Elgar’s Serenade for Strings

When Kim de Laforest last joined the SSO as a soloist, she brought the house down – and when you hear her fiddling you’ll know why! But Kim is a versatile artist who often plays within the SSO as well. So it’s a treat to have our friend Kim join us for A Night in Dublin.

We took some time to catch up with Kim ahead of this week’s performance!

SSO: What aspects of Celtic music as a genre inspire you most?

Kim: Growing up in Regina, I listened to a lot of classical music or prairie old time fiddle music (or 80’s pop!). I wasn’t really exposed to any Celtic music until I was in university.

When I heard Alasdair Fraser’s fiddling…and Mary Black’s singing…I felt like I’d found my heart’s music! The sounds, the ornaments, the drive all drew me in immediately.

My Grandpa was a singer who grew up in Wales, so I feel that this part of me comes from him…it’s a very special connection.

SSO: The fiddle is such an integral part of what makes Celtic music come alive. How do you feel your experiences as a fiddler have informed your work as a violinist, and vice versa?

Kim: This is a great question!

I encourage all of my students to play a wide variety of styles…both classical and fiddle. I do this because I really feel that they benefit each other.

My classical training has given me the technique to play pretty much anything I want to play fiddle wise. It was also an important part of my ear training. I started out in the Suzuki program when I was 4. In the Suzuki style, you learn to play by ear before you learn to play by notes. The fiddle tradition is very much an aural tradition. Even if you use sheet music to learn fiddle tunes, you need to rely on your ear…listening to and interpreting recordings…to infuse the notes with the correct feel for each tune. The notes are only a part of it.

The more time I spent in the fiddle part of my world, the more I realized that it was making me a more well rounded musician. The idea of coming up with a part to play with only a chord chart for reference was scary at first…improvise?!?! Eeek!!

Becoming more and more comfortable with this type of playing has opened so many doors for me. It has also made me curious about classical music that used to intimidate me in my earlier classical days. 20th century or ‘new music’ requires a willingness to work outside the traditional classical box at times. My fiddle training has made me much better at this.

If you can play by ear and by note, you can learn anything!

SSO: In previous years, you’ve spent time in northern communities teaching children there about the joys of fiddle music. How have these experiences shaped you as an artist and educator?

Kim: I am missing my Nunavut students and friends very much these days!! I hope to go back there as soon as it is safe to do that again.

My experiences in the north have made me realize how fortunate I am to have had the access I’ve had to music education throughout my life. I am so grateful for that. I wonder where I’d be if I didn’t have my music.

I understand more fully how important it is for every child to have the opportunity to learn an instrument. I have seen music bring a sense of self worth to students that struggle in other classes. I have seen music bring students to school that would normally not attend regularly. I have seen music give students something to look forward to…something to strive for. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that music changes lives…and saves lives. That is a very humbling thing to realize as a teacher.

Travelling and teaching in the Arctic has reinforced my goal to bring joy to people through my music.

It’s easy to feel the joy of sharing music when you watch a class of grade 10’s in Pond Inlet, NU dancing enthusiastically to your version of Maple Sugar!

SSO: Your work with the Fiddle Orchestra has had an incredible impact on our community, bringing together so many people to make joyful music. How has the Fiddle Orchestra adjusted to the pandemic?

Kim: The SFO (Saskatoon Fiddle Orchestra) has saved my sanity a number of times this past year!

There are so many creative and enthusiastic folks in that group. Despite all of the challenges of Covid safety restrictions, we have been able to continue meeting and learning music together.

Last spring, when everything shut down, the SFO switched to Zoom for rehearsals. Everyone was very patient and willing to adapt to this new way of getting together. Once it was safe to do so, we moved to partially online, partially in person rehearsals. We had to find a larger space in order to keep the appropriate distance between the members that attended in person.

Sadly, we haven’t been able to perform in over a year, but stay tuned, we have plans!

Singer-songwriter Eileen Laverty joins the SSO for our live stream A Night in Dublin – we took some time to catch up with her ahead of our performance!

SSO: What was the writing process for Tread Softly like? The song has become a calling card for you, one that never ages – do you find new life in singing it each time?

EL: I had an idea for a melody which played over and over in my mind, and one night I found inspiration in a W. B. Yeats’ poem, “He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven.” I’m very pleased that people connect with it. The song and has led me to some lovely musical connections and opportunities over the years.

SSO: You grew up in Ireland; how did your early experiences there shape you as a person and an artist?

EL: When I think about influences I immediately think of my Uncle Des who taught me to play the guitar. He was very involved with the Saskatoon (and later, Hamilton) branch of the Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann, a group talented and dedicated people who meet regularly to share their love of Irish music and culture. I was very fortunate to have their encouragement and support when I was just starting out. Through these connections I met some friends and we formed a celtic band together, and that’s where I discovered my love of singing and performing. My Uncle Des now lives in Nova Scotia, and he has recently been honoured by the International Comhaltas organization in recognition of his contribution over many years.

