Song of the Wandering Aengus
12:25: Listenbee – Nottamun Town
12:28: Johnnie Lawson – Excerpt 6
12:31: Jochen Vogel – Give me Your Hand (Tabhair dom do Lamh)
12:34: Capercaillie – Nil Si I nGra
12:39: Gaelic Storm – Scalliwag
12:42: Live – Forest Halls Celtic
12:45: Seabear – I-ll Build you a Fire
12:45: Seabear – I’ll Build You A Fire
12:48: Of Monsters And Men – Mountain Sound
12:52: Spookytree (Deb Knodel & Jane Valencia) – Lochaber No More
12:52: John Renbourn – The Mist Covered Mountains of Home-The Orphan -Tarboulton
12:59: Live – Forest Halls Celtic

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August 21st, 2016 –Episode 11 – Selkie

The legends of the Selkie – remarkable people who are seals in the sea and humans on land – are haunting, often sad, and strangely compelling. Today we take a deep dive into the music and magic of the Selkie with tales and songs arising from the coasts and islands of Scotland and Ireland, and the Orkney and Shetland Islands, as well as some contemporary expressions.

12:00: Spookytree – Lochaber No More
12:02: Carolyn Allan, Jenny Keldie, Phil Cunningham – The Great Selkie of Sule Skerry
12:05: Kim Robertson – The Selkie
12:08: Heather Dale – The Maiden and the Selkie
12:16: Jean Redpath – The Song Of The Seals
12:20: Patrick Ball – The Seal
12:23: Mason Daring and the Secret of Roan Inish – The Roan Inish Theme
12:25: Mason Daring and the Secret of Roan Inish – Fiona Explores
12:30: Seamus Byrne – Ocean Surf
12:37: Anne Roos – The Mermaid’s Tears
12:43: Mary McLaughlin – Sealwoman-Yundah
12:47: Knodel and Valencia – The Fisherman’s Song for Attracting Seals
12:55: Tori Amos – Selkie

Radio Show – Episode 8 – July 3, 2016 – The Power of Music

Today’s show is devoted to the Power of Music and its ability to enchant. Irish myth describes “Three Noble Strains” of music, known as the geantraí – song of joy/merriment, the goltraí – song of sorrow, and the suantraí – song of comfort/for soothing. You’ll hear expressions of all three “strains” in the music and stories played and told today.

Click here for the latest Forest Halls Celtic show on demand

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12:00 Forest Halls Celtic / Show 8 – The Power of Music – Recorded on 7/3/2016 and updated for 7/19/20
Spookytree (Deb Knodel & Jane Valencia) – Lochaber No More
12:01 Heartstring Quartet – Sir Patrick Bellew’s March / An Cailin Rua Gaelach (The Red-haired Irish Girl)
12:05 William Taylor – Macpherson’s Testament
12:08 Paul Machlis – Darkness Falling
12:12 Dagda – Harp of Dagda
12:16 Johnnie Lawson – Natural Sound of the Forest Birds Singing
12:18 The Chieftains & James Galway – The Red Admiral Butterfly
12:23 Máire Ní Chathasaigh – Carolan’s Farewell to Music
12:30 Fiona Davidson – Deirdre of the Sorrows
12:46 Anúna – Sleepsong
12:50 Julie Fowlis – Cadal Ciarach Mo Luran
12:54 Tiffany Schaefer – Reconciliation
12:56 Spookytree (Deb Knodel & Jane Valencia) / Lochaber No More
12:57 The Irish Consort / Sorrow Sorrow Stay

Format: Track Title – artist (CD Title)

Geantrai – song of joy and merriment

“Patrick Bellew’s March / An Cailin Rua Gaelach” Heartstring Quartet (Heartstring Sessions)

The Heartstring Quartet brings together two famous Irish duos: Arty McGlynn & Nollaig Casey, Máire Ní Chathasaigh & Chris Newman. Nollaig and Máire are sisters who play fiddle and harp, respectively.

“Macpherson’s Testament” – William Taylor  
Bill (William) Taylor researches, performs, teaches and records the ancient harp music of Ireland, Scotland and Wales. He is one of very few players interpreting these repertoires using gut-strung medieval harps, renaissance harps with buzzing bray pins and wire-strung clarsachs.

In this show, I (incorrectly) stated that I thought that Bill Taylor was a harpmaker for Ardival Harps. But that isn’t so. He is a harper-in-residence for Ardival Harps. The actual makers are Zan and Alex Dunn and associates.

