A Rhapsody of the Gaels
 

Our recent interview with the great FRED MORRISON ended with Fred mentioning his commission that will open Celtic Connections 2005 in January. We caught up with piper to get the latest on progress with the project
 

ARTS JOURNAL: Fred, maybe you could explain the significance of the title of the new piece, ‘Paracas’

FRED MORRISON: Paracas is a Gaelic word meaning rhapsody of the Gael, and that is what it – it shouldn’t be take as ‘the’ rhapsody of the Gael, though – it’s ‘a’ rhapsody of the Gael.

AJ: How did this project come about?

FM: It was an idea I actually had a few years ago. In the first instance I had thought of it as a piece for a big group of traditional players rather than an orchestra, with a big core of percussion and lots of chanting and so on. It was very difficult to get it off the ground at the magnitude I was looking at, but when I met Mark Sheridan on the way back from the Lorient festival a couple of years, we got to talking about it, and he suggested thinking about it in terms of using an orchestra. The two of us put it together in a different way from there.
 

AJ: And presumably you then took it to Colin Hynd at Celtic Connections?

FM: Yes, although we hadn’t thought that we would do it in this Celtic Connections, to be honest. We really went to Colin for his advice on how we might go about putting it on, and he wanted to do it this year. That’s how it happened.

AJ: And Mark Sheridan is orchestrating the music?

FM: That’s right.
 

AJ: Just how much work has it been pulling it together?

FM: A mammoth amount! Mark has done a phenomenal amount of work orchestrating it – we are talking about 90 minutes of music with a huge number of musicians, and it’s nobody’s business how much work that is to orchestrate. We have a traditional ensemble, a percussion group with lots of ethnic instruments, the Orchestra of Scottish Opera, a Gaelic singer and choir, and a couple of narrators.

“It will end the piece on a positive, forward-looking note.”

AJ: Is the music all your own?

FM: I have written it all apart from one piece, a famous tune known as the ‘Lament for the Children’, written by Patrick Mor McCrimmon. It tells the story of his seven sons all dying of smallpox, and is supposedly taken from the keening of his wife when the last one died. It is a wonderful piece of music with a strong story, and we’ve used the tune as a theme, but have taken it for a bit of a walk. A lot of the music has been built up over the years, a lot of it has been redone, a lot of it has been written this year, and some it was written last night! And it’s still going on – we are still getting music out to people, and that will probably go on right up to rehearsal.
 

AJ: What shape does the piece take?

FM: There are seven movements altogether, and it goes from the well-spring of the music to the modern day. It’s not a formal history by any means, but we have narrators in the ‘Lament of the Children’ and also in the piece on The Clearances. Aonghas MacNeacail and Iain Anderson will be the narrators, and the reason that we have two is that it will be read in Gaelic and then in English.

AJ: What are the movements?

FM: We start with ‘The Well-Spring’, which is looking at the masters of traditional music that have handed us what we have now, and that contains a poem written by Aonghas MacNeacail. The second movement is called ‘Hope/Despair’, and that takes us on the first step of the journey, dealing with poverty and the attitude of the people. The third is the ‘Lament for the Children’, and that closes the first half.
 

AJ: And a welcome break for the musicians!

FM: I think it will be. The fourth movement is based on ‘The Clearances’, and the fifth is ‘The New World’, looking at the development of the culture on the other side of the Atlantic, and also what happened here after the clearances. The sixth section is for the traditional ensemble only, without the orchestra, which is the only time that happens, and the finale looks at the positive outcome of it all and the current spirit of traditional music. It will end the piece on a positive, forward-looking note.

AJ: I imagine you will be relieved to hear that last note on the night?

FM: I think I will, yes, and hopefully it will be a happy one!
 

Paracas will be performed at the Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, on Wednesday 12 January 2005.

© Kenny Mathieson, 2004

Related Link

• Celtic Connections website 
• Fred Morrison interview