SSO: Your style of folk music performance has been celebrated as possessing incredible emotional depth and versatility. Where does your musical passion come from, and how do you give your music such a personal touch?

EL: I love to sing. I also love a good story, and when you put it with a lovely melody, there’s nothing better.

SSO: Who are some Irish musicians (current or previous generations)that you look to for inspiration?

EL: That’s a tough question because there are so many different styles of Irish music, so the list is long! Mary Black would be at the top of the list of favourite singers. I also I love when popular music forms include traditional tunes and instruments, or when there’s a new take on a traditional tune. Steve Cooney’s recent (solo guitar) album, where he interprets Irish harp tunes composed in the 1600s to 1800,  is just brilliant.

Leprechaun motifs! Hats with Buckles! Shamrocks everywhere! Some hallmarks of St. Patrick’s Day festivities are present no matter where in the world you celebrate this green-laden day of celebration and Gaelic pride. So how did this day of drink and dancing begin? To find out, we have to travel all the way back to the 5th Century A.D., when a Christian bishop and missionary remembered as St. Patrick allegedly wrote a text called “The Declaration”. 

In this text, St. Patrick chronicles his birth in Roman Britain during the fourth century, his kidnapping by Irish raiders at the age of sixteen, and his transportation as a slave to Gaelic Ireland. During the six years which followed, St. Patrick worked as a shepherd, grew in faith, and received a divine message to run to the coast. Sure enough, when he finally arrived at the coast, a ship was waiting to take him home. After many months making his way back, Patrick reunited with his family and decided the priesthood was his chosen vocation. 

St. Patrick’s time spent as a slave had left him slightly embittered towards pagans, so he dedicated the remainder of his life to evangelising in Northern Ireland. And in case you were wondering whether the old myth is true, no, snakes are not endemic to Ireland. Patrick’s theological battles with the druids of the area are what inspired the tale in which he “drove out the snakes”. Passing away on the 17th of March and being laid to rest in Downpatrick, Patrick would live on in the hearts of the island’s populace to become Ireland’s foremost saint.

St. Patrick’s Day is widely celebrated in most European countries, but its reach actually extends much farther across the globe than many people realize. In Lithuania, although not a national holiday, St. Patrick’s Day is an excuse to throw a series of parties that rival Mardi Gras.  In the capital of Vilnius, the Vilnia River is even dyed green in its entirety, a show of solidarity for Lithuania’s Irish communities.

Malaysia has been celebrating St. Patrick’s Day since 1925, when the St. Patrick’s Society of Selangor was founded. A yearly St. Patrick’s Ball unfolds which has come to be known as the biggest St. Patrick’s Day celebration in Asia. Not to be outdone by the Lithuanians, Malay officials organise 36 parties which take place in the Klang Valley, Penang, Johor Bahru, Ipoh, and Malacca.

It may surprise you to learn that some of the earliest St. Patrick’s Day celebrations outside of Ireland actually took place in New Zealand! The celebration of the holy man holding the shamrock was observed as a public holiday in Auckland from 1878 to 1955, spurred on by the great influx of Irish migrants who arrived in the 1850s and 1860s. In the early days, these celebrations were mere community picnics, but after 1860 the good times grew to include  pipe band parades, green-clad marches, concerts, and social dances. At all of these events, Irishness was worn with pride.

Even space-bound astronauts can’t resist contributing to the festivities of St. Patrick’s Day. Astronauts who live and work aboard the International Space Station find different ways to celebrate each year. In 2011, the Irish-American astronaut Catherine Coleman filmed herself playing a hundred-year-old flute which originally belonged to legendary flautist Matt Molloy. Her sequel to this performance saw her playing a tin whistle that had once been played by Paddy Moloney. In an interesting twist, both of these famous musicians performed as members of the Irish music group The Chieftains. They later opted to include Coleman’s performances in a track called “The Chieftains in Orbit” on the group’s “Voice of Ages” album. In 2013, Chris Hadfield treated his online followers to a recording of himself singing “Danny Boy” in space alongside an orbital photograph of Ireland. 

No matter where you celebrate St. Patrick’s Day this, we hope you have a safe and fun-filled day of merriment-making. May the luck of the Irish be with you all, and thank you for supporting your Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra!

Every major city on Earth has something akin to an unofficial anthem. Be it of folk origin or more modern in its sensibilities, an old city hums with a particularly musical energy. A popular song set in Dublin, Ireland, “Molly Malone” (also known as “Cockles and Mussels”) has over time become such an anthem for that fair city. 

