Radio Show – Episode 6 – June 5, 2016 – Ancient Forests

AncientForest-webWe make a slight detour into the musical realm of “Ambient Celtic” in this show devoted to the Ancient Forests.

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12:00: Spookytree (Deb Knodel & Jane Valencia) – Lochaber No More
12:02: The Poozies – The Bay Tree Waltz/Faca Sibh/Jig Jazz
12:07: Loreena McKennitt – Bonny Portmore
12:15: Paul Bonghez – Forest Inn
12:16: Bay Area Youth Harp Ensemble – Moonshadows
12:23: Damh the Bard – Greenwood Grove
12:28: Clannad – Robin The Hooded Man
12:31: Clannad – Lady Marian
12:34: Mara Freeman – A Tree Blessing Poem
12:38: Tim Olisker – Celtic Dawn
12:44: Jon Parmentier – Brown Creek Trail
12:48: Alison Kinnaird – Cumha Eachainn Ruaidh Nan Cath
12:56: Spookytree (Deb Knodel & Jane Valencia) – Lochaber No More
12:58: Jon Parmentier – Forest Phoenix

Format: Track Title – artist (CD Title)

“The Bay Tree Waltz/Faca Sibh/Jig Jazz” – The Poozies (Dansoozies)
The Poozies are an all-woman band who draw heavily from English and Scottish traditional music. Until a few years ago, both members of the Scottish harp duo, Sileas, were part of this group. You can hear Mary MacMaster here playing electro-harp, and Patsy Seddon starting with fiddle, and switching to gut-strung harp later in the set.

“Bonny Portmore” – Loreena McKennitt (The Visit)

“Bonny Portmore” is an Irish traditional folk song which laments the demise of Ireland’s old oak forests, specifically the Great Oak of Portmore or the Portmore Ornament Tree, which fell in a windstorm in 1760 and was subsequently used for shipbuilding and other purposes.

Visit http://www.sentryjournal.com/2010/10/11/the-fate-of-bonny-portmore/ for more detailed information about this tree and of the castle of Bonny Portmore.

“Forest Inn ” – Paul Bonghez (Soundcloud)
Paul Bonghez is a dedicated composer, freelance guitarist, and music teacher who divides his professional career between touring with top Romanian artists and composing for video games. Specializing in cinematic music, Paul writes in a variety of styles: Epic & Sci-Fi, Celtic & Medieval, Fantasy, Action, Dramatic. This piece features several Celtic instruments, including the harp.

“Moonshadows” Bay Area Youth Harp Ensemble (Innisheer)
We featured music by this group of young harpers in Show 4. Their Kickstarter campaign has been successful in helping them reach their goal to tour the Ancient Redwoods to play music among and for the trees, and to help raise funds for conserving these magnificent trees.

Let’s head out to the mythic forest. This next song is basically a listing of the sacred trees and their qualities of the Celts according to the ogham – or “tree alphabet” – of at least the modern-day Druids.

“Greenwood Grove” – Damh the Bard (The Hills They are Hollow)

This song presents wisdom as encoded and expressed by the trees.

I am the Birch of the new beginnings,
The Rowan star with magic guarding,
Alder sight the future showing,
Sweet Willow sees her Moon arising,
Ash the three realms he is touching,

From: http://www.druidry.org/druid-way/teaching-and-practice/druid-tree-lore

Ogham (which means ‘language’ and is pronounced o’um, or och’um) … consists of twenty-five simple strokes centred on or branching off a central line. It is similar in purpose, but separate in origin from the Nordic runes. The Ogham characters were inscribed on stones and probably on staves of wood.

Its origins are lost in the mists of time, and most of the existing inscriptions have only been dated to the fifth and sixth centuries, but whether originally Celtic or pre-Celtic, we may sense that it carries with it some of the very earliest of Druid wisdom. Amongst our sources of information about its use, we have from Ireland the twelfth century Book of Leinster, the fourteenth century Book of Ballymote, and O’Flaherty’s Ogygia (published in 1793). And from Scotland, transcribed from the oral tradition in the seventeenth century, we have The Scholar’s Primer. But it was the poet Robert Graves who, following in his grandfather’s footsteps as an Ogham expert, brought this arcane system into public awareness once again, with his publication of The White Goddess in 1948.

