Music in the Glen
our music blog, and your glimpse into our adventures!
We’re currently working on our first full length studio album,
and we’re looking forward to sharing it with you.
For now, please enjoy perusing our (very casual) blog of pieces we have enjoyed playing in live settings together over the past year. Many of these recordings are taken at our weekly rehearsals, and the ones shared here are done so for demo purposes before the time that we feel developed enough to create and release an album. It’s a very honest portrayal of what you might hear in a live setting!
Ballad: Lord Franklin
As Canadians deeply interested in music and history, we each love tracing our fingers over the story lines of the people who came before us. Because we are a nation with an incredibly diverse background, we have a wealth of musical influences to draw on.
The flip side to this treasure trove of musical history is that we sometimes encounter a very old song that we enjoy for multiple reasons, but one or two lines of it are simply historically inaccurate or just plain racist. In the case of this classic, a slur was used in the original lyrics. Rather than bury the past (and this song), we have opted to change some words in the third verse of this selection to be respectful of the Inuit people who live in the far north of Canada, and to shine a light on their history: an integral part of this beautiful country.
Easter Weekend 2024
Two Reels: “Hold the Reigns” and “Toss the Keys”
We wanted to create a piece that felt like sunrise, and this is it!
We were inspired to pair these two tunes together by Jenny’s Nana,
who always found both of them good fun for dancing to many years ago.
Fast forward a bit, and now our lovely dancer, Elizabeth MacDonald, very much enjoys
creating improvised rhythms once the rhythm picks up and begins to swing.
March 2024
Apples in Winter
With the Apple Blossom Festival fast approaching, we thought this tune appropriate for sharing and giving back to what seems to be a surprisingly rapid growth of online listeners and supporters. For those who live further away and might be unfamiliar with it, the Apple Blossom Festival is a long standing tradition celebrating one of the main agricultural bounties of the area with a parade, dances, many musical events and lots of food.
Typically heard as a two part jig, and widely known, we’re sharing a rarer 4 part version that is now enjoying popularity locally once more.
Photo taken a few months ago, in one of the many apple orchards owned by the Power family in Delhaven, on one of Jenny’s daily walks.
30th of April, 2023
The View Across the Valley
We love playing jigs and reels, and thought this set appropriate for the first ones to be featured here on our blog. The first tune, the Humours of Ballyloughlin, is a well known jig strongly associated with the piping tradition which has served as inspiration for melodic exploration and ornamentation on the fiddle. The second tune is more recently composed by John Brady and features a fiddle and flute duet – still a common combination of instruments among traditional musicians locally.
9th of April, 2023
The Sleeping Tune
This lovely, cyclical slow air was composed by the late Scottish piper, Gordon Duncan, who quite literally dreamt it up while at the Lorient Celtic festival in Brittany, France, after some heavy celebrating following his victory in the piping championship. The tune itself carries strong allusions to the traditional Breton Celtic music. In recent years, it has become a local favourite.
3rd of March, 2023
Arthur McBride
Morgan initially learned this piece from Paul Brady and our arrangement of it still today takes hopeful inspiration from that setting. The first written publication known of the song dates to 1840 and of knowledge of which war is being waged is now long lost.
It’s intrigued us to learn that the song has come full circle, in a way. Paul Brady learned his singing of it from Carrie Grover nee Spinney, who was recorded singing it in her home in Black River, Kings County, Nova Scotia (not more than 10 miles from Delhaven itself). Carrie stated that she learned the song from her father. Here is a link to the recording Alan Lomax took of herself and further historical information.
18th of February, 2023
The Galway Shawl
Having first encountered this piece through Jenny’s mighty Nana, we are toying with arrangement ideas and the song is once again enjoying a few airings out in the local gigs now.
14th of February, 2023
DELHAVEN 