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Heroic music at the Cathedral

On Tuesday is the last in my summer series of cathedral concerts for this year. I’ll be repeating a programme from last year, of music connected to the heroic legends of Britain and Ireland. The centrepiece of the concert will be a performance of one of the medieval Gaelic lays – the story of Caoilte and the giant with five heads, which I have learned from a 1965 field recording of Kate MacDonald. There are a large number of such recordings of these medieval heroic songs being performed, and I have catalogued a number of them on my website at www.earlygaelicharp.info/lay. As well as lays from the Fenian cycle, as this one is, there are also lays dealing with characters from the Ulster cycle, the Historical cycle, and also from the Arthurian cycle.

All of these lays that survived down to the mid 20th century (I believe only one, Am Bron Binn, is still current in living tradition) survive only as unaccompanied solo song. This is of course very valuable for the study of early Gaelic music because we get a medieval text, a reciting melody, and a performance style. But for a harp concert I wanted to find instrumental music on a similar theme, and not just play instrumental adaptions of the vocal reciting melodies.

So for Tuesday’s concert I cast my net as wide as I can to try and find an interesting selection of genuinely instrumental music which somehow connects to this heroic theme. Come along to the cathedral at 12.45 and see what you think!

Tonkori



Yesterday I was in Edinburgh for lessons. I also managed tea at the Scottish Malt Whisky Society, and a look round the newly refurbished Royal Museum.

In the new museum there is a small gallery of musical instruments, and I was delighted to see a tonkori on display. I have never seen one before, but some years ago a friend in Japan sent me a copy of Oki, Tonkori. This very interesting string music, on an instrument with only 5 or so notes, has to my ear many parallels with the indigenous European string arts such as lyre, jouhikko, kantele, and harp. I think the musical patterns are suprisingly reminiscent of the music in Robert ap Huw’s manuscript.

Harlaw – 5th session

For the 5th and final session on the Battle of Harlaw, we sung through “Harrow’s March” from the Campbell Canntaireachd manuscript:

Hio tra dre o hiharin
Hio tra dre o hihambam
Hio tra dre o hinto hinto
Hin da hio a hiharin
(repeat)

Che dari o hiharin
Che dari che o din hihambam
Hio tra dre o hihambam

Che dari ha dre
Hio tra dre him bari
Che ha hio dre o hiharin

Click here for the manuscript facsimile
Click here for my Harlaw page

Makars Court Stone Unveiling


Yesterday I was at Makars Court in Edinburgh for the unveiling of the stone dedicated to Lachlan Mòr MacMhuirich, the famous Gaelic poet. This photo (thanks to Karen Loomis) shows me playing the harp to accompany Malcolm Maclean reading Lachlan Mòr’s Brosnachadh or incitement to Clan Donald before the Battle of Harlaw, July 1411. Seated behind are Elizabeth Grubb, Lady Provost of Edinburgh; Alan Currie (hidden); Councillor Deirdre Brock, Convener of the Culture and Leisure Committee, Edinburgh City Council; Dr. Donald William Stewart, University of Edinburgh; Robert Currie, President of the Clan Currie Society, and George Grubb, Lord Provost of Edinburgh.

Harlaw: 3rd session

For the third in my series of Saturday afternoon music workshops in Dundee’s Wighton Centre, we looked at the ceòl mór or pìobaireachd of “the Battle of Harlaw”. This is a complex and disputed area of study, with many scholars not noticing the connections and relationships between various source notations, or being misled by variant titles or historical claims. We looked at and sung through five different versions, starting with the ballad text in the Scots Musical Museum, and then looking at Danial Dow’s 1796 fiddle pibroch variation set, the lute version from the Rowallan manuscript (c.1620), the version published by Stenhouse in the 19th century copied by him from a now lost “manuscript… of considerable antiquity” and finally looking at a standard pìobaireachd setting, “The Desperate Battle of the Birds”.

Links to these items will be found on my Harlaw web page. Next week we will consider the English masque tune, as well as revisiting the Gaelic Brosnachadh. 2pm in the Wighton Centre, DD1 1DB.

Lachlan Mór MacMhuirich and the Battle of Harlaw

On Friday, July 22nd, and Saturday July 23rd, I am taking part in interesting and important events in Edinburgh, organised by the Clan Currie Society.

On Friday 22nd, at 11am, a stone will be unveiled in the Makar’s Court, outside the Writers Museum just off Edinburgh’s Royal Mile. The court is paved with stone slabs, each commemorating an important Scottish writer, and the latest stone is for Lachlan Mór MacMhuirich, and will be engraved with the first two lines of his famous brosnachadh, or incitement to Clan Donald before the battle of Harlaw in July 1411:
A Chlanna Cuinn, cuimhnichibh
Cruas an am na h-iorghaile

On Saturday 23rd, starting at 10am, in the Royal Scots Club on Abercrombie Place, Edinburgh, there will be a symposium on Lachlan Mór MacMhuirich and the Battle of Harlaw, with a good selection of speakers.

You can find out more details on the Clan Currie event website.

See also my Harlaw music pages.

Website troubles

I apologise for the problems that have been plaguing my websites the past few days. There were some serious troubles at the company that hosts the pages. I have temporarily taken the websites offline while they are checked over, but I hope that they will be back to normal later today. Please let me know if you see anything unusual, suspicious or odd at all.