We’ll follow with some music composed about the legendary Robin Hood of Sherwood Forest.

“Robin (The Hooded Man)” and “Lady Marion” Clannad (Legend)
Legend is a 1984 soundtrack album for the ITV television series Robin of Sherwood, by the Irish folk group Clannad. The Robin Hood series was much loved on both sides of the Atlantic.

“Tree Blessing Poem” – Mara Freeman (from her book Kindling the Celtic Spirit)
A field recording of Mara reading her poem.

“Celtic Dawn” – Tim Olisker (Pianissimo on Soundcloud)
Tim is a 27-year-old software engineer and amateur composer living in Seattle who very recently started composing. He writes:

I focus on composing atmospheric, evocative ethnic pieces that take my listeners on a journey through both time and space. I’m obsessed with medieval sounds, but also love Celtic/Northern European, Middle Eastern, Mediterranean and Far Eastern ethnic vibes. … Every piece you hear on my cloud is 100% original music that is composed, recorded (using VSTs), and produced by myself. No remixes, no covers. I don’t use loops. Nor do I use prerecorded “musical phrases” of any kind. I manually compose and record every single note of every instrument you hear …

“Brown Creek Trail” – Jon Parmentier (youtube)
As a backdrop to David Whyte’s poem and the nature news update, we have nature sounds recorded in the Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park in northern California.

“Sometimes” – David Whyte (River Flow: New and Selected Poems)

Poet David Whyte grew up with a strong, imaginative influence from his Irish mother among the hills and valleys of his father’s Yorkshire. He now makes his home in the Pacific Northwest of the United States.

The poem begins:

Sometimes
if you move carefully
through the forest,
breathing
like the ones
in the old stories,
who could cross
a shimmering bed of leaves
without a sound,
you come
to a place
whose only task
is to trouble you
with tiny
but frightening requests,
conceived out of nowhere
but in this place
beginning to lead everywhere …

Ancient Forest news report:
from the article: Ancient Celtic Forest Bought by Woodland Trust

An ancient forest in Snowdonia has been bought by the Woodland Trust after a campaign raised £750,000. The 220-hectare forest of Llennyrch – also known as the Celtic Rainforest – is a unique habitat of unspoilt atlantic oakwood and Woodland pasture. It included lichen that doesn’t grow anywhere else in Wales.

“Cumha Eachainn Ruaidh Nan Cath (Lament for Red Hector of the Battles)”  – Alison Kinnaird (The Silver String)
Here Alison Kinnaird plays piobaireachd on the wire-strung harp.

From the Piobaireachd Society website:

… What emerged was the instrument we know today as the Great Highland Bagpipe, and a form of music, piobaireachd, which is unique to the instrument.  It is a very stylized form of music. There is freedom in the theme or “ground” of the piobaireachd to express joy, sadness, or sometimes in the “gathering” tunes , a peremptory warning or call to arms.

The word “piobaireachd” literally means pipe playing or pipe music, but is now used to describe the classical music of the Great Highland Bagpipe. Another name for it is “Ceol Mor” meaning the Big Music, which separates piobaireachd from all other forms of pipe music (marches, reels, jigs etc. ) which are referred to as “Ceol Beag” – the Little Music.
To describe a piobaireachd is not easy. It consists of a theme or “ground”, with variations (which vary in number and complexity ) that follow the theme. The theme is often very slow, and the general effect of the whole piece of music is slow – slowness being a characteristic of Highland music.

From The Early Gaelic Harp website:

Ceòl mór (big music), or pìobaireachd (piping) or pibroch, is the formal art music of the Scottish highland bagpipes1. However, in previous centuries, similar music was also played on fiddle and on the early clàrsach (early Gaelic harp)2, and many scholars have suggested that the modern living pipe tradition has its origins in the lost medieval Gaelic harp traditions. This music was also played on the fiddle in the 17th and 18th centuries.

I think that it is a mistake to think of the familiar living bagpipe tradition as primary – fiddle pibroch is often included under a general heading of ‘imitative music’3. To me it seems clear that that both pipes and fiddle independently took up the ceòl mór style and idiom from the much older harp traditions, which date back to medieval times in Ireland and Scotland.

