The titans of trad are pairing up for a unique RTÉ music concert series, to be filmed next week in Dingle, writes Siobhán Long
DINGLE has long been the fulcrum of some of the best traditional and world music. As well as producing the Other Voices TV series there, Philip King is revving up for a full-force gathering of traditional musicians for two nights of concerts next Tuesday and Wednesday.
The shows will be recorded in the beautifully minimalist St James' Church in the heart of Dingle for the second series of The Full Set, to be broadcast over six weeks on RTÉ1 in the new year. King sees this particular gathering of six pairs of musicians as one to watch out for.
"These concerts will be hosted by Altan's Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh," he says, "and what we're really trying to foreground is 'ceol beirte', where two instrumentalists play together. It's something of its time, but timeless. It's the heart of the traditional music exchange that happens between two players, and it's at the core of a lot of the big bands, whether it was Frankie Gavin and Jackie Daly in De Danann or Matt Molloy and Paddy Keenan in The Bothy Band."
Beyond the unique opportunity to see such top musicians as fiddler Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh and piper Ronan Browne engaging in a musical conversation, The Full Set will also mark the debut of traditional music on high-definition TV.
"Even though we're shooting using cutting-edge technology," King adds, "the dialogue that happens between two musicians is still the core, notwithstanding all of the technology that's there. That's what makes our music so unique: it's strong enough to survive in all sorts of worlds where transmission means are changing."
Tuesday: Frankie Gavin and Máirtin O'Connor; Ciarán Ó Maonaigh and Aidan O'Donnell; Michael Rooney and June Nic Chormaic. Wednesday: Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill; Seamus Begley and Eoin Begley; Caoimhin Ó Raghallaigh and Ronan Browne.
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