The West Ocean String Quartet celebrate their 10th anniversary and a new CD at the Frankie Kennedy Winter School by the lake in Dunlewey
DUNLEWEY, CO DONEGAL provides the deliciously intimate and unexpectedly genteel lakeside setting for the Frankie Kennedy Winter School. Many who have visited attest to the otherworldly atmosphere that prevails there.
Winds may howl and hailstones fall in the foreshortened days between Christmas and the new year; much of the country might slumber in a post-Christmas malaise, but Gweedore awakens from the hibernation of mid-winter, and fiddles are tuned, boxes are squeezed to sighing point and singers flex their vocal cords in anticipation of a gathering that’s every bit as much an excuse for social discourse as for musical swap-shopping.
This year the Frankie Kennedy Winter School will celebrate the release of the third album from The West Ocean String Quartet, Ae Fond Kiss. Composer, cellist and WOSQ's chief cook and bottle washer Neil Martin will also run music composition workshops during the school. The quartet celebrates its 10th birthday this year too, so the release of this third CD of new and newly arranged traditional material is timely.
Ae Fond Kisstakes its title from the timeless Robbie Burns poem of the same name, and is anchored by a suite of songs composed by Neil Martin, titled Oileán na Marbh. Originally commissioned in 2006 by Temple Bar Cultural Trust, these songs were inspired by a rocky outcrop off the west coast of Donegal which in the 18th and 19th centuries was the burial place of babies who died before baptism, as church law forbade their burial on hallowed ground. The West Ocean String Quartet premiered the work with singer Maighread Ní Dhomhnaill in Temple Bar in 2006, but hadn't recorded it until now. The lengthy gestation has served the music and songs well, and Ní Dhomhnaill's voice shimmers in the heat of the emotion stirred by lyrics written by poet Cathal Ó Searcaigh.
While Oileán na Marbhanchors the album, WOSQ resist the temptation to let it dictate the mood of the entire collection. When they went into the studio, Neil Martin and his fellow West Oceaners wanted to find a way of marrying this resonant song cycle with other, unrelated tunes to create Ae Fond Kiss.
"We knew that this [ Oileán na Marbh] was grave and serious and emotional stuff," Martin says, "and we did have to work out whether it would dictate the entire mood of the album or whether it might be the melancholic or lachrymose bit in the middle. We foothered with all kinds of arrangements, and we found a kind of balance where there was some brighter, happier material which we then had to find a way of bookending with Oileán na Marbh." And they did find a way. Kicking off with Planxty Stackallen, commissioned by arts patron, entrepreneur and founder of Glen Dimplex Martin Naughton, the quartet variously tip toe and high step their way through graceful reels ( Esther's Reel), impish outings ( Packie Bonner's) and a positively Bach-analian interpretation of the French Canadian Reel Béatrice. Here, Martin pays homage to his musical hero, JS Bach, by deconstructing the introductory part and then revelling in the twists, turns and curlicues of this bal musette. Lachrymose, it most certainly isn't. Beguiling? Unquestionably.
One of the benefits of being both a composer and a member of a string quartet is that Martin can write specifically for each musician, targeting his compositions with the precision of a guided missile. Not many string quartets are lucky enough to have music composed by one of their own members.
“Writing for people’s individual strengths just seems like a perfectly natural way to go,” he explains. “I’d hate to be writing without people in mind, for something as intimate as a quartet. It would seem . . . cold . . . or something. I love the fact that I know who’s going to play, and I can hear in my head how they’re going to play it.” Violinist Seamus McGuire, the driving force behind the formation of WOSQ, admits he feels privileged to be written for. A paediatrician in Donegal, he combines a busy professional life as a medic with highly focused interludes as a musician.
“I think we’re particularly lucky to be able to experiment with new material,” McGuire says, “because Neil is so very aware of each of our musical backgrounds and strengths. When he’s writing, his compositions are almost bespoke to the quartet. That gives us great freedom of expression, because we’re in our comfort zone, technically. I can’t think of any other quartet where the main thrust of the music is coming from one of the members who’s composing. It’s very exciting, too, because whenever we get together to rehearse, Neil brings along new material for us to try out. I love that process of first reading a new piece, and then working it up and listening to the classical musicians (Ken Rice and Niamh Crowley) giving their interpretation. In some ways, the classical players have learned to let their hair down, experience reels and jigs and use different forms of ornamentation and I’ve learned new classical techniques around tone production and bowing that I didn’t know before. It’s very much give and take.”
At the time of WOSQ’s formation, 10 years ago, following a sojourn at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Annaghmakerrig, much was made of their desire to meld traditional and classical music, and ink was spilled on the question of whether in fact, this was a good thing – for traditional music in particular. The quartet’s subsequent success fairly put that debate to bed, and now Neil Martin feels the organic nature of their musical journey is apparent. What happens, happens, he suggests. This is what musical evolution is all about.
"I'm not conscious of trying to mix things," he insists. "I'm just writing for the quartet. Like all marriages, it takes time for things to settle down, and if it's a good marriage, sure, it's grand, it trots along. I don't think we're any longer conscious of 'doing' anything. I think we've found our own voice and we're just trying to speak or to sing more with that voice." Seamus McGuire agrees, and is happy the quartet's name reflects their approach. "We took our name from a piece composed by Máire Breatnach called The West Ocean Waltz. For me, the term 'West Ocean' conjured up unlimited spaces and we felt that because the music we were playing didn't have any boundaries, it fitted well with an ocean that didn't really exist!"
The quartet's choice of the Frankie Kennedy Winter School for the launch of Ae Fond Kissis apt, given the many connections between the late flute player Kennedy, the celebratory event that commemorates him and the spiritual home of WOSQ.
"Frankie and west Donegal are very close to the heart of the quartet," Neil acknowledges. "Seamus lives there, I holiday up there and Oileán na Marbhwas born there, and even (sculptor) John Coll's piece, which we use on the cover of the new album, reflects this part of the world." Coll's "ecomorph" sculpture of two human faces morphing out of two trees, reflects the natural synergies between the west coast landscape, music and creativity.
Neil Martin chuckles with characteristic mischievousness at his role in propelling the quartet’s work forward. “I suppose you could call it democracy – on my terms!”
The West Ocean String Quartet launch their new CD, Ae Fond Kiss, with special guest Maighread Ní Dhomhnaill, in Ionad Cois Locha, Dunlewey at the Frankie Kennedy Winter School on Monday 28th December Eolas@frankiekennedy.com