We don’t have very much concrete information about Gaelic harp ceòl mór. It would have been an older strand of the Gaelic harp tradition, more complex and idiomatic than the ports or vocal music which were notated in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. I am only aware of one example of Gaelic harp ceòl mór noted from the playing of one of the old harpers.

Alison Kinnaird is recognised as one of the foremost proponents of traditional Scottish harp music. She plays both gut and wire-strung harps. She has been researching the repertoire of the harp in Scotland for more than twenty-five years, written several books of harp music, and co-authored the first published history of the harp in Scotland The Tree of Strings.

We close our show today with a piece that is not Celtic, but which is inspired by the majestic old growth redwood.

“Forest Phoenix” – Jon Parmentier (Music for Redwoods).
Jon Parmentier is a guitarist who is much inspired and influenced by the nature of the northern California coast and the Coastal Redwoods.

Diolch yn fawr —Thank you for joining me!

Jane

Radio Show – Episode 5 – May 29, 2016 Play List and Program Notes – Foxglove Music and Magic

FHC-GoblinGloves-180dpiIn this episode we discovered the faery lore of the plant, Foxglove, through story and music, enjoyed some contemporary treatments of very old tunes and songs, and more.

Catch the latest Forest Halls Celtic episode on demand here.

01:39 Alan Stivell / Brian Boru
07:02 Owain Phyfe / Ja Nus Hons Pris
11:25 The Chieftains / I Know My Love (with The Corrs)
16:55 The Standing Stones and Debra Knodel / Oran Sniomh (Spinning Song)
20:39 Cynthia Cathcart / Mist Covered Mountains
23:06 Laura Risk, Fiddle / Lord Moira
31:04 Seamus Byrne / Track 2
31:55 Mara Freeman / The Faery Lore of Fox Gloves
34:08 / Story: Goblin Gloves by Allison Cox
37:00 Jeff Victor / The Widow of Loch Lemond
39:53 Jeff Victor / 7th Child of the 7th Child
47:14 Distant Oaks / Tobar gach Grais/An Drochaid Chliuiteach
51:49 Julie Fowlis / Danns’ a Luideagan Odhar
54:37 Altan / Jimmy Lyon’s/ The Teelin/ The Red Crow/ The Broken Bridge

Format: Track Title – artist (CD Title)

“Brian Boru” – Alan Stivell (Celtic Circle 2 – Various Artists) 

Brian Boru (full name Brian Bóruma mac Cennétig) was an Irish king who ended the domination of the High Kingship of Ireland by the Uí Néill dynasty, becoming the High King of Ireland himself. Alan Stivell is a Celtic musician from Britanny, best known in the folk harp world for his wire-strung harp playing on his classic album, Renaissance of the Celtic Harp. On this piece he plays electro-harp. He composed the words to the “Brian Boru” melody, and sings here in (I believe) Irish Gaelic and Breton.

“Ja Nus Hon Pris” – Owain Phyfe (Poets, Bards, and Singers of Songs)
A beautiful song written and sung in Langue d’oil – one of the two principal groups of dialects spoken in medieval France. It was composed by the English King, Richard Coeur de Lion, and with a lovely treatment here by the late Owain Phyfe.

Extreme trivia: Back in the early 90’s I played this song as a harp solo in the Portland, OR-based early music ensemble Musique Ancienne, and also recorded it on Deb’s & my privately-released first album, Spooky Tree.

“I Know My Love” – The Chieftains with The Corrs (Tears of Stone)
The Chieftains are a traditional Irish band formed in Dublin in November 1962. Some music experts have credited The Chieftains with bringing traditional Irish music to a worldwide audience, so much so that the Irish government awarded them the honorary title of ‘Ireland’s Musical Ambassadors’ in 1989. In 2012, they celebrated their 50th anniversary with the release of their most recent record Voice of Ages. If you’re tracking harps, yes – Derek Bell is playing harp here!

This was one of the Chieftains’ collaborative albums.

The Corrs are an Irish band that combine pop rock with traditional Irish themes within their music. The group consists of the Corr siblings, Andrea (lead vocals, tin whistle); Sharon (violin, vocals); Caroline (drums, percussion, piano, bodhrán,vocals) and Jim (guitar, piano, keyboards, vocals).

