Glen Urquhart Hall, Drumnadrochit, 15 May 2012

RENOWNED ensemble Mr McFall’s Chamber are well-known for taking their audience on far-reaching  journeys, and their current tour is no exception.

THIS month, four of Scotland’s most prominent traditional composers join them in a showcase of four new commissions celebrating their country’s diversity (more dates will follow later in the year). Hailing from Aberdeenshire, the Black Isle, Caithness and the Argyll coast, the composers have created four very different pieces to honour their respective home grounds, in a performance that melds traditional, jazz and classical influences.

The Four Corners ensemble

The nine musicians work beautifully together, and it is almost surprising that the composers are only guests, and not permanent members of the Chamber. Their contrasting backgrounds complement each other, and attract a variety of audience members who might have been drawn in by the prospect of seeing either Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s Su-a Lee or Lau’s Aidan O’Rourke.

For those who have visited the places portrayed in the performance, the music performs an instant teleportation to the expansive skies and striking landscapes of the piece’s titles. And for those of us who haven’t, the pieces are still equally emotive. Corrina Hewat’s interpretation of the Black Isle effortlessly takes the listener on a trip through her childhood haunts of Cullicudden, Fortrose and Jemimaville, conjuring images of sunny stretches of farmland and coast. James Ross’s composition Flow Country, the endless expanse of peat bog between Caithness and Sutherland, is comparatively dark and ominous.

Four Corners displays just how diverse and pliable traditional Scottish music can be, and the way it can blend readily with a multitude of other sounds and genres. Unfortunately, this is not the kind of Scottish music that most people will have the chance to hear, and most visitors to the country will leave with a fairly narrow idea of what ‘real’ Scottish music ought to sound like. These four compositions are testament to the kind of potential that the genre carries, and the different directions that it can be taken in.

© Rowan Macfie, 2012

Links

• Mr McFall’s Chamber