Elwing's Flight

Thoughts from a girl as she flies over the sea.

Sunday, December 11, 2005

Procrastination

Well, it's time for a real post! I haven't done that in awhile. I probably shouldn't do it for awhile, or at least until after finals. I need some sleep too. But... yeah. I rarely get the urge to write here anymore, so I thought I'd take advantage of the moment!

So... what's going on in the life of Rache right now? I really don't know... too much, probably, lol. I'm studying hard (or trying to study hard) for finals right now. I have my Understanding Dance final on Tuesday and my History final on Wednesday. I'm a little concerned that I'm not ready for either, and I also have a 5-page argument paper to write before Thursday, so I'd really appreciate your prayers this week.

As soon as finals are over, we have pretty much constant dance practices/rehearsals/performances throughout the rest of the week, which will be a lot of fun, though pretty exhausting. I'd appreciate your prayers for that as well. Sorry I'm just going to have to make that request a lot this time, lol!

I can't believe that my first semester in college is only a few days away from being over. It went by so slowly, and yet so fast... it was a huge roller coaster ride, but I made it through, thank God. I've grown a lot this semester. I've had more than my usual bouts with depression plus fatigue and stress and all of that and sometimes I've actually gotten pretty near the edge, but God is so faithful to me and every time I fall He pulls me straight back to Him.... It's just been incredible to see how each time I go down, I learn more how to trust Him and rest in His love. And then He pulls me back to the surface so I can breathe again. So yeah, I've really learned some amazing lessons this fall.

On a less serious note, I have to write about some of the stuff I've done this past week.... First off, the Switchfoot and Lifehouse concert! That was absolutely incredible. Two of my favorite bands of all time in one concert! Howie Day opened for them. It sounded like he'd be really good on the radio, but in concert he just didn't quite cut it for me. But that's alright, since my friends and I spent that time talking and being our usual crazy selves. Then Lifehouse... wow. They were absolutely beautiful. For most of theirs I just sat back and listened. And ! That guy's voice... it always gives me the shivers when I hear it on cd, but it was a million times better live! Switchfoot ROCKED. They are definitely my favorite band. We had fun annoying everyone around us on the upper level by standing up (or sitting on the back of our chairs) and having screaming contests... yeah it was fun. And we were all singing along at the top of our lungs of course. The best part though was at the end... their last song was "Stars" which none of us could believe... it's definitely not my favorite of theirs by any means, so that made me sad. But the crowd was all pumped up and we all started shouting for one more song, so finally they came out and did... guess what... "We are One Tonight!" One of my all-time favorite Switchfoot songs! That was definitely the best song in my opinion. And it was really awesome being there with my friends. Lol, we all randomly hugged each other and had a sappy friends moment... I love you guys!!! So that really made the concert... it was a wonderful end to a wonderful concert.

But it was not the end of the night, lol. All of us (Sara, Lora, Stephen, Aubrey, Hannah and me) went outside to our cars, only to find a ready-made ice-skating rink in the parking lot! In other words, a lot of water had frozen on the ground to make a huge sheet of ice. We stayed for 40 minutes I think "ice skating." Hehe... wow... I wish we could have gotten a video or something. We did ballet, break dancing, do-si-doed, hip-hopped, and really anything and everything else we could think of.

It was an awesome night.

The next night was just as awesome! Breakaway went POLKA DANCING!! And I went along, of course, even though we had just spent 6 hours at troupe practice. But it was soooo much fun! We went to the Yukon Czech Hall. There was a live polka band and everything, and of course t-shirts, which we sold them out of, lol. But anyway, we all learned to polka, and I swear, Breakaway is not ever going to be the same, hehe. We all had a blast. Most of it was polka dancing, but the night also included some swing dancing, Cotton-Eyed Joe, the Mexican Hat Dance, and the dreaded chicken dance. Oh, and at one point about half of us or more randomly decided to start break dancing, hehe.... that must have been quite a sight for everyone else there. We DID get videos of this. :D However, they're not on our website... yet.

Afterwards, when we went back to the church, some of us stayed afterwards and yet again found a convenient ice patch to go ice skating on! We were there for awhile, playing on the ice and polka dancing on and off of it. I found out that parking lots are very fun to polka dance in... lots of space! :)

One more thing: 5 guys came! Which was a lot better than I was originally suspecting. Most of them, if not all, danced most of the night. So a big congratulations to them. You guys were awesome. Stephen and Eric, you were both really good!