“Oran Sniomh (Spinning Song)” – The Standing Stones and Debra Knodel (Give Fleece a Chance)
The Standing Stones are Michael Robinson and Vicki Parrish. This San Francisco Bay Area based duo performs traditional music and song from Scotland and Ireland, and Canada and Australia where Scottish and Irish music took root during the Gaelic diaspora of the 19th century, as well as a certain amount of early music, and music from the other Celtic lands.

They write:

“While others may try to take traditional music into the future, our goal is to take it into the past. We try to join our research on historical performance styles to the living tradition, so that our music can be both exciting and true to its roots. But the most important thing is to enjoy ourselves and to share this beautiful musical heritage with others.”

Debra Knodel is a northern California harper who is doing some pretty cool things on harp. If you are listening in the Bay Area, contact me for information on a solo concert she’ll be performing in Fall. I wish I could travel down for that!

More trivia: Deb, Vicki, and I performed as a harp trio called Trillium way back in my first year or so of harp playing. We played at the Northern California Renaissance Faire.

“Mist Covered Mountains” – Cynthia Cathcart (Alchemy of a Rose)
Cynthia writes a regular column for the Folk Harp Journal, “Ringing Strings” which is devoted to the wire-strung harp. And is internationally known as a proponent of this instrument. I must have been thinking about my Portland, Oregon days when I put this play list together, because I really got to know this Scottish tune “Mist-Covered Mountains” back then, by way of harp lessons with wire-strung harper Janet Naylor in Eugene.

“Lord Moira – The Merry Making” – Laura Risk (The Merry Making)
“Laura Risk is an California-born violinist. She specializes in performing and teaching the diverse fiddle repertoire of Scotland and Quebec.
[Laura Risk] has that absolutely uncanny knack, not of knowing how much to put into a tune, but rather how little. She wrings every drop of passion, heartache or melancholy from most every note she plays… Just magic.”
Green Man Review