My friend and colleague, singer-songwriter and harper, Verlene Schermer writes:

“There is in Irish folklore, a story about the three sacred strains of music. The three strains are known as the goltrai — song of sorrow, the suantrai – song of comfort, and the gentrai – song of joy (Walton). The Dagda Mor, (the good god) is the leader of the Tuatha De Dannan, (the Fairy Folk – who are gods themselves), and it is his harp, Uaithne, that has the magical ability to bring listeners to tears, to put them to sleep, or to cause them to dance.”

Here we enjoy the story itself …

“Harp of the Dagda” – Irish Myth retold by Barra the Bard (Barra Jacob-McDowell) – read by Jane Valencia/ Music: “Darkness Falling” Paul Machlis (Greenwoods) 
Barra the Bard received her name from the Isle of Barra in the Outer Hebrides off the West Coast of Scotland and her love of storytelling from her maternal grandmother, Abigail Jones Dangler. With a repertoire of over 5,000 stories Barra specializes in tales from the Celtic nations (Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Cornwall, Isle of Man, Brittany, & Spain). She also enjoys telling stories from other ethnic traditions as well as family stories of her own.

Check out my Article for the Folk Harp Journal, Be A Bard: Start Down an Ancient Path, which features an interview with Barra.

Read Barra the Bard’s “Harp of the Dagda”.

“Harp of Dagda” – Dagda (Celtic Trance)
A review on Amazon.com says:
“If you’re not looking for “Traditional” Irish jigs, reels, lyrics, ballads or tunes, but rather a tightly put together selection of songs with a modern, mystic, Celtic “flavor” and a dream-like quality, with a nice heavy bass beat…then this is a CD for you!”

Danceable rhythms overlaid with string arrangements and lilting Celtic melodies compose the sound of Ireland’s Dagda, the collective moniker for producers Red Keating and Phillip O’Rely.

Johnnie Lawson -Natural Sound of the Forest Birds Singing 
Today’s forest sounds are from Johnnie Lawson. He writes: “I search out tranquil, quiet places in nature where we like to go when we want peace and calm, away from the stresses of modern day life. I capture the sense of beauty and tranquility of each location in sound and vision. It is my pleasure to bring these healing videos to you, free for you to relax with at any time of the day or night, anywhere in the world.”

On Forest Halls Celtic, we’ve heard several versions of the Irish slip jig, The Butterfly. A slip-jig is in 9/8 time, but we’ve heard it also in 11/8 and 5/4. In this next version, we hear yet another rhythmic variation, that of 12/8 tim.

“The Red Admiral Butterfly” (slip jig) James Galway & The Chieftains (James Galway & The Chieftains in Ireland)
Douglas Hadden writes:
“The Chieftains” and James Galway play an arrangement of the Irish slip-jig, “The Butterfly”. Possibly the best-known “slip-jig” [ in 9/8 time ] in Irish traditional music. It was made popular by “The Bothy Band” on their first eponymous album. It is often thought of as an original composition by Dublin fiddle-player Tommy Potts, but it is generally accepted these days that he “re-arranged” parts from other traditional tunes, and possibly only the 3rd part is original. In any case, a great tune. “The Chieftains” arrangement plays the original – a great introduction by Matt Molloy – and then change the time signature into 12/8.”

Goltraí – song of sorrow

“O’Carolan’s Farewell to Music” – Máire Ní Chathasaigh (The New Strung Harp)
From Wikipedia:
“Turlough O’Carolan (1670 – 25 March 1738) was a blind early Irish harper, composer and singer whose great fame is due to his gift for melodic composition. Although not a composer in the classical sense, Carolan is considered by many to be Ireland’s national composer. … Some of Carolan’s own compositions show influences of the style of continental classical music, whereas others such as Carolan’s Farewell to Music reflect a much older style of “Gaelic Harping.”

Reputedly the last song composed by O’Carolan — perhaps even on his deathbed! — Carolan’s Farewell to Music is an expression of goltrai — a song of sorrow.

Máire Ní Chathasaigh is an amazing Irish harper, and one I listened to carefully when I first began learning harp.

“Deirdre of the Sorrows” – Fiona Davidson (The Language of Birds)
The Celts know all about beauty, passion, tragedy, and grief. In this story we experience how music gives voice to this Irish myth. This is a tragic tale, but so beautifully and richly told.

