Musicians

A few portraits of the musicians who joined in the big session in the barn at the Traditional Music Day at Stowmarket. Anyone can bring an instrument and join in with the straightforward, mostly English, tunes. When they all get going on a familiar melody it's a fine sound indeed. 

Take care.

A Touch Of The Irish

There's not only East Anglian music at the East Anglian Traditional Music Trust's Traditional Music Day at the Museum Of East Anglian Life in Stowmarket. This year we were also treated to some tunes of the Irish sort from three extremely talented young musicians.

Sisters Orlaith and Brogan McAuliffe's family are from Killarney but were brought up in London where there is a flourishing Irish music scene. Darren Breslin is originally from Co Fermanagh but now also resides in London.

Orlaith played a stunning solo piece during the set but I was stupid enough not to record it. Actually I'm much happier to tap my feet and sway about in time to the tunes rather than sit still and hold a camera steady; my feet were certainly stomping around during their set. 

Darren Breslin also played solo on one number, a Finbarr Dwyer tune. As a rather plodding squeezeboxer myself I could only sit open-mouthed at the acrobatic fingering which seemed so effortless - though he'd certainly worked up a good sweat by the end of the afternoon!

Last but by no means least we have Brogan McAuliffe on that wonderful instrument, the concertina. Like the others in the trio she plays in other musical line-ups including The London Lasses, described by Irish Music Magazine as "one of the best bands on the scene today". 

I suppose you'd like to hear them then.....

Hear are some links to other You Tube videos of members of the trio:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBRlx9-WFF8 - Orlaith, solo flute
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8_gRxfcwbk - Orlaith, whistle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFXKjBjTjsw - Orlaith and Brogan, flute and concertina
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtmkFv-gsuU - Darren Breslin and friends.

Keep tappin' those feet and...

take care!

The East Anglian Traditional Music Day

Most people have a musical accompaniment to their lives that rarely deviates from the busy and increasingly frantic motorways of popular taste. Some of us turn off onto less travelled, but still well-worn, roads of classical, jazz or other styles. But tucked away in hidden corners, where few visit and even fewer linger, are old and largely forgotten traditions. It's through these meandering verses and along some bumpy and lop-sided old tunes that I ventured on Saturday.

There are folk festivals and there are folk festivals - but then there's The East Anglian Traditional Music Day at Stowmarket in Suffolk....

Most summer music events are held in parks or fields: the EATMD is held in a museum, the Museum of East Anglian Life, a large site where old buildings from various villages have been saved and reconstructed.

So the music takes place in a medieval farmhouse, an old hall and an ancient barn, as well as in marquees and outside on the grass. And though there's plenty of local traditional music on offer, there are also other rural areas of England and Ireland represented.

Matt Quinn

Edgar's Farmhouse, so old that it's got an earth floor and no windows, sounds an unlikely venue for concert spots but it works perfectly well. I heard the traditional songs and tunes of Matt Quinn there in the morning and went back in the afternoon for the gentle anarchic poetry of Les Barker.

The big barn has a music session that runs all day, with musicians dropping in and out. There are a lot of squeezeboxers, plenty of fiddlers and whistles, concertinas, banjos, a hammer dulcimer.....

Outside there is informal step-dancing going on with a lot of youngsters showing that, with a bit of luck, this often overlooked East Anglian tradition should be safe for a few more years.

Later in the afternoon there's (slightly) more formal step-dancing in the barn....

For those who like their music Irish - and who doesn't - there were sessions from these three excellent musicians....

Orlaith McAuliffe, Brogan McAuliffe and Darren Breslin on flute, concertina and button accordion respectively.

Of course there was a great deal that I missed - story-telling with John Row (above) and others, music from Kevin and Ellen Mitchell and Peter and Barbara Snape, an exhibition of photographs by John Halliday, talks on various topics, a ceilidh with music from the trio Proper English, chances for beginners to have a go on various instruments, a bar selling some great local beers........and probably some other things too!

I'll be back later in the week with some videos and some more photos. Until then....

Take care.






  

When I'm Dreaming Windows....

Time for an update on my constantly growing collection of windows. 

The smallest room?

Fancy designs

How much is that Teddy in the window?

The old mill

University outfitters and robe makers

College outlook

Modest decoration

Pink cottage

A little pruning required

If you want to see more then just click on the "Windows" label on the sidebar ►►►►▼ 


Take care.

