w19298
| Title | Port na bPucai: Athchuairt |
| Contributors |
Derek Ball (composer) Gabriel Rosenstock (author) |
| Composition date | 2012 |
| Duration (mins) | 0 |
| Category | chamber trio |
| Instrumentation | voice tin whistle va |
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| Notes | Ghost Music of the Blaskets Port na bPucai: Athchuairt, spirit-music from the Blasket Islands, is a magical composition performed by various artists on YouTube, such as Tony Mac Mahon on the button accordion and Cillian Vallely or Ronan Browne on the uilleann pipes, to name but a few. Gabriel Rosenstock wrote a poem in shamanic style at this year's (2012) Feile Raiftearai in Loughrea while listening to a performance of 'Port na bPucai' by Breandan O Beaglaoich and Caoimhin O Raghallaigh. (Rosenstock's family, on his mother's side, had strong connections with Raiftearai, the blind poet who is commemorated at the annual festival known as 'Faile Raiftearai'). What was it that the Blasket fisherman had heard, the so-called 'Given Note' as Seamus Heaney named it in one of his poems. The cries of unhappy ghosts on the wind, the spirit of the waves, the secrets of the rocks, the birds and the seals? The singing of whales? The ancient music of the spheres? -Gabriel Rosenstock Port na bPucai: Athchuairt (Port na bPucai Revisited) is Derek Ball's musical reaction to Gabriel Rosenstock's poem, an original setting which pays regard to the traditional tune and also to Tony Mac Mahon's insightful comments on the overcrowded nature of our modern musical aesthetic. Since the score contains no English text at all, I'll explain that it specifies tin whistle in F (non-transposing), singer and viola ; that 'Labhairt' signifies spoken passages and that 'tomhas saor' means 'free time'. -Derek Ball |
| Programme Note |
This work is associated with the following collection items:
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