TICKETS SOON
Concert presented as part of the European Festivals Fund for Emerging Artists (EFFEA) programme.
Performers:
Elizabeth Sommers, fiddles and banjo
Vincent Kibildis, harp
Carla Babelegoto, voice
Isabella Shaw, voice and harp
Mara Winter, transverse flutes and direction
Anne-Kathryn Olsen, Appalachian dulcimer, voice, and direction
Vincent Kibildis, harp
Carla Babelegoto, voice
Isabella Shaw, voice and harp
Mara Winter, transverse flutes and direction
Anne-Kathryn Olsen, Appalachian dulcimer, voice, and direction
with compositions by Kite, Oglála Lakȟóta artist, composer, and visual artist.
Send it by the Water Blurb.
The singing of ballads is an essential aspect of North American music history, transmitted by oral tradition and single-sheet broadsides from the British Isles; and experiencing many “revivals” in popularity: as memories of a recently departed homeland in harsh Colonial America, as resistance songs in the voices of enslaved people, as religious and moral affirmation in the Great Awakening, and on the front porches of poor, mostly forgotten populations in rural Appalachia. Ballad performances recorded in the 19th century also reveal a striking resemblance to the cultivated modern performance styles of monophonic Medieval European songs. Both genres share various formulae: the use of functional approaches to accompanying texts as well as the mutual language of drones, rhythmic structures, modal improvisation, and instrumental ornamentation. The aesthetic similarities between traditional instrumental music in colonial North America and early European forms suggest a reciprocal influence, contributing to the current musical imagining of Medieval European song performance. Through a musical amalgam of memories, traditions, feelings, languages, lands,”Send it by the water” aims to link each one of us to our imagined homelands and to a feeling of continuous, layered histories.
The singing of ballads is an essential aspect of North American music history, transmitted by oral tradition and single-sheet broadsides from the British Isles; and experiencing many “revivals” in popularity: as memories of a recently departed homeland in harsh Colonial America, as resistance songs in the voices of enslaved people, as religious and moral affirmation in the Great Awakening, and on the front porches of poor, mostly forgotten populations in rural Appalachia. Ballad performances recorded in the 19th century also reveal a striking resemblance to the cultivated modern performance styles of monophonic Medieval European songs. Both genres share various formulae: the use of functional approaches to accompanying texts as well as the mutual language of drones, rhythmic structures, modal improvisation, and instrumental ornamentation. The aesthetic similarities between traditional instrumental music in colonial North America and early European forms suggest a reciprocal influence, contributing to the current musical imagining of Medieval European song performance. Through a musical amalgam of memories, traditions, feelings, languages, lands,”Send it by the water” aims to link each one of us to our imagined homelands and to a feeling of continuous, layered histories.
The Fine Hand
The Fine Hand is an artistic collective dedicated to the interchange of historical musical repertoires between Europe and North America; investigating the ideas of memory, place, myth, historicity, and colonialism through contemporary and historically-informed soundscapes. Founded in 2022 by Anne-Kathryn Olsen and Mara Winter, the group’s debut program imagines new contexts for the ballad, weaving its performance history from 12th century England to modern-day North America together with experimental approaches to sonic storytelling. The final result is a living tapestry that offers a multi-directional map of the infinitely shifting human experience.
The Fine Hand is an artistic collective dedicated to the interchange of historical musical repertoires between Europe and North America; investigating the ideas of memory, place, myth, historicity, and colonialism through contemporary and historically-informed soundscapes. Founded in 2022 by Anne-Kathryn Olsen and Mara Winter, the group’s debut program imagines new contexts for the ballad, weaving its performance history from 12th century England to modern-day North America together with experimental approaches to sonic storytelling. The final result is a living tapestry that offers a multi-directional map of the infinitely shifting human experience.
Co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage from the Culture Promotion Fund — a state special-purpose fund — within the “Music” programme implemented by the National Institute of Music and Dance.
