Aisling Gheal: A Visionary Collaborative - Part 2

by Siobhán Dugan

Genre Blending: a Delicate Art

Bringing together two types of music is inherently tough to do without compromises that can kill the soul of the music, the very individuality that gives character. Norah Rendell remarked, “As a recorder player, my fondest memories of performing with an orchestra were with the Pacific Baroque Orchestra in Vancouver; however, as a transplanted traditional musician, I am very leery of musical fusion projects. Usually, such ideas are so much more intriguing than the music itself. The rhythm and nuance of Irish music can so easily get trampled... I think it takes a special group of musicians to make these kinds of projects succeed on a musical level.”

EMSO’s leader Elizabeth was acutely aware of the problem. “The way we are able to do it at this point is not a perfect way. In printed music there is a lot of stuff ‘written in the style of’ [one folk genre or another] and you see it also in educational music. But it totally neglects the heartbeat and the sounds of the actual music.” To avoid these artistic pitfalls, EMSO employed a number of unique approaches. First, they would bring a basic understanding of Irish traditional music to its musicians via lecture and demonstration -- a kind of workshop introduction, before beginning to play it themselves. This introduction would be done by Norah and CIM instructor AJ Srubas. The goal was “to learn something about this music in the compressed time we have, listen to it, try to play it, acclimate yourself to the specific sounds,” recalls Elizabeth, “You try to sponge up as much of that as possible. And then we are doing the same thing when we are rehearsing together. It’s listening and watching A LOT… and trying to take that and bring it to what we are doing.”

Another key element was the awareness of EMSO musicians as to the nature of the partnering relationship between EMSO and the CIM students -- as is that of host and guest, in the sense that the Irish musicians and their tradition are physically and musically at the center, with the orchestra focused on making a setting that made them feel at home and would set them off to advantage. This is a different quality of partnership and can foster a different outcome than one in which each is equally leaning in and trying to somehow meet in the middle.

Then of course, the selection of the music to play, and its thoughtful arrangement and the specific performers was hugely critical. So Norah began considering who were the right CIM musicians and what was the right music to make this collaboration a success.

“Over the course of a few months, as I was putting the programming together for the Center for Irish Music ensembles,” Norah recalls, “I realized that there were students who played a slightly odd group of instruments that could use a project to work on. These students were too old to compete in the ‘Under-18’ competition at the Midwest Fleadh Cheoil. One of them was Hannah Flowers, a harper and lovely singer. I had the idea of using Altan’s arrangements from their 2009 album in the back of my mind.” Norah mentioned the idea to Dáithí Sproule, he talked to the band about it, and they were all on board in a trice. “I could hardly believe how generous they were with their music, and Fiachra Trench, with his arrangements…it became clear to me that they were thrilled that their orchestral arrangements were going to be played by CIM students in Minnesota!,” Norah recalled, “How fortunate we are to be so closely connected with such an incredible Irish traditional band.”

Goes Around, Comes Around

Reflecting back on the original Altan 25th Anniversary collaboration with the RTE orchestra, Dáithí recalled: “The arranger, Fiachra Trench, was somebody whose work with Van Morrison (another person who blends genres effectively) we had admired. The beauty of these orchestral arrangements for Altan is that they were molded on top of the original Altan arrangements — therefore much of the harmony, rhythm and phrasing are those of a traditional band.”

But while EMSO could play directly from the score created by Fiachra Trench for the RTE Orchestra, in essence ‘reading the dots’, the Altan parts were far from drop-and-play for the Young Adult Ensemble. “The CIM students are essentially posing as Altan, but with a different instrumental combination. Instead of two fiddles, accordion, guitar and bouzouki, there would be two fiddles, piano, bodhrán, flute, whistle, harp and cello,” Norah explained, noting major differences in timbre, weight, volume and technique between these two sets of instruments. Thus, the rearranging of Altan’s music to fit these young musicians and their instruments turned out to be a complex process. “I could not have done it without one of my two musical minds; trained classical musician and orally-trained tune player/singer. I have done a ton of arranging in my own performing career and this project has called on every one of those skills!”

Thus, after Norah taught the CIM student musicians the tunes early on in the fall, she then began to write out harmony parts, sometimes collaborating with Dáithí via email. She cobbled together cello parts from the orchestra bass parts along with using her own inventiveness. “The students have been patient with me as I have figured out what they should be playing when. To their credit, it has been a collaborative process and there has definitely been an element of trial and error. Hannah has come up with some of her own harp parts by ear, based on Altan’s guitar and bouzouki parts on the recording.”

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Please join East Metro Symphony Orchestra and the Center for Irish Music for

Aisling Gheal (Bright Vision)

Sunday, March 8, 2015 at 3pm

East Ridge High School, 4200 Pioneer Drive, Woodbury, MN 55129

$10 adults - $6 seniors – 18 and under free

Visit www.emsorch.org or www.centerforirishmusic.org for more information