A protege of Alasdair Fraser, Laura Risk along with Athena Turgis played on Deb’s and my first (publically released) album, Masque. They played on “Waltz of the Little Girls” and “The Shetland Reels.” At the time Laura and Athena were teenagers, and musical forces to be reckoned with. Even then, I was impressed by Laura’s elegant playing, the crisp, beautiful ornamentation and her rich arrangements.

~~~

Celtic Twiddle art by Jane Valencia (c) 2010

I was inspired by all the beautiful Foxglove blooming these past weeks to put together this segment of lore and story regarding this mesmerizing plant.

Lore: The Faery Lore of Foxgloves by Mara Freeman/Background: 
Mara Freeman is an author and teacher of Western esoteric tradition, specifically the Celtic and British branches, and a storyteller.

By Mara:
“Foxgloves
Faery gloves
Faery caps and bells –
Foxgloves are the Folks’ Gloves,
the Good Folk, that is,
and you’d better not forget it if you think to cut them down. ….”

Read the full past about foxglove lore here.

“Goblin Gloves” by Allison Cox/Background music: “The Widow of Loch Lemond” – Jeff Victor (Lifescapes: Scottish Moors) /“7th Child of the 7th Child” – Jeff Victor (Lifescapes: Scottish Moors) 
Allison Cox is a storyteller on Vashon Island. She gave me permission to read her story, “Goblin Gloves” today. Allison is so fun to listen to, and so generous of spirit. She is very involved in the Seattle Storyteller’s Guild, and recently spear-headed an event in which an epic Irish myth retold by 17 tellers and with a musicians as well. It was fun to be part of that.

As accompaniment to “Goblin Gloves,” we have two pieces of Celtic Ambient music by Jeff Victors.

“Tobar Gach Gràis / An Drochaid Chliùiteach” – Distant Oaks (Gach Là Agus Oidhche : Music of Carmina Gadelica’)

“Distant Oaks  was a California ensemble specializing in dynamic, historically informed performances of traditional Gaelic and early European music. … In addition to their strong dedication to Gaelic music, language, and culture, as well as authentic traditional and Early Music performance practices, Distant Oaks was also actively engaged in composing new music in older styles. Much historical evidence suggests that the distinctions between indigenous music and courtly music were minimal in earlier times. In the spirit of fine music-making and respect for tradition, Distant Oaks continues to bring a brilliant panoply of music to their audiences.”

Distant Oaks is no longer together as a band, its founder, Deborah White, having passed away a number of years ago.

“Jimmy Lyon’s/The Teelin/The Red Crow/The Broken Bridge” – Altan (The Red Crow)
A set of tunes from the much-loved traditional Irish band, Altan.

Catch the latest Forest Halls Celtic episode on demand here.

Thank you for joining me in Forest Halls!

Radio Show – Episode 4 – May 15, 2016 Program Notes: A Spring Ramble

RoadRiseIt’s a lovely day for a springtime wander! Okay, so the sky is that milk-gray, and it’s a bit cool out … but musically the sun is shining, and there’s a timeless Celtic quality to the fields and waters ….

We now set off on our melodic ramble.

Listen to the latest Forest Halls Celtic show on demand

Format: Track Title – artist (CD Title)

“Trip to Ballyshannon” – Steve Baughman (Farewell to Orkney)
Ballyshannon is a town in County Donegal, Ireland. This is a popular session tune. Steve Baughman is a Celtic guitarist based in San Francisco and a good friend of mine. Hi Steve!

“The Geese in the Bog/Jig of Slurs” – Tannahill Weavers (Best of the Tannahill Weavers 1979 – 1989)  The Tannahill Weavers are one of Scotland’s premier traditional bands. They originated from a session in Paisley, Scotland and took their name from the town’s historic weaving industry and local poet laureate Robert Tannahill. They’ve been performing since the 70s, and were the first professional Scottish folk group to successfully incorporate the full-sized highland bagpipes in their on-stage performances.

“Jig of Slurs” is a Scottish tune a bunch of us South Bay Area folk harpers were learning back in the late 80s when we were all taking lessons from harper and piper, the late Chris Caswell. I’m not sure our families ever recovered from us hammering at that tune!

Ci an Fhideall/Cupair thu, Taillear thu – Karen Matheson (Urram)
Karen Matheson is well known for her compelling vocals in the Celtic super-group, Capercaillie. Here she performs a strathspey, followed by a song about a cooper, a tailer and a fisher who cannot get a wife.

From her website:
“Karen’s performing life began as a child in her local village hall in Argyll on the West coast of Scotland, where she was brought up immersed in the deep well of traditional songs. … Her new solo album (October 2015) is a musical love letter to her families’ Hebridean roots, with a collection of timeless Gaelic songs that evoke the character and atmosphere of Island life, through waulking songs, love songs, lullabies, mouth music and evocative poems to the surroundings.”

“Sacred Day” Poem by Beth Atchison / Background:. “Secluded Beach” Seamus Byrne (Just Before Dawn)
In browsing the internet for Celtic blessings for travel, in honor of the theme for today, I came upon this poem by a Pacific Northwest poet. To me it has a Celtic feel.

