manx celtic music and dance

Manx music down under - Carol Lefevre reports from CELTICA 2010

03 Feb 2011


With a location on the dockside of Adelaide’s Port River, the festival site was a colourful mix of stalls and bright umbrellas set against the rather gaunt architecture of industrial warehouses, some of which date back to the early days of the colony. Port Adelaide was buzzing all weekend with this celebration of the Celtic presence in South Australia. As well as live performances, there were workshops in Cornish language, Breton Dance, Scottish fiddle, Ceilidh and Irish Set Dancing, and much more. This was the first year that Manx traditional music was represented and it was quite a thrill to see the brilliant red flag with its three legs lazily waving beside the water.

Blind Mary consists of myself, Carol Lefevre (low whistle, guitar), Jane Copeland (high whistle, fiddle), and Mandy Treagus (vocals, guitar, mandolin). We met through Adelaide University, where Mandy is Head of English, Jane works with International students, and I am currently a Visiting Research Fellow. We began playing together a couple of years ago, starting with arrangements of O’Carolan pieces and gradually adding Irish Traditional tunes.

Although I have always loved traditional music, playing it was a new experience, sparked by hearing a low whistle and immediately falling in love with the sound. On recent trips to Ireland I had some tutoring from very patient teachers at Walton’s Music School in Dublin. Jane lived for a couple of years in Ireland where, based in Galway, she studied with Mary Bergin, perhaps Ireland’s greatest whistle player. Mandy Treagus has played in innumerable folk bands over many years in Australia. How we came to play at the festival was sort of serendipitous. Festival Director, Suzanne Laslett, had attended the opening of an exhibition of Celtic art earlier in the year at which Blind Mary had been asked to play. In conversation, I happened to mention that I had lived for almost 20 years on the Isle of Man and was starting to play a few traditional tunes. Suzanne immediately suggested that we work on a Manx set and play at the festival.

Although none of us is Manx-born, we decided it would be fun to work up the set, while taking care to research the history of the tunes and respect the tradition. The MHF Music Team was incredibly helpful and encouraging, and after quite a flurry of emails, which included audio fi les so we would be able to pronounce the Manx Gaelic titles correctly, we felt well prepared for our two festival slots. After a pleasantly cool and damp start to the summer, Adelaide turned on a sizzler for the festival weekend. On Saturday the temperature reached 35 degrees, and under the canvas on the acoustic stage it felt even warmer. Hands were sticky and instruments slippery, but we played pretty well and it was good preparation for the main stage the following afternoon, which was, mercifully, a few degrees cooler. At around this time, Manx friends letting me know how cold it was on the Island, where there was plenty of snow. Playing “Ny Kirree Fo Niaghtey” in sweltering heat, we would definitely have welcomed the odd snowflake, although it would not have lasted long. The set was enthusiastically received by an audience who really sat and listened, which was gratifying. Having made such a good start, Blind Mary hopes to continue slowly adding Manx tunes to their repertoire.

 

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