Fiona Davidson had quite a career as a harper, storyteller, and bard, and performed in Iona, a progressive Celtic rock band from the United Kingdom, during its early years. These days, she goes by the name Fionntullach, and is devoted to the path of the Celtic spiritual tradition, the Céile Dé.

Suantraí – song of comfort, for soothing, lullabye

“Sleepsong” – Anúna (Invocation)
This absolutely gorgeous song was written for a tale that contains elements similar to the preceding tale of Dierdre.

Wikipedia:

“The Pursuit of Diarmuid and Gráinne (Irish: Tóraigheacht Dhiarmada agus Ghráinne or Tóraíocht Dhiarmada agus Gráinne in modern spelling) is an Irish prose narrative surviving in many variants. A tale from the Fenian Cycle of Irish mythology, it concerns a love triangle between the great warrior Fionn mac Cumhaill, the beautiful princess Gráinne, and her paramour Diarmuid Ua Duibhne. Surviving texts are all in Modern Irish and the earliest dates to the 16th century, but some elements of the material date as far back as the 10th century. …”

The princess Gráinne is to wed the aged great warrior Fionn, but she falls for the young warrior, Diarmuid. They run off and are pursued.

They hide from Fionn in a forest near the River Shannon, where in this greenwood shelter Gráinne soothes Diarmuid with a lullaby.

“Cadal Ciarach Mo Luran (Sleep Well My Beloved)” – Julie Fowlis  – (Gach Sgeul – Every Story)

Scottish folk singer Julie Fowlis sings a “sleepsong” along the same lines as the preceding song.

Sleep well my beloved,
Sleep well my beloved,
Sleep well my beloved,
I’ll always be with you …

Added for 7/19/20:
Music Tiffany Schaefer and The Irish Consort

Radio Show – Episode 7 – June 19, 2016 – Place

The theme of today’s show is “Place” — in particular, how the nature of the land and summer speak through our hearts, and we in turn give voice and expression to our experience of the land. In this show we also celebrate Father’s Day with a few songs honoring dads.

00:11 Spookytree (Deb Knodel & Jane Valencia) – Lochaber No More
01:59 Julie Fowlis and Muireann Nic Amhlaobh – Tha’m buntata mor / An Bairille / Boc liath nan gobhar
05:33 Danu – County Down
11:15 Phil Cunningham – The Palomino Waltz
18:29 Kate Wolf – The Redtail Hawk
22:20 Patrick Ball – Castle Kelly
28:21 Verlene Schermer and Kyle Wohlmut – Take 5 / Butterfly in 5
33:02 Swainsons Thrush – Squamish River Estuary
34:45 Sharlene Wallace and Kim Robertson – The Butterfly
37:28 Ffynnon – Aros Mae
41:53 Dougie Maclean – Talking With My Father
47:06 Dawn and Margie Beaton – Live at ECMA 2010
57:38  Siobhán Armstrong – Mary O’Neill

Listen to the latest show on demand.

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Format: Track Title – artist (CD Title)

“Tha’m buntáta mór / An Bairille / Boc liath nan gobhar” – Julie Fowlis and Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh  (dual)
Some solo singing by Julie and Muireann, and then some lovely whistle playing by them both.
dual is an album by four acclaimed Irish and Scottish musicians: Éamonn Doorley, Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh (both prominently of Danú), Julie Fowlis and Ross Martin.

The artists released the album in October 2008 on their official websites. The album was planned to project the similarities and differences between the Irish and Scottish Gaelic song traditions

“County Down” – Danú 
A song by Tommy Sands performed by the Irish band Danú. Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh (born 1978) is a musician and singer from County Kerry, Ireland. She was the lead singer from the traditional music group Danú until 2015.

“Palomino Waltz/Donna’s Waltz” – Phil Cunningham (The Palomino Waltz)

Rufous Humingbird – Squamish River Estuary – Woodfibrebirde
Music of a hummingbird you might hear in Forest Halls at this time of year.

“The Redtail Hawk (Golden Rollin’ Hills of California)” – Kate Wolf

Golden rolling hills speak to me of the hot summer sun. One of my favorite songs ever – and I think, that of my husband Andy too. Here’s a version we’re not familiar with. For you, Andy – I reckon the golden rolling hills of California will always speak to our hearts.

“Castle Kelly” – Patrick Ball (Fiona)
A lovely arrangement that well-showcases the ring and tones of the wire-strung harp. I believe the album this song is on, Fiona, is named for his then new daughter (back in 1993).