Sacred Day
by Beth Atchison

Contemplating the shape and form of this life today
may I travel lightly
may I honor the sacred expression of everything
may I be devoted to kindness
may I be enhanced by all that I encounter
may softness take root wherever un-forgiving once was
may I be led through the opening beyond the closing
may I bear witness to your holiness as well as mine
may I remain curious, willing, open, teachable
then fill my dreams tonight with the irrepressible truth
the language of love spills itself out everywhere

We head out into the mists of time and legend ….
“Newgrange” – Clannad (Magical Ring)
From the Newgrange website:
“Newgrange is a Stone Age (Neolithic) monument in the Boyne Valley, County Meath, it is the jewel in the crown of Ireland’s Ancient East. Newgrange was constructed about 5,200 years ago (3,200 B.C.) which makes it older than Stonehenge and the Great Pyramids of Giza. … The mound is ringed by 97 large kerbstones, some of which are engraved with symbols called megalithic art.

Newgrange was built by a farming community that prospered on the rich lands of the Boyne Valley. It is best known for the illumination of its passage and chamber by the winter solstice sun. At dawn, from December 19th to 23rd, a narrow beam of light penetrates an opening known as the roof-box and reaches the floor of the chamber, gradually extending to the rear of the chamber.

As the sun rises higher, the beam widens within the chamber so that the whole room becomes dramatically illuminated. This event lasts for 17 minutes, beginning around 9am. The intent of the Stone Age farmers who build Newgrange was undoubtedly to mark the beginning of the new year. In addition, it may have served as a powerful symbol of the victory of life over death.”

Clannad the Irish family group is beloved for such timeless music as ‘Theme From Harry’s Game’, ‘In A Lifetime’, ‘I Will Find You’ and the sound track to the ‘Robin Of Sherwood’ TV series, and for their renderings of traditional Irish music. They made a welcome return to the stage in March 2013 to mark their 40th Anniversary, and that year, released their first album since 1998.

Their album “Magical Ring,” which this tracks is from, was one of the first Celtic albums I ever owned, and one that I very much loved.

“Dinogad’s Smock (Pais Dinogad)” – Ffynnon (Celtic Music From Wales)
From the Welsh group, Ffynnon’s website: “The first four lines of a 6th century nursery rhyme written in the margin of Britain’s earliest heroic poem ‘Y Gododdin’ – it is a forerunner of the English ‘Bye Baby Bunting’. The second set of numbers, yan tan tether, is Cumbrian sheep counting. Cymraeg (Welsh) was spoken in Cumbria until the twelfth century and is still remembered in the way Cumbrian farmers used to count sheep. During the ‘Heroic Age’, much of the treasure of Welsh poetry was written in Cumbria and Strathclyde.”

“Frodo’s Waltz” by Diana Stork – Bay Area Youth Harp Ensemble (Innisheer)
Bay Area Youth Harp Ensemble (BAYHE) is a group of young harpists playing a wide variety of musical styles on a wide variety of folk and lever harps. This ensemble is directed by Diana Stork, who is also the composer of this piece, “Frodo’s Waltz”.

This summer, the Bay Area Youth Harp Ensemble – a group of 12 harpists, ages 10-22 will be on tour from June 29th to July 5th in Northern California’s ancient redwood forests to play harp music among the trees to raise awareness for the preservation and protection of these trees, support local conservation efforts, educate these dedicated young harpists, and bring beautiful, healing music to the community and the forest! They have a Kickstarter campaign underway to help fund this tour. Find out more about their project, and support their efforts here.

“May the blessing of Light be on you” – An Irish blessing / “The Holy Touch Suite” – Therese Schroeder-Sheker (The Geography of the Soul) An Irish Blessing. I couldn’t find out any more about it than that!

May the blessing of Light be on you
Light without and light within,
May the blessed sunlight shine on you
And warm your heart till it glows like
A great peat fire, so that the stranger
May come and warm himself at it,
And also a friend.
And may the light shine out of the two eyes of you,
Like a candle set in two windows of a house,
Bidding the wanderer to come in out of the storm.

And may the blessing of the Rain be on you
The soft sweet rain. May it fall upon your spirit
So that all the little flowers may spring up,
And shed their sweetness on the air.
And may the blessing of the Great Rains be on
You, may they beat upon your spirit
And wash it fair and clean,
And leave there many a shining pool
Where the blue of heaven shines,
And sometimes a star.

And may the blessing of the Earth be on you
The great round earth; may you ever have
A kindly greeting for them you pass
As you’re going along the roads.
May the earth be soft under you when you rest upon it,
Tired at the end of the day,
And may it rest easy over you when,
At the last, you lay out under it;
May it rest so lightly over you,
That your soul may be out from under it quickly,
And up, and off, and on its way to God.

