Monday, November 12, 2007
Sabbatical was good craic for Craig
|
Daniel Craig, director of the music program, spent much of his spring sabbatical singing and playing Irish folk songs until the wee hours of the morning in pubs throughout the Emerald Isle. Equipped with an audio recorder, tin whistles, and a bodhran (an Irish frame drum), Craig participated in and recorded dozens of traditional Irish music sessions with hundreds of singers and musicians. Craig received more than $10,000 from both a Faculty Research and Creative Award and a College of Liberal Arts Faculty Development Award for the trip. For five weeks he collected songs and scouted out concert sites for a USI Chamber Choir tour of Ireland in May 2008. He returned home with more than 150 hours of audio recordings of concerts and singing sessions, in addition to 300 CDs of Irish music he purchased and shipped back to the states. From the songs he collected, he will create a concert of 45 minutes of Irish folk songs which also will include his Irish traditional band, Rowan Tree. They will perform the concert, called The Sean-Nós Project, throughout the Tri-state and in Ireland, where the proceeds will benefit Irish charities. “Sean-nós” means “old traditional” and applies primarily to vocal songs. Craig explained, “These vocal songs are classed into several categories, the most popular being story songs, which are sung by a single, unaccompanied soloist. Most of these would have been sung in a family’s house after a meal as the family gathered for their evening rest and relaxation.” When British rule outlawed the gathering of musicians in private homes, they moved to the public houses - “pubs” where people gather to this day when work is through. “They stand around, have their pint, share stories, have a laugh, and play and sing their music. It’s all about one Irish word called ‘craic’ which means ‘good times,’” Craig said. “The music may be songs of protest, songs about political strife, love songs, or comic songs, but they all represent a way that people stay close together and enrich their literary heritage.” Craig spent his first week in Ireland in Dublin, where he did research in the Irish Traditional Music Archive and played music in pub sessions. During one session with more than 60 singers, he suddenly heard the familiar voice of Niamh Parsons, an Irish singer who “raises the hair on my arms,” he said. She was seated behind him, singing one of his favorite songs. “It took all of my strength not to be a tourist and a concert fan and just sit there and listen,” he said. He played with noted musicians Mazz O’Flaherty, Fergus O’Flaherty, and John Benny in Dingle. In Bun Beg, he went to a concert of Irish traditional singers native to the Tory Islands. “These singers are in their 80s and 90s, singing music they learned from their great-grandparents. They grew up through ‘The Troubles’ - the occupation and struggle for independence from British rule,” Craig said. Craig participated in a “mighty” singing session with 90 singers at The Square Pub in Clonmany. “It’s one of the oldest ongoing singing sessions in all of Ireland. The singing began at 9:30 p.m. and ended at a quarter of four the next morning.” The singers sat in concentric circles, with the most well-known singers in the center. “They sat me in the inner circle, and I got to sing and record all the songs I could before I almost fell asleep. I must have 60 or 70 songs from that session alone.” In the seaside town of Doolin, Craig spent two weeks in a 150-year-old stone cottage, writing arrangements by day and playing music in the pubs at night. “From my door I could look out over the ocean. It was incredibly beautiful and incredibly cold, heated only by a fire. I wanted the experience of being back in the old days.” In Doolin and nearby Lisdoonvarna, he learned new songs from musicians passing through; played with one of Ireland’s best tin whistlers, Christy Barry; and recorded a free concert by Ireland’s most famous fiddler, Tommy Peoples. He said the hundreds of songs he collected will provide “a life-long project.” “Now comes the task of editing all of the audio, taking all of the musical print sources that I have and reconciling them with the recordings I purchased and made, and finding a way to arrange some of the old long songs - sean-nós songs - and teaching them to my students. I can assure you I will be working on this for many years to come.” Tickets are on sale now for the USI Chamber Choir's 38th Annual Madrigal Feaste. Click here for details. Wendy Knipe Bredhold News and Information Services wkbredhold@usi.edu 812/461-5259 |
Copyright © 2013 University of Southern Indiana. All rights reserved.