A Pan-Celtic gathering of talents

Celtic Connections will host a stellar gathering for Harvest, the opening night concert in this year’s festival, combining major names from the Celtic heartlands with the up and coming youngsters of the Fèisean movement. Capercaillie’s DONALD SHAW is the man behind the project, and explains what it is all about.

HARVEST is a bit of a long winding story! I guess it began a couple of a years ago when I wrote an article shouting my mouth off about how amazing I found the current renaissance in traditional music at grass roots level with young folk. I had taught at a couple of Fèis, and was really impressed with the kids, but one thing I thought was missing was some more recognition of music from our Celtic cousins, particularly from Brittany, Galicia and Asturias – Ireland was fine.

By that time I had started to write a piece of music for a recording I was thinking of doing, which was very influenced by Galicia and northern Spain. I’ve been a big fan of the Breton and Spanish bands anyway, and I’d worked with a number of great musicians from those parts over the years.

Someone then put it into my head that I should try and get funding to turn it into a big scale project through the Scottish Arts Council. We made an application and got quite a bit down the road with it, but in the end we didn’t succeed in getting the necessary funding for it.

In the meantime, though, Colin Hynd, the director of Celtic Connections, had heard about it, and he came to me and asked if I would like to do something with the project for the festival. I initially planned to get together a few musicians from each of the regions that I had worked with over the years, and then add 15 or 20 of the best young Scottish musicians to that line-up.

Colin was keen to make it a bigger project, though, so it has grown a bit from that initial plan. Musically it hasn’t changed much, but it’s now got a much bigger ensemble. There are about 25 established names from Scotland, Ireland, Brittany and Spain, and about 75 young players from around the country, mostly from the Fèis movement. Fèis Rois have helped to coordinate all of that, which has been great.

When it was put to me in that form I honestly wondered if we could find that number of kids able to meet the challenge of playing some of the music I was writing, but I have to admit that I have been totally blown away by both the number and the high standards of young musicians that are out there, and the flexibility they have shown when we have run through the music.

The youngsters have come from all over, and I’ve had lots of recommendations from teachers and musicians involved with these kids. Most of them are in the 14-18 range, and on top of that we have some students from the higher level traditional music courses at places like Plockton and the RSAMD. I had a couple of initial rehearsals with them, and since then I’ve been able to develop the music even more on the basis of what they were able to do with it.

One big difference that I notice now from when I was a 17 year old is that they all read music very well too, they don’t just rely on playing by ear.

The music for the concert is not really conceptual in an overall sense. It’s not a suite or anything, it’s more just bringing in different melodies and tunes influenced by the music of the various Celtic regions, and drawing on some more unusual rhythms or dance forms from those regions.

It’s a mixture of music written by me with some traditional music, especially the songs, although I’ve also adapted a couple of poems and written music for them myself. Some of the other musicians have also been invited to contribute a few tunes, and as you can imagine, we have a very varied range of instruments available as well.

I don’t see the concert being about me so much as it’s about bringing together the youth movement with the music of those regions, and letting them get a feel for playing that music with some of their own heroes. It’s very much about celebrating the music, and I hope it will also stretch them as well.

I hope when people go to see the concert that they enjoy it as a gig, but I hope their focus will be on the musicians as performers, not the music. It’s intended to be a vehicle for them, and I hope it will allow them to bring out their individual characters through the music.

Donald Shaw’s Harvest will be performed at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall on Wednesday 14 January 2004, as part of Celtic Connections. The festival runs from 14 January until 1 February 2004. Call 0141 353 8000 or visit www.celticconnections.com for tickets and information.

Donald Shaw spoke to Kenny Mathieson.