Therese Schroeder-Sheker is a musician, educator, clinician, and academic dean of the School of Music-Thanatology and the founder Chalice of Repose Project, which teaches and offers a particular type of music to the dying, a legacy from certain medieval monastic practices.

“The Maids of Mitchelstown” – The Bothy Band (The Best of the Bothy Band)
The Bothy Band was an Irish traditional band active during the mid 1970s. It quickly gained a reputation as one of the most influential bands playing Irish traditional music. Their enthusiasm and musical virtuosity had a significant influence on the Irish traditional music movement that continued well after they disbanded in 1979.

The interplay between Matt Molloy on flute and Kevin Burke on fiddle on this slow reel is just plain beautiful.

“Lord Galway’s Lamentation & Síle Ní Chonalláin” –  Siobhán Armstrong (Youtube) Siobhán Armstrong, is player of historical harps with a particular passion for encouraging the rival of the early Irish harp. Among her many historical harp copies, she plays a replica of the medieval Trinity College or Brian Boru harp — the national emblem of Ireland — strung in brass and 18-carat gold. The harp is made by David Kortier, a harpmaker in Minnesota. I think the sound of the harp, as well as Siobhán’s playing, is absolutely glorious! This performance is from the Historical Harp Society of Ireland’s summer concert, in 2014, held in the Chapter House of St Mary’s Cathedral, Kilkenny, Ireland.

Let’s head out to the sea ….
Crossing to Ireland – Abby Newton (Crossing to Scotland)
From her website: “Abby Newton is well known for her groundbreaking work in the revival of the cello in American and Scottish traditional music. As part of the folk music revival of the past many decades there has been a movement to restore the unique richness of the cello to traditional music.

Today the cello is usually considered a classical instrument, but from the late 17th to early 19th centuries it was used in folk ensembles to provide low, driving rhythms for dance tunes and to render haunting Scottish airs. In those days, “folk” and “classical” music were often performed by the same musicians. Instrumentation was shared too, with violin and cello figuring prominently in both contexts. Many indigenous Scottish tunes were given formal arrangements by the great composers of the period. Haydn, Beethoven, and Mendelssohn all composed settings.”

As you may guess, if you’ve listened to my other shows, I’m a great fan of Paul Machlis’ lyrical piano playing. Here again, he offers his distinctive and beautiful accompaniment!

“Swan LK 243” – Catriona McKay (Transatlantic Sessions – Programme 5)

Scottish Harper and Composer. Catriona McKay is widely recognised for her innovative style. Here she introduces – to us, verbally—and musically, a tune she composed on a tall ship, with other members of a Transatlantic Session join in.

From Wikipedia: “Transatlantic Sessions is the collective title for a series of musical productions funded by and produced for BBC Scotland, BBC Four and RTE of Ireland. The productions comprise collaborative live performances by various leading folk and country musicians from both sides of the North Atlantic, playing music from Scotland, Ireland, England and North America, who get together under the musical direction of Aly Bain and Jerry Douglas to record and film a set of half-hour TV episodes. The Television director is Mike Alexander and the producer is Douglas Eadie.”

“Rann Na Mona” – Capercaillie (Delirium)
Capercaillie is a Scottish folk band, founded in the 80s, and continuing strong. Originating from Argyll, a region of western Scotland, the band is named after the Western Capercaillie, sometimes called a wood grouse, a native Scottish bird This audio is from a performance of Capercaillie, filmed at the Capitol Theatre Aberdeen in 1992. When you’re feeling weary of heart, you’ll want to head out to this lovely place by the sea where magic happens and you’ll receive everything you need ….

“My Lagan Love” – Sinéad O’Connor (Youtube)
“My Lagan Love” is a song to a traditional Irish air collected in 1903 in northern Donegal.

The English lyrics have been credited to poet and lyricist Joseph Campbell (1879–1944, AKA Seosamh MacCathmhaoil and Joseph McCahill, among others).

According to Wikipedia:
“The Lagan referred to in the title most likely pertains to the area of good farming land between Donegal and Derry known in Irish as An Lagán. The Lagan is the river that runs through Belfast. However, some argue that the Lagan in the song refers to a stream that empties into Lough Swilly in County Donegal, not far from where Herbert Hughes collected the song.”

and:
“Sinéad O’Connor is an Irish singer-songwriter who rose to fame in the late 1980s with her debut album The Lion and the Cobra. O’Connor achieved worldwide success in 1990 with a new arrangement of Prince’s song “Nothing Compares 2 U”.

Since then, while maintaining her singing career, she has occasionally encountered controversy, partly due to her statements and gestures—such as her ordination as a priest despite being a woman with a Roman Catholic background—and her strongly expressed views on organised religion, women’s rights, war, and child abuse.”

Listen to the latest Forest Halls Celtic show on demand

Thanks for joining me!