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June 30, 2004 - Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels June 3, 2004 Music 'My Heart's in the Highlands': Music of Scotland and Ireland The Southern Oregon University Chamber Choir is joined by notable Celtic musicians Pat O'Scannell, Brian Freeman, and Jim Finnegan for a concert of Scottish and Irish music "My Heart's in the Highlands" at the SOU Recital Hall, 3 p.m Sunday. The concert includes solo performances by each of the guest artists as well as choral arrangements of Scottish and Irish folk songs and newly composed works by Scotland's greatest living composer of vocal music, James MacMillan, performed by the SOU Chamber Choir. Chamber Choir Director Paul French lived as a boy in Glasgow, Scotland, where he sang his first solo in his grandfather's church in Springburn and sang in his first choir, the Scottish Junior Singers. French's love of traditional Scottish music is directly tied to his love of the Scottish countryside. "There is something of a haunting beauty to the highlands that is perfectly captured in the music," French said. "When I hear a traditional Hebridean melody, I get a powerful visual image of the land. The simplest melody can take me directly to the islands." This transporting quality was also felt by Pat O'Scannell via her mother and grandmother, both of whom were singers and who "knew from memory every New York Irish song you could name," French said. Among O'Scannell's earliest childhood memories are the times he was "dressing up in kilts and rushing around with my crazed friends pretending we were part of Bonny Prince Charlie's crew through the Sugarloaf Mountains which began in my neighbor's yard, listening to Scottish and Irish music," O'Scannell said. Guitarist and song writer Brian Freeman has Scottish and Irish heritage on his father's side of the family but was not exposed to Celtic folk music till 1978. Since that time, while never abandoning other kinds of music, the Celtic influence has been at the forefront of freeman's singing and can even be heard in his original tunes, many of which have a decidedly Scottish flavor. After living for a time in Scotland from 1979-80, Freeman remembers fondly the "epiphany of seeing that the rhythms of the music were so tied to the people and the countryside," he said. Finnegan is well known for his acting and singing and is the only one of the three guest artists never to have actually been to Ireland or Scotland, physically that is. When Finnean sings, it is obvious to all that he is there in spirit, and his passion for this music transports his audience there as well. "It is actually quite difficult to transfer the emotional directness of folkmusic to art music arrangements," French said. "I looked at a a number of pieces where the core beauty of the folksong was basically ruined by the attempt to turn it into 'art music.' But in those few pieces where the composer manages to retain the heart of the folksong while adding fresh and interesting colors and sounds, there you have a very special world where folk art and classical art enhance one another. I believe this program is such a program." The beauty of high-quality choral music and the directness of folkmusic is a great combination and a natural one. "Folk music is community music, the more voices the better," Freeman said. O'Scannell goes even farther expressing what many feel about this beautiful music. "The Celtic music is a part of me now." O'Scannell said. "It's not so much something that I do, but something that I am. It is deep and refreshing, and I must return to it for sustenance. It will always be there." Tickets for "My Heart's in the Highlands" are $7 general, $4 student and senior, and are available at the SOU Music Department or at the door. Call 552-6101. Profits from the concert go toward Music Department scholarships. DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams