травня
6
The Goliards will follow the Celtic migration across Europe with “From Shetland to Galicia,” a concert set for May 10 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church.
“This is a hodgepodge of anything Celtic you can think of,” says Goliards founder and director John Hillenbrand. “All are pretty old, with the most modern dating to 1486.”
The program will consist of Celtic music from the Middle Ages into the early Renaissance, all sung in the original Scots, Irish, Breton, Latin and Gallego Portuguese languages. The singers will be accompanied by period instruments including the harp, medieval fiddles, recorder, hurdy gurdy and positive organ.
IF YOU GO
What: The Goliards present “From Shetland to Galicia”
When: 3 p.m. May 10
Where: St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 1802 Abercorn St.
Cost: $10 at the door
Info: www.savannahgoliards.org
The program will contain some of the most ancient surviving Celtic music. The songs include references to everyday activities and work done by Celtic people in those days.
One was traditionally sung by Hebridean women while waulking, or beating, newly woven tweed.
“When making tweed, they would beat the fabric with clubs and soak it,” Hillenbrand says. “This is the song that the women who traditionally made Harris tweed would sing while working the fabric.”
A hymn from the Inchcolm Antiphoner asks 6th-century St. Columba for protection from the perils of the sea.
“St. Columba was an evangelist,” Hillenbrand says. “He was enslaved, but escaped and spread Christianity in Ireland and Scotland.”
Among the oldest tunes still played in the Shetland Islands north of Scotland is a song called “The Day Dawns.” It was traditionally played in the days after Christmas as fiddlers went from house to house and also was used to summon sword dancers.
There is a quern song that probably dates back to pre-medieval Scotland.
“A quern is a hand mill for grinding grain,” Hillenbrand says. “Some surviving querns go back to Neolithic times.
“The quern was a huge mortar and pestle. They were used for centuries. This song praises the man who made the quern.”
The quern became a symbol for much more than work.
“When the feudal system took over in Scotland, it became illegal to own a quern,” Hillenbrand says. “The master of the estate wanted the people to take the grain to the miller who was employed by the estate.
“The punishment for using a quern included branding and maiming. After the feudal times, querns came back into use for people who lived in the countryside.
“There are a lot of post-medieval quern songs,” he says. “This one predates the feudal system in Scotland and it may go back to the earliest Scots language. It’s also quite a beautiful song.”
One song dates to 1481, when Rhys Bodychen led the men of Anglesey, Wales, to and from the Battle of Bosworth Field, where they defeated King Richard III.
One particularly dark song depicts a Viking raid on the Breton coast, and dates to the 9th century.
“One line is ‘Now the ravens will come in and begin their feast,’” Hillenbrand says. “Yet it has quite a pleasant dance melody.”
The program is varied.
“We’ll have everything from a wedding song celebrating the marriage of Princess Margaret of Scotland and King Eric II of Norway in 1281, to a hymn to St. Magnus, earl of Orkney, who was martyred in the 12th century,” Hillenbrand says. “It is very unusual in medieval music because then it was considered dissonant, and now is considered a sweet, natural harmony.”
Some of the pieces are instrumentals and others will be sung.
“We are blessed with two fabulous sopranos, Katherine Broberg and Melissa Flummerfelt,” Hillenbrand says. “They sound absolutely great. We’ve found exactly the genre of music to give to them.”
Some of the music is sung in Spanish.
“Galicia was settled by Celts in the northwest corner of Spain,” Hillenbrand says. “It is full of people with blonde and red hair and blue eyes.
“Even the weather is rainy and cold. The language is known as Gallego Portuguese, which was considered the most poetic language in the medieval period.
“There was a king called Alphonso the Wise who collected 410 songs, all about the Virgin and the miracles she was involved in,” Hillenbrand says. “We have three miracle tales.”
One is about a man who was lamed because of his sins, but later healed. Another is rather weird.
“There was a statue of the Virgin which the nuns of the convent treated with grave reverence,” Hillenbrand says. “On Christmas Eve, they put the statue in bed, at which point it started moving and turning.
“The third one is about a pilgrim from Valencia who encounters a dragon. After praying to the Virgin, he slays the dragon, but it poisons the man.
“He manages to stumble to the cathedral, where he prays to the Virgin and she heals him,” Hillenbrand says.
“We’re not sure whether these were told as fact or for entertainment.”
Some of the songs are romantic.
“King Denis of Portugal wrote several love songs, of which seven survived,” Hillenbrand says. “Two of them are in the program.
“There also is a beautiful song by the Galician troubadour Martin Codax. It’s about a young girl who is asking the sea when her lover will return to her.”
Some of the music has a sense of adventure.
“We’ll do is an Irish piece from a 14th collection called the Book of Lismore,” Hillenbrand says. “It’s about St. Brendan’s final voyage at sea.
“He claimed to have found Greenland, where he was an evangelist,” Hillenbrand says. “We know this one is fanciful because he rides on back of a whale.”
Some songs are particularly touching.
“We have three Welsh airs that are very beautiful and very sad,” Hillenbrand says. “The Welsh have a word that is almost untranslatable for a kind of nostalgia for one’s native land. These three pieces are redolent with a sense of nostalgia.
“We also have several Irish airs that are almost cliche Irish. All these things are mixed into the program with nothing in particular order.
“They sort of flow together melodically,” he says. “I usually try to have a theme, but the theme here is it’s all Celtic. It’s as enjoyable a program as we’ve ever done.”
Open all references in tabs: [1 – 3]
Comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.