Well, I should probably get to bed. I was so exhausted I totally slept through my alarm this morning and missed first hour at church. :( I have so much studying to do tomorrow. But anyway, thank you all for your friendship and prayers, and I will probably see some of you tomorrow at Mazzios! Yes, I'm actually going! Wow! Choir's out, and I'll probably need a break just about then, so yeah... you all (who can) had better be there. :D

Mar sin leibh an-dràsda!

Rache

Saturday, December 03, 2005

Edjumication time

So, here's the deal: I figure since you are reading my blog, whether you know me well or not, that means you'd probably like to know me better. So I thought I'd show you about a style of music that I've grown up with; a style that is a huge part of who I am. If you want to really understand me better, I think you need to understand my background; where I'm coming from... hopefully this will show why I'm such a weird dreamer/thinker person, lol. I think music can often say a lot more than words.

Instead of describing this music, I thought I'd just share a bunch of music clips with you, with information here and there as needed. I tried to make each section pretty clear. There's a lot of clips, so browse whatever you like. However, when there's more than one clip for something, it's because of the incredible variety of music in that section, so each song will be very different.

One more thing: The Celts have spread out quite a bit over the ages, so consequently Celtic music can come from a variety of places. Usually, of course, most Celtic music is associated with Scotland and Ireland, but you can also hear Celtic music from Wales, England, Brittany (in France), Galicia (in Spain), Cape Breton and Nova Scotia (in Canada), and the USA.