                 

The Gardens Of Selwyn College

Just behind Selwyn College's Chapel there are gardens to explore. These were laid out in the Victorian era, soon after the college was founded, so the gardens and particularly the trees have had time to mature into the lovely retreat we can wander through today.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Now, I think we have to venture through this gate and descend the steps....

From the lawn at the base of the steps you can look across to the rather prosaically-named "Victorian Beds".

That shadow which you can see encroaching at the bottom right is being cast by one of the corner spires of the Chapel.

There's a wonderful display of Dahlias at this time of year. We now take them to be "typically English" but they originally came from Mexico where they were eaten as food (!). Apparently the gardener stores the tubers under the Chapel to over-winter.

As you wander around the bed you'll find it's an "island-bed" in that it's completely surrounded by lawns. From the far side there's a view back to the Chapel, which misleadingly looks as though it's atop a high hill from this angle. The island-bed also starts to look as though it's a tropical island! 

The garden also has a pond whose mirrored surface was reflecting the summer skies....

....at least it was till the interfering foot of the photographer produced these lovely ripples.

Turning back to our island I investigated the gravel path leading through this tropical wonderland. Could this really be in Cambridge, England?

I'm not sure how I could have lived all my life in this area without ever visiting, or even hearing about, this wonderful place. If you ever visit Cambridge and want to see for yourself you'll find it's not far from the touristy areas and is right next to Newnham College which we also visited recently. Incidentally don't be misled by a nearby residential street called Selwyn Gardens.

Take care.

Introducing Selwyn

A month or so ago we visited Sidney, or in other words we had a look around Sidney Sussex College. You may remember that we found the old fellow hiding behind a rather nondescript door opposite Sainsbury's supermarket. Today I'll introduce you to Selwyn, or rather Selwyn College, who resides in a much leafier part of town.

Immediately you enter through Selwyn's gatehouse you are confronted by the college chapel. In general shape it echoes the structure of the much bigger and more famous King's College Chapel, but there the similarities end. Cambridge colleges fall into two groups, the old and the new. This is because no colleges at all were founded between 1596 and 1800 in Cambridge. So, while "Sidney" is one of the old codgers, "Selwyn" is a new upstart, dating from 1878.

So lets first visit the Chapel, avoiding walking on the grass by following the path past the Hall, which was added by the architects Grayson & Ould in 1908-09. The style is Victorian Gothic Revival, harking back to the style of earlier college buildings, as is the Chapel itself. 

The Chapel, although smaller than the massive King's College Chapel, is nevertheless large for the size of the college. Perhaps this is a reflection of the way in which the college was founded. The "Selwyn", after whom it's named, is George Augustus Selwyn, the first Bishop of New Zealand (and later of Lichfield). It was founded, not by Selwyn himself, but in his honour by the Selwyn Memorial Committee which was set up following his death. There are also Selwyn Colleges in Auckland and Otago.  

The college was originally only for Christian men and especially those who were the sons of clergy or who were planning to take up missionary work. The Chapel, as you've seen already, is very grand with lots of fine carved wood.

Again it recalls earlier architectural styles and there are even imitations of medieval carved bench-ends on the choir stalls. Some of them, like the one on the right above, look as though they might be caricatures.

Despite all this grandeur, Sir Nikolas Pevsner, in his great work on English architecture, dimisses the Chapel with faint praise - "tall and not bad". 

There is a very striking and highly-polished brass lectern of conventional eagle design... 

.....which gives nice fisheye-lens style reflections of the interior, including the modern but traditional Karin Jonzen sculptures beneath the east window.

Rather oddly the view looking back from the altar is even more grand than that when you enter, with the huge expanses of carved woodwork surrounding the mighty organ.

But now it's time we wandered outside into the sunlight and went in search of the gardens.

*****

It's the Horse, of course....

My recent post about the works of sculpture on display in Jesus College asked for your opinions of the various pieces. It was a bit of a non-contest really as many of you (but by no means all) went with Barry Flanagan's sculpture of the horse.

However there was also considerable support for "This And This And This", or the Triangles as many of you re-named it, by Eva Rothschild, which was also my personal favourite. Interestingly none of us could really say what it was that we liked about it. 

Thanks to all you who offered your views which are always interesting.

Take care.