The Fine Hand
What roams between myth and history, dream and memory, Europe and America makes The Fine Hand’s wheels turn: an artists’ collective that spins contemporary soundscapes from historical threads. In this concert they explore interfaces between the traditional North American repertoire of the ballad and the monophonic medieval song. Improvisation, rhythmic drones, melodic patterns and ornamental techniques prove strikingly similar. Coincidence or a sign?
Programme
-
Kite
Mniíčagla
(along the edges on water)
Tapestries I-V1990 -
Tapestry I: I viewed the world around me, and saw I was quite alone.
-
Anne-Kathryn Olsen
Pretty Saro (Roud 417)
-
Mara Winter / Elizabeth Sommers
Saro Reel
-
Brendan McGlinchey
Splendid Isolation
1940-2020 -
***
Tapestry II: Oh, hold your tongue, my honey. -
Mara Winter
Bonnie Annie (Child 24/Roud 172)
By the Banks of Green Willow Estampie -
***
Tapestry III: Meeting is pleasure but parting is grief. -
Mara Winter / Anne-Kathryn Olsen
She Moved through the Fair (Roud 861)
-
Traditional
Wedding Dress
-
***
Tapestry IV: Death, like an overflowing stream. -
Vincent Kibildis
Thirty Pieces of Silver
Judas Iscariot (Child 23) -
Anne-Kathryn Olsen
O Death (Roud 4922)
-
Isaac Watts
Exit 181
1674-1748 -
***
Tapestry V: I believe I’ll go back home. -
Isabella Shaw
They Will Know me by my Joy
-
Elizabeth Sommers
I Believe I’ll go Back Home
-
Anne-Kathryn Olsen
Prodigal Son (Roud 969)
From:
Roud, Steve. Folk Song Index (London, Vaughan Williams Memorial Library).
Child, Francis James. The English & Scottish Popular Ballads, 1882-98.
Lomax, John A. & Alan Lomax. Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads, MacMillan, 1867-1922.
B.14.39: English Poetry etc; B.14.40: Femina etc (Trinity College Cambridge).
Programme subject to change
Musicians
- Elizabeth Sommers fiddle, banjo
- Vincent Kibildis harp
- Carla Babelegoto voice
- Isabella Shaw voice, harp
- Kite composer, visual score
- Mara Winter transverse flutes, musical direction
- Anne-Kathryn Olsen dulcimer, voice, musical direction
