Music, History, and Heisgeir

Heisgeir is a group of small islands off the west coast of North Uist. North Uist is itself part of the Outer Hebrides, which lie about forty miles off the northwest coast of Scotland, so Heisgeir, also known as the Monach Isles, is a fairly remote place. Gales which sweep across the North Atlantic often strike Scotland first at Heisgeir.

The islands are uninhabited now, but archaeological evidence suggests that people lived there many centuries ago. Not just many centuries ago, either: up until the 1940s, fishermen and their families lived on the islands. which had the advantage of having a natural harbour into which they could pull their boats to avoid the brunt of the storms. For some time there were a hundred or so people living on the islands, but by the time the 1940s came, there were but two families left.

follow this link to see photographs of Heisgeir

Some of their houses and buildings still stand, and on occasion fisher people stop over there while working the area. A lighthouse on the outermost island of Sillay, built in the 1860s, was decommissioned in 1942, but has been shining again since 2008. It is run these days by automation: no light house keeper lives in the isle now.

Growing up on North Uist, musician Julie Fowlis knew about Heisgeir: some in her family had fished the waters there before she was born. As she was working on a project of songs, she thought to gather video footage and take photographs of the islands as they are today. She did that, but it turned into something more. Listening to the stories of people who had lived on the island or knew people who did, fisher people who’d traveled there, tales that had been passed down, she knew she had to let these voices speak, along with the landscape, along with the images, along with the music from Fowlis and her bandmates, along with the sea.

Fowlis has brought all these together in Heisgeir, a program that blends live music with film, film that includes the voices and the stories as well as images of the islands. It’s a beautifully told tale, one that invites reflection about history and change and what stories we remember and pass along, as well as about the nature of these remote islands themselves.















It could get you considering technology, too. Fowlis used contemporary technology to help in the passing along of these stories, but yet it is the stories themselves that last.

If the technology wasn’t there, would we know of them? If the lasting stories weren’t there, if the inspiration of the artist wasn’t there, would the technology matter? Heisgeir is one of the finest examples I’ve seen of technology so in service of older ways and artistic vision that you forget how the story is transmitted, you forget that the technology is there. It becomes a transparent tool.

At this writing there are two presentations of Heisgeir planned this summer in Scotland. You may keep up with those and other presentations in the future at Julie Fowlis’s web site. If you can go to see it, do so. If you are a presenter with any interest in heritage, your audiences will be well served by booking this program. If neither of those work for you, still, I invite you to give a few moments thought as to how we pass along our stories in ways that last, and what life may have been like on Heisgeir across the years.


I was fortunate to see the film and performance of Heisgeir at Celtic Connections in Glasgow, which is where these photographs were made. They were made with permission of the festival and the artists. They are copyrighted, and I thank you for respecting that.

You may also wish to see
Music Road: Julie Fowlis: Live at Perthsire Amber
Dual: Julie Fowlis & Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh
a short film about julie fowlis

-->Your support for Music Road is welcome and needed. If you are able to chip in, here is a way to do that, through PayPal. Note that you do not have to have a PayPal account to do this. Thank you.

From Scotland: The Boy and the Bunnet

Neil is a boy who lives with his grandmother and their grey cat in a house by the sea. Behind the house, they have a garden, and then past the garden there's a forest, and beyond the forest a mountain, or ben. Neil also wears a blue cap (that’s the bunnet part).

The boy, his bunnet, the cat, his gran, and all manner of animals which live in the sea, forest, garden, and mountain come to have an adventure --several actually -- quite a lively time of it with both laughter and danger, a cranky crow and a brave stag, a quiet selkie who lives in the sea, and a urisk. What exactly is a urisk? You’ll have to listen to the story to find out.

What does all this have to do with music?

Each of the characters in the story has the voice of an instrument, so the melodies of their intertwining stories intertwine with and enhance the words of the tale, and tell stories of their own.

The instruments are all those found in Scottish traditional music -- fiddle, harp, cello, pipes, and more. Do you remember how Peter and the Wolf introduced the instruments of a classical orchestra? James Robertson, who wrote the story, and James Ross, who wrote the music, had the idea of introducing the instruments of Scottish traditional music this way, too, and they took things a step further. The story is told in Scots, so it helps people, child or adult, learn or relearn that language. There is a version of the narrative in Scottish Gaelic, as well. If you do not know either language, take a listen to the Scots version (you'll find bits of it through the links below so you may try that out). I think you'll enjoy following along and figuring out the words that are unfamiliar.

Side note: if you've read or sung any Robert Burns, you may already have a bit of Scots.

So, it is a fine learning tool, indeed, an engaging story and music which will hold your interest as well. Story and music weave together to bring the characters and events to life. All the main sorts of tunes in Scottish traditional music are included -- reel, strathspey, jig, waltz -- and many of Scotland's top musicians lend their imagination to the voices of the instruments. There’s Patsy Reid on fiddle, Angus Lyon on accordion, Corrina Hewat on harp, and Signy Jakobsdottir on percussion, among others. For the Scots version, actress Gerda Stevenson gives a lively narrative with just the right balance of drama and humour, while the same task is done by Wilma Kennedy for the version in Scottish Gaelic.

