()H Ilt) (JUNNI (VII'lONS PARACAS Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Wed 12 Jan
Celtic Connections has traditionally opened with a large-scale blockbuster, and this year will be no exception. Piper Fred Morrison, the winner of the Best lnstrumentalist award at last month’s Scots Trad Music Awards in Edinburgh, has been working with orchestrator Mark Sheridan on a massive work entitled ‘Paracas’, meaning ‘Rhapsody of the Gael’.
‘It should be seen as ‘a’ rhapsody of the Gael rather than ‘the’ rhapsody of the Gael,’ insists Morrison. ‘It was an idea I actually had a few years ago, but I had thought of it as a piece for a big group of traditional players rather than an orchestra, with a big percussion core and lots of chanting and so on. It was very difficult to get it off the ground considering the magnitude I was looking at. When I met Mark Sheridan on the way back from the Celtic festival in Lorient a couple of years ago, however, we got talking about it. He suggested thinking about it in terms of using an orchestra.’
They approached Colin Hynd at Celtic Connections for advice on the idea, and he was keen to stage it at
this year’s festival. With an ensemble of top traditional musicians featuring Morrison and fellow pipers Finlay MacDonald, Simon McKerrall and Rory Campbell, a percussion group “with lots of ethnic instruments,’ the Orchestra of Scottish Opera, a Gaelic choir, and a couple of narrators, the piece certainly qualifies as large-scale. As does the work that has gone into it.
‘It’s been a mammoth amount. I have written it all apart from one piece, a famous tune known as the ‘Lament for the Children’ by Patrick Mor McCrimmon. Mark has done a phenomenal amount of work orchestrating it. A lot of the music has been built up over the years, but a lot of it has been redone. Much of it has been written this year, and some of it was written last night!’
And that ongoing process continues with Morrison expecting the music to keep pouring out of people right up to the last moment. ‘There are seven movements altogether, and the piece travels from the wellspring of the music to the modern day. It’s not a formal history by any means, but we have narration in two sections, the ‘Lament of the Children’ and the section on the Clearances. It will end on a positive note with the current state of traditional music.’ (Kenny Mathieson)
CELT IC CONNECTIONS MARTIN TAYLOR WITH SHEILA STEWART & PHIL
CUNNINGHAM Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Mon 17 Jan
Martrn Taylor rs best known as a lit// gurtarrst. hut he has; always had a Wrde-rangrng musreal sensrhrlrty. collahoratrng Wrth rnusrerans; and srngeru from a number of drverse genres rn the past. He wrll explore hrs own tra~.'el'er herrtage rn thrs concert. shared wrth hallad srnger Sherla Stewart and accordron vrrtuoso Phrl Cunnrngham.
Taylor and Stewart share a common herrtage rn the traveller trartrfrim, rndeed they are related on the paternal grandmother's srde of the fame; Furthermore. Sherla rs the daughter of another famous hallad srnger. Belle Stewart. who rs Wrdely regarded as a rreh (.leposrton/ of heth folk and traveller songs and tradrtrons. Taylor has acknwrledged the rrrrportarrtge of that tradrtron on hrs own development.
'Scottrsh travellers; have a word rn the Cant language. 'r:on,a(;h’. whreh means feelrng. It's old and very deep. and has passed down through the aural tradrtron of srngrng from the heart. t rs drffrCuIt to deserrhe thrs state. but when rt happens rt feels lrke herng rrrsrde the musrcg the gurtar drsappears somehow. and all that rs left rs the rnuSrc'
Thrs powerful and deep leelrng doesn't always happen to Taylor. but when rt does. he rs often completely unaware that he rs playlng hrs rrrstrarnent. ‘Sherla Stewart once explarned that when she srngs. she takes the sow. mrxes rt Wrth the Sprrrt and uses rt rn her vorce. She has that same sensatron of berng rnsrde the song. or of pecornrng the song. She uses her heart rather than her head; that rs what 'co yacht rs all about. and rt rs ner,’ deerly rooted rn the traveller tradrtron.' Kenny MZtIITIESOlTl
THE INTERNATIONAL UNUSUAL SUSPECTS Royal Concert Hall. Glasgow. Wed 19 Jan
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But all that tough i.trrfe and fuel ,' tl(:(ilf;lt)ll lrlalarhg was worth rt Irr the end. thorrgh ‘I had never experrerreed aurlrerrre, renporrrlrug wlth so rrrrreh raxr energy and enthusrawrrr trelore llrat .va'. 'J‘:l/ t:X(;lIlIltl. hut also a wee lrrt near, heearrse rt lea.e‘, the hr“; gue‘tron of how we are alrle to Peep tlral level up' (Kenny i‘flélllll‘:')tllll
‘r 2/, Mr 2);", THE LIST 67