“Take 5/Butterfly in 5 (Paul Desmond/Trad.)” – Verlene Schermer and Kyle Wohlmut

Two good friends of mine, who have coincidently or not – been up to Vashon at separate times to visit. Verlene is a harper and singer/songwriter in the SF Bay Area. She also plays the Scandinavian Nickel-harpe … I’ll have to play some of that for you sometime. Kyle Wolmut is a Bay Area harper who has been living overseas for some time now. I believe he’s currently based in Germany. How does he bend the notes? Possibly with his tuning key pressed against his string and sliding against it. I don’t have the nerve to try that on my wire-strung harps. The tension seems too tight on them, and my newest wire-strung harp is still breaking a few too many strings in the upper couple of octaves …

Regarding the “bending note” question, here is a note that I received from Verlene after the airing of this show:

“I can shed light on his bending notes. He actually used pitch change pedals to do that.  So it’s electronic!”

Thanks for solving that mystery for me, Verlene!

“Greetings to you, sun of the seasons” (Alexander Carmichael, new trans. Kenneth Jackson)

Words after Scottish-Gaelic – traditional folk prayer:

Greetings to you, sun of the seasons, as you travel the skies on high, with your strong steps on the wing of the heights; you are the happy mother of stars.

You sink down in the perilous ocean without harm and without hurt, you rise up on the quiet wave like a young queen in flower.
Kenneth Jackson, A Celtic Miscellany
Alexander Carmichael Carmina Gadelica vol III p 311

Wikipedia:
“Carmina Gadelica is a compendium of prayers, hymns, charms, incantations, blessings, literary-folkloric poems and songs, proverbs, lexical items, historical anecdotes, natural history observations, and miscellaneous lore gathered in the Gaelic-speaking regions of Scotland between 1860 and 1909. The material was recorded, translated, and reworked by the exciseman and folklorist Alexander Carmichael (1832–1912).”

Swainson’s Thrush – Squamish River Estuary – Woodfibrebirder (Youtube)
Here on Vashon Island, the Swainson’s Thrush is the quintessential herald of summer for many of us. When we hear that upward-spiraling flute-like song, we know that summer has arrived. We only hear that song for a short time – so be sure to get outside and enjoy that symphony.

“The Butterfly” Sharlene Wallace and Kim Robertson (Q & A )
Extraordinary Celtic harpers from Canada and America respectively play their version of this favorite Irish slip jig.

“Aros Mae” – Ffynnon (Celtic Music from Wales)
Acapella with beautiful vocals of Lynne Denman
A setting of the poem by the 19th century bard Ceiriog. The poem describes the wind roaring across the mountains and the flowers appearing each year. Although many things come and go some are unchanging, amongst these, the old language and the old tunes remain.

Aros mae’r mynyddau mawr
Rhuo trostynt mae y gwynt ….

 “Walking with my Father” – Dougie Maclean (Till Tomorrow w/ Royal Scottish National Orchestra)
It was hard to choose between this version of “Walking with my Father”, and the earlier, on the album Who Am I.  But, as a former oboist, I have a soft spot for lovely orchestration that includes an oboe solo — and, even more, it’s the kind of accompaniment my dad enjoys. I’m playing this song in honor of my dad.

Dougie Maclean is Scottish singer-songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist and record producer.

From: http://www.linnrecords.com/recording-Till-Tomorrow.aspx:
“Dougie MacLean needs no introduction; as a singer, songwriter, composer and instrumentalist, no artist captures the soul of Scotland with more authenticity or emotion. ‘Till Tomorrow’ features a hand-picked selection of songs

“Originally famed for writing the song Caledonia, Dougie has teamed up with conductor John Logan and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra to bring a new and beautiful symphonic dimension to his best-loved songs …”

“Secluded Beach” – Seamus Byrne (Just Before Dawn
Recorded in Co. Wicklow, Ireland in Spring, this very early morning dawn chorus quietly and delicately announces the day as the first birds begin their song, even as the sun is still below horizon.

Dawn and Margie Beaton – Live @ ECMA 2010 – Celtic Colours Festival Club Stage
Musicians playing Patrick Gillis (guitar), Dawn Beaton (fiddle), Margie Beaton (fiddle), Jason Roach (keyboard)
Dawn and Margie Beaton, sisters, are
Cape Breton fiddlers, here performing a set of tunes at the Celtic Colours Festival, which is an annual festival of music and Celtic culture held on Cape Breton Island.
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