*One more thing: If anyone wants the lyrics/translation of Gaelic lyrics for any of these songs, I'll do my best to find it for you.

~~~

Traditional Celtic Songs

• Love songs, lullabies, laments, etc. — there's a huge variety, so I'll give you a tiny sampler of a few songs:

"Siul a Ruin," Rosheen:
http://www.rosheen.net/music/siul_aruin.mp3 (listen all the way through this one, it gets really really good! One of my favorite Gaelic songs ever.)

"Mhórag's Na Horo Gheallaidh," Clannad:
http://www.taramusic.com/sounds/cd30089.mp3

"Beidh Aonach Amárach," Altan:
http://wm.celticmerchant.com:81/01.%20Beidh%20Aonach%20Amarach%20(There's%20a%20Fair%20Today).asx

"One Last Cold Kiss," Christy Moore:
http://www.taramusic.com/sounds/cd20059.mp3

"Tiofaidh an Samhradh," Altan:
http://wm.celticmerchant.com:81/11.%20Tiofaidh%20an%20Samhradh%20(Summer%20Will%20Come).asx


• Waulking Songs (Orain-luaidh)

Waulking songs were work songs in Scotland, sung to the rhythm of their pounding cloth. They usually had one person singing the lead part, then everyone else joining in for the usually nonsensical response.

"Tha Mullad," The Fallen Angels
http://www.taramusic.com/sounds/cd40059.mp3

"Alasdair Mhic Cholla Ghasda," Capercaillie
http://www.tradtunes.com/m3u.m3u?track_id=36898


• Mouth Music (Puirt-a-beul)

This was a Gaelic way of singing dance tunes. I can only give you a small sampling of this really, but I've heard so many incredible pieces of mouth music. A very notable one would be the Oscail an Doras sequence in Riverdance. If there are actual words, they usually don't mean much, since more focus in mouth music is put on sound and rhythm. Hehe... just for warning... they are REALLY fast.

"Fionnghuala," The Chieftains
http://media.bmgonline.com/windham.com/the_chieftains/audio/fionnghuala_128.mov

"La luette en colére," Les Charbonniers de l'Enfer
http://ubu.wfmu.org/sound/ethno/celtic/mp3/Celtic-Mouth-Music_10.mp3

"Puirt a Beul/Snug in a Blanket," Capercaillie
http://www.tradtunes.com/m3u.m3u?track_id=36887

"Within a Mile of Dublin," Tim Lyons
http://ubu.wfmu.org/sound/ethno/celtic/mp3/Celtic-Mouth-Music_07.mp3


• Psalm Singing

In Gaelic-speaking churches in Scotland, they don't sing hymns or praise songs, but they have their own beautiful, haunting style. The worship leader sings a line of the psalm, and then the entire congregation joins in, each person embellishing and elaborating on the melody in their own way. Both of these clips are from the Back Free Church, Isle of Lewis, Scotland.

"Kilmarnock," Psalm 16:8-9, led by Calum Martin
http://gaelicpsalmsinging.com/audio/mp3s/Kilmarnock.mp3

"Stornaway," Psalm 133, led by John Murdo Martin
http://gaelicpsalmsinging.com/audio/mp3s/Stornoway.mp3


Instrumental Songs:

First, here's some examples of some of the common instruments found in Celtic music:

• Bagpipes

"Mrs. Martha Knowles..." Scottish Power
http://www.tradtunes.com/m3u.m3u?track_id=32454

"Sleepy Maggie," Iain MacHarg
http://www.pipersgathering.org/Audio%20Clips/Clips/Iain%20MacHarg%20-%20Sleepy%20Maggie.wav

• Uillean Pipes

"Illyrian Dawn," Andy Irvine and Davy Spillane
http://www.taramusic.com/sounds/ta30274.mp3

• Fiddle

"Jenny Picking Cockles / Farewell to Connaught," Frankie Gavin
http://www.taramusic.com/sounds/ta401105.mp3

"Whaler Song"
http://www.rsc-ne-scotland.ac.uk/eolympics/accessibility/example/Resources/Sounds/Whaler_Song.mp3

• Accordian

"Sunshine and Showers," Máirtín O'Connor
http://www.taramusic.com/sounds/moc00302.mp3 (just ignore the last bit with the saxophone)

• Irish whistle and Irish flute

"Star of the County Down," Rosheen
http://www.rosheen.net/music/star_of_the_county_down.mp3 (Irish whistle/penny whistle/tin whistle)

"Shorelines," Davy Spillane
http://www.taramusic.com/sounds/ta30263.mp3 (I think this is an Irish flute)

"May Morning Dew," Moving Hearts
http://www.taramusic.com/sounds/ta30146.mp3 (Another Irish flute I think)

• Bódhran

http://www.mid-east.com/Sounds/btwr.wav (a good example of the bodhran's good bass quality!)

http://homepage.eircom.net/~cipin/bw1.mp3 (a good example of the bodhran's varying pitches)

"An Grianan: An Grianan/Horse with a Heart," Altan
http://www.tradtunes.com/m3u.m3u?track_id=37275 (the bodhran in a dance tune)

• Acoustic (guitar, mandolin, mountain dulcimer etc.)

"Finn MacCool's Reel," Pat Kirtley
http://wm.celticmerchant.com:81/13.%20Finn%20MacCool's%20Reel.asx

"The Boy in the Gap," Pat Kilbride
http://wm.celticmerchant.com:81/08.%20The%20Boy%20in%20the%20Gap.asx

"Shetland Jumper/Message From Home/Wise Up, Grumpy," John McGann
http://wm.celticmerchant.com:81/14.%20Shetland%20Jumper;%20Message%20from%20Home;%20Wise%20Up,%20Grumpy.asx

• Piano

"B Minor," Leahy (mwahahahaha.... this was our awesome troupe parade dance from last year!)
http://www.narada.com/audio/leahy/42955_01.rm

"Showcase," Brian Glynn
http://wm.celticmerchant.com:81/08.%20Showcase.asx


• Airs and other slow instrumental songs:

"When the Snow Melts," Phil Cunningham and Manus Lunny (not exactly all that traditional, but this is my favorite song ever, so I had to put it in) :)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/wma-pop-up/-/B000000NL7001001/102-9067067-9024905

"Midnight Walker," Davy Spillane
http://www.taramusic.com/sounds/cd30265.mp3

"Arran Boat Song," ?
http://www.gourd.com/graphics/ArranBoatSong.mp3


• Dance Tunes:

Examples of different dance song types/tempos/whatever-you-want-to-call-it for Irish dancing:

• Reels (done in both softshoe or hardshoe—either way, reels are my favorite dance!)

"Sight of Land," Gaelic Storm
http://wm.celticmerchant.com:81/08.%20Sight%20Of%20Land.asx

"Strings of Fire," Feet of Flames, Ronan Hardiman
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/wma-pop-up/-/B00000I0DH001010/104-6455088-0359108

"Martin Wynne's," Alan Kelly
http://www.taramusic.com/sounds/cd40109.mp3

• Jigs (softshoe)

"I Buried My Wife and Danced on Top of Her," Rosheen
http://www.rosheen.net/music/i_buried_my_wife.mp3

"My Darling Asleep, Sonny Brogans," Stockton's Wing
http://www.taramusic.com/sounds/ta300401.mp3

"Dance Above the Rainbow," Feet of Flames, Ronan Hardiman
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/wma-pop-up/-/B00000I0DH001006/104-6455088-0359108

• Treble Jigs (same as regular jigs, only slower for more complicated hardshoe dancing)

"Traditional Treble Jigs 87," Mike Shaffer and Theresa Shaffer Wilkinson
http://wm.celticmerchant.com:81/10.%20Tradional%20Treble%20Jigs%2087.asx

"Heavy Jigs (73)," Bradley Brothers
http://wm.celticmerchant.com:81/05.%20Heavy%20Jigs%20(73).asx

• Slip Jigs (my other favorite because it's like flying. Softshoe, traditionally for girls only because it's so graceful)

"Slip Jig (113)," Bradley Brothers
http://wm.celticmerchant.com:81/07.%20Slip%20Jig%20(113).asx

"Open Slip Jigs 113," Mike Shaffer and Theresa Shaffer Wilkinson
http://wm.celticmerchant.com:81/02.%20Open%20Slip%20Jigs%20113.asx

• Hornpipes (Hardshoe)

"Dance of Love" (traditionally known as "King of the Fairies"), Feet of Flames, Ronan Hardiman (we're doing a dance to this song in troupe this year!)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/wma-pop-up/-/B00000I0DH001002/104-6455088-0359108

"Hornpipes (Battle of Arklow, Fairies Hornpipe), Bradley Brothers
http://wm.celticmerchant.com:81/02.%20Hornpipes%20(Battle%20of%20Arklow,%20Fairies%20Hornpipe).asx

All these, especially reels, can be found in Scottish music as well as Irish, but Scottish music also has another unique type of
dance music:

• Strathspeys

"The Argyllshire Gathering/Blair Drummond/John Morrison of Assynt House," Field Marshall Montgomery
http://www.tradtunes.com/m3u.m3u?track_id=32445

"Dogs Among the Bushes," The Chieftains
http://lofi.mp3search.ru/lofi/86/395176.mp3 (this one turns into a reel halfway through, but it's one of my favorites)

"G Minor Medley," Leahy
http://wm.celticmerchant.com:81/09.%20G%20Minor%20Medley.asx


• Modern Dance Tunes

"Dueling Violins," Feet of Flames, Ronan Hardiman
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/wma-pop-up/-/B00000I0DH001004/104-6455088-0359108

"Causeway," Nollaig Casey & Arty McGlynn
http://www.taramusic.com/sounds/cd30351.mp3

"Gypsy," Lord of the Dance, Ronan Hardiman
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/wma-pop-up/-/B000001EPB001005/104-6455088-0359108

"Maggie's," Wolfstone
http://www.invernessonline.com/wolfstone/Maggies.m3u

"Siamsa, Lord of the Dance, Ronan Hardiman (I have danced/performed to this song probably more times than any other song!)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/wma-pop-up/-/B000001EPB001011/104-6455088-0359108


Modern Celtic Songs:

"Is There for Honest Poverty?" Old Blind Dogs
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/wma-pop-up/-/B00005BGU0001001/104-6455088-0359108

"Ailein Duinn," Capercaillie
http://www.capercaillie.co.uk/discography/media/audio/anthology/aileinduinn.mp3 (sorry for the poor quality, but this is a
gorgeous song anyway!)

"The Wisest Fool," Old Blind Dogs
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/wma-pop-up/-/B00008NGAB001005/104-6455088-0359108

"Whisper to the Wild Water," Máire (Moya) Brennan
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/wma-pop-up/-/B00004D3G7001005/104-6455088-0359108

"Annachie Gordon," Loreena McKennitt
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/wma-pop-up/-/B0002VEX1O001004/104-6455088-0359108


New Age Celtic:

"Tara," Moya Brennan
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/wma-pop-up/-/B0000AIT1H001007/104-6455088-0359108

"Na Laetha Geal M'Oige," Enya (one of my favorite Enya songs ever!)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/wma-pop-up/-/B000002LRR001011/104-6455088-0359108

"Ancient Pines," Loreena McKennitt
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/wma-pop-up/-/B0002VEX1O001008/104-6455088-0359108

? Sorry guys I forgot...
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/wma-pop-up/-/B000002NHN001003/104-6455088-0359108

"I WIll Remember You Still," Aeone
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/wma-pop-up/-/B00005LNGY001018/104-6455088-0359108