Strathclyde Suite, Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, 26 January 2008

Ceòl Mòr

IMAGINE a younger version of The Unusual Suspects, say 25+ strong, mix in some of Harris Playfair’s commitment and musical passion, add a few exciting new commissions from Corrina Hewat, Dave Milligan and Aidan O’Rourke, and you have ‘Ceòl Mòr’ (and guys, if you’re going to use a Gaelic name, assuming you do mean literally Big Music, please spell it right – it needs the accents).

An eventual by-product of the Splore event in Aberdeen and directed by Dave Francis, this is a large scale Youth Folk Orchestra, although right from the initial bars you’d be fooled into thinking it was more of a rock and brass orchestra, with some fiddles and clarsach along the way too.

Donald Shaw’s ‘Harvest’ has set the pace for youth projects in the last few years at Celtic Connections, and it is encouraging that more exciting large-scale projects such as this are emerging to fill the gap for many young musicians who find themselves perhaps in between Fèisean and going professional.

Encouraging, too, to see that the vocal aspect of the piece was not all left up to the female of the species. The commitment and enjoyment of the participants was hugely encouraging for the future of ‘traditional’ music.

Three new commissions were performed alongside some of Playfair’s arrangements, including Hewat’s vocal arrangement ‘Boy Fae Kelso’ and Milligan’s’ How did we get to here?’ Aidan O’Rourke’s magical piece will surely become a staple of the repertoire for large groups now.

Solo opportunities for both vocalists and instrumentalists were afforded across the board, allowing each section of the ‘orchestra’ to shine at various points in the programme. The brass section lifted the arrangements out of the trad genre and into one all of its own at times, a sort of ‘jazzitional’, for want of a better word. The audience were baying for more.

Great potential here for future development and plaudits to the directors for the logistical problems a project such as this must present.

The Young Tradition took to the stage for the second half of the concert, being a showcase of their TMSA tour last year from the finalists of the Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the year Competition 2007.

A sparkling version of ‘Fionnghala’ opened with last year’s winner Catriona Watt and Darren Maclean from Skye. Solo set, songs (including a memorable version of ‘Ae Fond Kiss’ from Darren Maclean and an a cappella vocal ensemble on chorus), as well as small ensemble pieces, followed from the other finalists and accompanists – Mike Vass on fiddle, Martin Hunter on box, Calum Stewart on whistle, Calum MacCrimmon on pipes, Innes Watson on guitar, Mhàiri Hall on piano and winner from 2006, Shona Mooney on fiddle.

All excellent exponents of their art, the TMSA tour has given these young musicians the chance to hone their talents and build their confidence in real working environments.

It is an encouraging aspect of initiatives such as this from the hardworking Handsupfortrad, that this is not ‘just’ another competition for talented young musicians to bag, but a competition which has real and positive benefits for all of the participants, not just the eventual winners. The tour provides a real platform for some of those, who will become Scotland’s new wave of professional Trad musicians.

© Fiona MacKenzie, 2008

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