Tag: Dundee

Broughty Castle

Today I was at Broughty Ferry public library, playing the harp for the baby and toddler book group. This is great fun as well as being a bit of a challenge – I am expected to accompany while they sing a selection of nursery rhymes, unexpected titles, in unexpected keys, and sung quite fast.

I also visitied the castle, and then walked for about half an hour along the beach to the East. The tide was coming in quite fast and I found this lovely reflection in the groynes with the castle in the background. The hill to the left is the northern tip of Fife.

Ann Heymann in Dundee

Ann Heymann was in Scotland this past week, at the end of her successful 3-month visiting fellowship at the National University of Ireland, Galway.

I went into Edinburgh on Thursday for the seminar presented by Ann and Charlie which aimed to summarise and present their Galway work on combining medieval syllabic poetry performance with harp accompaniment.

On Saturday they were in Dundee. The duo performed the morning cappuccino concert for the Friends of Wighton. Then in the afternoon Ann led the usual weekly harp class in the Wighton Centre. It was a nice change for me to be able to sit at the back watching!

These photos are from the harp class. Numbers were down due to some regulars being either ill or travelling.

Margaret 1281 concert in Dundee

On Wednesday lunchtime I’ll be presenting my Margaret 1281 programme in the Wighton Centre, in Dundee Central Library. This is always a fun event, the free concert run by the Friends of Wighton on the first Wednesday of every month at 1.15pm.

I presented this programme back in June at St Andrews Cathedral and it worked very well. The idea is to present a dramatic episode of Scottish history in music and verse. All of the six items on the programme have strong connections to Scotland or Norway in the late 1200s and early 1300s.

As well as playing the replica Queen Mary harp, I’ll sing the traditional ballad telling a part of this story, and I’ll also pull out the jouhikko for a bit of old Scandinavian flavour.

Ecce Fulget

Today at the Harp Class in Dundee, as it is St Patrick’s day, we looked at a medieval hymn to St Patrick from Trinity College Dublin ms.80.

Ecce fulget clarissima
Behold, flashes brightly

Patricii sollempnitas
Patrick’s festival,

in qua carne deposita
whereby the body he has abandoned,

felix transcendit sidera.
happily he passes through the stars.

Recording of me singing it

Recording of me playing it on the harp

Wooden Road

Further to my previous post on the wooden road in Dundee, I was walking along the other half of Whitehall Place or Whitehall Crescent, Dundee, DD1 4AY, (the Western section between Union Street and Whitehall Street) on Saturday. I looked behind me into the sun, and I saw that the surface of the tarmac clearly showed the outlines of the blocks underneath. The North-Eastern section I photographed before has been completely relaid with the wood blocks removed and replaced with new tarmac.

Edit 26 Feb 2012: Yesterday I had a closer look and the blocks on this Western section are visible through gaps in the tarmac; they are stone setts, apparently some kind of granite, not wood as I had originally guessed.


Edit 26 March 2012: The stone setts are now gone and the Western section has also been completely re-laid with new tarmac.

Dundee Wighton concert

On Saturday, October 22nd, the Friends of Wighton’s monthly cappuccino concert will be performed by historical harp specialist, Simon Chadwick.

In the bright and atmospheric surrounds of Dundee Central Library’s Wighton Heritage Centre, the event starts at 10.30am with complimentary coffee and newspapers. Then from 11 to 12 Simon will perform a selection of rare and beautiful old harp tunes, using a very special replica of the famous medieval Scottish Queen Mary harp.

Simon is the regular tutor of the Friends of Wighton harp class, held every Saturday afternoon in the Wighton Centre. He has done a large amount of research with the collection of old Scottish music books housed in the centre, and his music brings back to life Scottish music from centuries past.

The Wighton Collection of Scottish music books was brought together by collector Andrew Wighton, a Dundee merchant, in the early 19th century. After his death, it was given to the city and is now housed in display cabinets in the specially built study and performance centre at the top of the Wellgate library.

Saturday 22nd October, 10.30 for 11 am
Friends of Wighton Cappuccino Concert
Old Gaelic Laments
in the Wighton Centre, Dundee Central Library, DD1 1DB
Admission £5
Followed at 2.00pm by Simon’s regular harp class. All welcome, admission £5 (£2.50 under 25s)

More details:
07792 336804
http://www.friendsofwighton.com