Invigorated after sharing ideas of cultural practice in the rural economy at Shoormal Conference in Shetland, I travelled straight to Coll, one of Scotland’s smaller island communities, to perform with Helen Brew (flute), David Hubbard (bassoon) and David Martin (viola).
It was never going to be a straightforward journey, but after two days of precious little sleep and several hours of, at times, frustrating travel, we were richly rewarded by Coll at it’s Mediterranean best! I love the ruggedness of the Far North, but who’s going to complain about azure seas and autumn temperatures nudging the 20c mark in the west of Scotland? Great, too, to finally take this particular group of musicians, who’ve been there with me since Nordic Viola was formed, off the mainland to enjoy some time together in the sort of place that inspires our music-making.
What a beautiful hall to make music in, too! An Cridhe is a modern facility with a beautiful acoustic. It’s also the hub of community life: you can buy local crafts and produce, meet friends, have a cup of tea and shelter from the weather – necessary on day 2!!
Our programme was a mixture of music we know well and some new pieces, such as the Danish String Quartet’s beautiful arrangement of the “Unst Boat Song” (click on link for short video) from Shetland, given a slightly different flavour in this colourful combination of flute, 2 violas and bassoon. Also Emily Doolittle’s “Social Sounds from Whales at Night.” I’m playing this piece a lot this year – it’s very moving to duet with a whale and audiences love listening to it, too.
We also played a new set of Icelandic folk songs, originally arranged for piano by Snorri Sigfús Birgisson which I have scored for our group of four. These tunes encompass a wonderfully wide range of emotions from a playful, pizzicato duo for two violas through two melancholy tunes, so typically Icelandic in their harmonic language, through to the rumbustuous Skuli Fogeti.
From the Faroes we had William Heinesen’s “Variations on a Faroese Hymn Tune” and Kári Bæk’s lively “Fragment.”
It was a particular pleasure to welcome a group of anthropology students on a field trip from Durham University to our concert and I think they enjoyed hearing about Greenlandic life and listening to Arnannguaq Gerstrøm’s piece commissioned by us, “Ukioq.” (Lovely, too, to see the Durham students giving something back to the community that hosted them for 10 days with a free ceilidh.)
David and I were camping and woke up to a flame red sunrise. Beautiful, but you know what they say about red sky in the morning…. Buoyed up by a communal fry-up, we split up to explore the island, by bike, running and even wild swimming! Out on the massive sand dunes we gazed over at neighbouring Tiree and over the sea to Staffa. Meanwhile, Helen was swimming with seals. The Shepherd’s Warning caught up with us on the way back to Arinagour as we got a good soaking, but it had dried up by the time we got the ferry back to Oban. Not the beautiful sunny crossing we got on the way over, but with atmospheric cloudscapes and shafts of weak sun spotlighting the grey water.
Many thanks to Janet and Alison from Isle of Coll Music Group for looking after us so well, even taking the Hubbard family on a sightseeing tour of the island. Also to Enterprise Music Scotland and Creative Scotland for supporting the concert. Without them it would be impossible for small rural communities to experience professional music-making.
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