Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin is working with the OPW to celebrate the musical tradition of some of Ireland's historic locations, writes Siobhán Long
Music shaped as much by the listener as by the musician: that's what the Office of Public Works has in mind this summer, as it joins forces with pianist, composer and academic Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin.
His brief is to revive the musical past of each location, whether it be tethered by geography, history, or mere serendipity. Whether they'll discover that, as LP Hartley suggested, the (musical) past is indeed another country remains to be seen. One thing's for sure though, as Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin prepares the way for a series of eight concerts, he will wrestle with the competing musical personalities of his assigned locations.
Teaming up with a string quartet for five of the concerts, and with fellow academic and percussionist, Mel Mercier, for the remaining three, Ó Súilleabháinrelishes the chance to play in some of the best performance spaces in the country, many of which rarely host live musical performances.
"I think with a string quartet, I'll be able to invoke the spirit of the locations by also invoking the spirit of the landscape in which they are situated," he suggests. "There's an intimacy about these houses, which really lends itself to the kind of musical conjuring that the OPW has asked of us."
Nicolas Carolan, and his fellow forensic archivist (aka Joan McDermott) at the Irish Traditional Music Archive played no small part in gathering the music associated with these grand houses into a welcoming gabháil, primed for Ó Súilleabháin's finishing touch.
"It's a fascinating exercise to delve into what was a private form of patronage back in the 17th and 18th centuries," Carolan remarks. "It was what allowed composers like Turlough O'Carolan to compose music, which contrasts quite considerably with what we might think of as Irish traditional music: jigs, reels and hornpipes. They are all forms of oral music, but one is a more classical form composed through patronage for a social elite, which we now play for aesthetic reasons rather than for any notion of prestige."
The ITMA had little difficulty probing the (sometimes esoteric) links between the nominated houses and their associated music.
"If you take Ormond Castle in Carrick-on-Suir as an example," says Nicolas Carolan, "using 'Ormond' as a key word, you would find songs in praise of the Lady Butler, but if you think laterally, then associations with Rathfarnham Castle would stretch to include Robert Emmet and Sarah Curran, as well as the songs of Thomas Moore, who was a schoolmate and college contemporary of Emmet's in Trinity College. So there are direct connections, but also lateral connections associated with all of these houses."
What distinguishes this concert series from many others is its sense of place, which may be felt more strongly by the audience than by the performers themselves, apart from the Clonmel concert which takes place in Ó Súilleabháin's home town.
"It's very different from another concert, where you're just invited to do a concert, and audiences essentially come to hear you. In this instance, it's quite likely that key local historians will be very interested, and that the audience will include people who are proud of the site itself, as well as those who have a love for the local music. It has a certain dynamic, and if anyone comes up to me with a tune hanging out of their back pocket, I'll only be delighted to take it off of them!"
Nicolas Carolan alerts audiences to the stylistic variations they will encounter at each concert, courtesy of the particular times from which each repertoire will be drawn.
"O'Carolan's music, for example, was more formal and elaborate, and comes in a wider variety of rhythms than later vernacular forms of traditional music, such as the jig, reel and hornpipe", he explains. "In the music of patronage, there are more elements of European influence, with evidence of the vogue for Italian music in the late 17th and early 18th century.
"Thomas Moore's songs were often written for accompaniment by the piano, which wasn't a vernacular music but it was a hybrid of traditional airs, British verse styles and music which was harmonically-based for the piano. It's a mixture of native and foreign musical influences, which just goes to show that it was ever thus."
It's this ebb and flow, these evolving influences that keeps the pulse of traditional music beating with such rude good health, Carolan insists.
"The basic tradition is robust, and can take anything that's thrown at it," he suggests. "Like the traditional music in any country, new elements are coming in all the time, and the music can either accept it into its DNA or reject it. It's a natural artistic process that's constant in any art form. What this series will do, I think, is shine a light on the mix of native creativity and private patronage in our music. Understanding the social conditions in which the music was composed and performed will, in a way be bringing it all back home."
Making connections: The OPW concerts
"Family Connections: Heritage House & Castles through Historical Irish Family Lives" performances:
• Castletown, Co Kildare next Saturday, July 22nd
• Ormond Castle, Carrick-on-Suir, Tuesday, July 25th
• Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin, Saturday, August 5th
• Emo Court, Co Laois, August 12th
• Kilkenny Castle, September 2nd
• The Main Guard, Clonmel, September 9th
• Roscrea Castle and Damer House on September 16th, and
• Maynooth Castle, Co Kildare on September 23rd.
Concerts start at 8pm, are free and available on a first-come, first-served basis by calling the Office of Public Works Heritage Services on 01-6476586 or e-mailing catherine.oconnor@ opw.ie with your preference