The Boy and the Bunnet has been offered as a live production at the Blas festival in Inverness and at Celtic Connections in Glasgow. Robertson and Ross have scored and written it in such a way that it’d be possible for school groups across Scotland to put on the show themselves, too, and that’s one of the things they hope will happen as a result.


It makes fine listening on record, a story to which you’ll want to return time and again, and share with the children and adults in your life.


You may hear the Scots language tracks here
The Boy and the Bunnet

and find out here about the Scottish Gaelic version, as well as illustrated books which tell the story



you may also wish to see
Music Road: Celtic Connections 2012: the music begins
Music Road: from Scotland: Emily Smith: Traiveller's Joy

-->Your support for Music Road is welcome and needed. If you are able to chip in, here is a way to do that, through PayPal. Note that you do not have to have a PayPal account to do this. Thank you.

Music from Wales: Fernhill

1 March is Saint David's Day. Saint David is the patron saint of the country of Wales.


With the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, you might have heard more about the country of Wales than you usually do. The Duke’s father is titled the Prince of Wales, for one thing. The Duke is serving with a rescue unit of the Royal Air Force based in Anglesey, for another, and the couple have chosen to live near there. There is more to Wales than its recent royal highlighting, of course.

There's a beautiful and varied landscape and sea coast, a long history, a Celtic language all its own, a vibrant culture. a welcoming people, and there’s music. One of the most interesting and best ways to meet the music of Wales is through the work of the band Fernhill.


Fernhill is Ceri Rhys Matthews on flute and guitar, Julie Murphy, whose main instrument is her voice, Tomos Williams on trumpet, and Christine Cooper on fiddle and voice. They've a new album out, the first one with this current line up, which is called Canu Rhydd. This means, in Welsh, free poetry. At a recent concert at Celtic Connections in Glasgow, I had the chance to hear Rhys Matthews explain just what this means in the history of the poetry of Wales, how a flowering of creativity took place in medieval times when restrictions on poetic forms were lifted -- and how Fernhill has used texts from that time in their music.

The musicians offered songs in both English and Welsh, as well as tunes with horn and fiddle, flute and guitar. There was a piece in which Matthews sang in Welsh and Cooper did a spoken word section in English, and there was music to this as well, all well thought out and well presented. Beauty in simplicity, complex ideas shared through deep focus, and, as they say of themselves, music from the edge of an island. Well worth your time to seek out, in live performance and through recordings.


You may find out more about the band and about Canu Rhydd at Fernhill’s web site

photographs were made at Celtic Connections with the permission of the festival and the artists, and are copyrighted. thank you for respecting this.

you may also wish to see

more recordings by Fernhill
the BBC’s site about the music of Wales
Music Road: Celtic Connections 2012: the music continues

-->Your support for Music Road is welcome and needed. If you are able to chip in, here is a way to do that, through PayPal. Note that you do not have to have a PayPal account to do this. Thank you.

Celtic Connections 2012: the music continues

Celtic Connections, in Glasgow, Scotland, is one of Europe’s and the world’s premiere winter festivals, bringing hundreds of artists for sharing of tune and song, in venues ranging from a rock club to a cathedral, from a quiet song session in a concert of the concert hall building to a grand performance onthat same buildnig’s main stage. As the music continues, here’s a bit of what all that looks like












artists in these images include Archie Fisher, Caroline Herring, members of the Lothian and Borders Police Pipe Band, June Tabor, and Corinna Hewat.

photographs were made with permission of the artists and the festival, and are copyrighted. thank you for respecting that.

you may also wish to see
Music Road: Caroline Herring: Golden Apples of the Sun
Music Road: Scottish music a different way: The Unusual Suspects
Music Road: Celtic Connections 2011: images, part two
and

Delicious Baby's Photo Friday, where travelers offer new insights to the world each Friday.

-->Your support for Music Road is welcome and needed. If you are able to chip in, here is a way to do that, through PayPal. Note that you do not have to have a PayPal account to do this. Thank you.

Celtic Connections 2012: the music begins

January. Glasgow. Celtic Connections.

Celtic Connection's is Europe's premiere winer festival, and one of the top music festivals across the world. Both the Celtic side of things, with artists from all across Scotland, from ireland, the United States, Canada, and elsehwere in the Celtic world come to share their music, as do musicians from other traditions.

Celtic Connections 2012. The music begins...

with the Scottish Power Pipe Band playing to launch the first night of the festival, as the steps of the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall are lit with fire and music



















The fire continued inside on the first evening, as the main auditorium at the Royal Concert Hall was lit with music from Bela Fleck and friends.








More to come on this concert and others as the music continues.

photographs made with permission of the festival and the artists, and are copyrighted. thank you for respecting this.




you may also wish to see

Celtic Connections:
an overview of events at this year's festival, at Wandering Educators
Music Road: Celtic Connections 2011: images

and

Delicious Baby's Photo Friday, where travelers offer new insights to the world each Friday.