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JORDI SAVALL, ANDREW LAWRENCE-KING AND FRANK MCGUIRE Jordi Savall: treble viola de Nicolas Chappuy (Paris 1750) / viola-lira (viola baixo) de Barak Norman (London 1697) The Celtic Viol-Tradition and Innovation The Caledonia Set The Lord Moira’s Set Carolan's Harp The Lamento Set The Lancashire Pipes Carolan's Favourite Jigg The Donegal Set Synopsis All music passed on and preserved by the oral tradition is the result of a felicitous survival following a long process of selection and synthesis. These processes of transmission are also paths of evolution, innovation and, therefore, paths of transformation by which they undergo the diverse influences of other musical styles that are foreign, modern or even very remote in origin, resulting in new and equally legitimate forms of interpretation. The Celtic repertoire is currently preserved through very different performance styles or trends; on the one hand, there are those musicians who continue to study and perform the repertoire in a strictly traditional way; on the other hand, there is a body of musicians who, since the 1970s, have drawn inspiration from a “new traditional” musical style developed by such pioneering groups as The Chieftains and Ceoltóirí Chualann. Finally, there are the musicians who from the 1980s have transformed those traditions into ”marketable, modern and syncretic forms“. The groups demonstrate new paths in which Celtic music is being refashioned and syncretised on the concert stage. Some feel these developments reveal the adaptability of the tradition, while others view commercializing endeavours as tangential. Although these different ways of retrieving and updating the traditional musical memory are possible and legitimate, that does not mean that they are better than the more traditional versions. The vast repertoire of Celtic music has widely differing origins in time and space, each providing fascinating information about its character, technique, ornamentation, style and performance. They provide the key to versions that respect both the historical context and the new performance trends. In 1970, after coming across the manuscript known as The Manchester Gamba Book, containing a large collection of pieces for the viola da gamba, with 22 different tunings or scordature, and subsequently discovering other manuscript sources in London and Dublin, I began to become acquainted with the various highly characteristic tunings of the viola da gamba in 17th century English, Scottish and Irish culture, when the instrument still enjoyed great popularity. I was very surprised to discover how inventive musicians of this period were, and also how attentive they were to popular traditions. In fact, among the 22 different tunings, we find those referred to as “the bagpipe tuning” or “the Lancashire-pipes tuning”. The aim was to imitate the Scottish and Irish bagpipes in a nod to 17th century popular music, which was very close to the traditional Celtic music preserved first in the oral and then in the notated traditions from the 18th and 19th centuries in various collections. The performance of this music for lyra-viol, or the lyra-way, prompted me to widen my field of study to include music from the Scottish and Irish repertoires, which I initially played on my bass viol tuned the lyra way, or using the bagpipes tuning. I was immediately struck by its many similarities to the baroque style: inégal playing and very distinctive bowing, as well as a great profusion of improvised ornamentation. In The Celtic Viol II, I have preferred to combine Nicolas Chappuy’s 1750 treble viol and Pellegrino Zanetti’s 1553 bass viol with its powerful, warm sound. On this occasion, we also have the Irish harps and psaltery played by Andrew Lawrence-King, and once again the improvised accompaniments in the style of the period: We have added percussion in the dance or rhythmic pieces, with Frank McGuire playing the bodhrán. We have selected pieces, grouped in suites or sets according to their key. Once more, we offer a heartfelt tribute to the art of transmission and to the talent of all the musicians who have created this wonderful heritage, as well as to all those no less important figures who have kept it fully alive by passing it on from generation to generation. As Ciaran Carson suggests, the old tunes and songs unite the past and present each time they are performed: “Each time the song is sung, our notions of it change, and we are changed by it. The music/words are old. They have been worn into shape by many ears and mouths and have been contemplated often. But every time it is new because the time is new, and there is no time like now.” (Carson, 1996.) Jordi Savall, Fontfroide Abbey (France), 29th July, 2010 |
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