The song tells of a fishwife who works on the streets of Dublin and dies young of a fever. Sometime in the late 20th century, a legend started brewing that the song was based on a real person who lived in the 17th century. From that point forward, the hunt for the historical Molly Malone was on! But, try as Dubliners might, no Molly Malone born during that time period can be connected with the events portrayed in the song. Not to be deterred by lack of evidence, the Dublin Millennium Commission decided in 1988 that one Mary Malone (who died on 13 June 1699) was as close as they could get to finding the real Molly Malone. Every year since then, the 13th of June has been celebrated in Dublin as “Molly Malone Day”.

In trying to trace the name of this fishmonger to other tunes from the period, folk music scholars have had a bit more luck. There is some amount of crossover between the plot of the Molly Malone song and that of several other songs, and these songs feature her name as well. A character named Molly Malone makes an appearance in “Widow Malone” (published as early as 1809) and is referred to as “Mary Malone” as well as “sweet mistress Malone”. 

There were also American songs which referred to Molly Malone, though music historians are fairly certain this is not the same fisherwoman as that of Dublin fame. “Meet Me Miss Molly Malone” began to see widespread publication as early as 1840, and The song “Pat Corney’s Account of Himself” of 1826 features lyrics of similar thematic content to Molly Malone: a phrase which proclaims “Now it’s show me that city where the girls are so pretty” “Crying oysters, and cockles, and Mussels for sale.” The phrase “alive, alive O” which forms the refrain of Molly Malone was a common phrase heard among the workers of fish markets during the 18th and 19th centuries. Hollering this phrase was the fastest way to let prospective customers know the freshness of goods such as oysters, mussels, fish and eel.

Molly Malone cannot be accurately traced on paper to any source recorded before 1876, having been published that year in a section of a book entitled “Songs from English and German Universities” in Boston, Massachusetts. It was republished by Francis Brothers and Day in London in 1884 and credits James Yorkston, of Edinburgh, as writer and composer (with music arranged by Edmund Forman. While this London edition states that the contents were reprinted by permission of Kohler and Son of Edinburgh, a Scottish publication house, copies of this first edition have never been recovered in Scotland.

The fascinating mystery of Molly Malone’s origins gets more bizarre when one considers the opinion of Irish music experts (who have compared its style and form with that of other Irish traditional street ballads). Siobhán Marie Kilfeather asserts that “while the song is from the music hall style of the period, and while one cannot wholly dismiss the possibility that it is based on an older folk song, neither melody nor words bear any relationship to the Irish tradition of street ballads.” Although she dismisses the thought of a historical Molly having existed as nonsense, she nonetheless must concede that the song is structured in a tragicomic mode made popular during the 19th century. Another song from the period which utilizes this mode is Percy Montrose’s “Oh My Darling, Clementine”, written around 1880. 

A statue made in the approximate likeness of Molly Malone was unveiled on Grafton Street to celebrate the first Molly Malone Day by the then Lord Mayor of Dublin, Ben Briscoe, during the 1988 Dublin Millennium celebrations. The statue saw a relocation in July of 2014, when she was moved to Suffolk Street, in front of the Tourist Information Office. The statue itself was originally commissioned by Jurys Hotel Group and designed by Jeanne Rynhart. The charming sculpture is referred to by Dubliners (somewhat crudely) as “The Tart with the Cart” or “The Trollop With The Scallop(s)”.

While it seems doubtful that she was ever anything more than a fictitious character in a catchy folk song, Molly Malone is immortalized in Dublin’s unofficial anthem and holds a statue as well as an entire day to her name. We living folk would be grateful to receive treatment half so grand as that.

A musical tribute to love, loss, and the joy of life that perseveres, Danny Boy is one of those legendary standards that can squeeze a teardrop out of solid stone. The mystery surrounding the origin of its melody has never been definitively solved, but music historians have a hunch as to who is likely responsible for the unofficial anthem of the Irish countryside. 

Limavady is a market town in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, which lies seventeen miles east of Derry and fourteen southwest of Coleraine. Standing stoic and proud in the distance, Mt. Binevenagh presides like a queen over the pastoral landscape which surrounds her. Local historians say that it was on the very outskirts of the Limavady market in 1851 that Miss Jane Ross first heard the enchanting air (played by an “itinerant fiddler”) which would one day become “Danny Boy”.

Jane Ross hurriedly wrote down the notes she had devoted to memory, but when she rushed out into the marketplace to find the fiddler… they had disappeared. Jane Ross disappears from the narrative history at this point in the song’s chronological development, but it must be stressed how important her role in the preservation of a national musical treasure truly was. Had she not recorded the fiddler’s tune, the world might have been prematurely robbed of Danny Boy forever!

More than sixty years pass, as the music of that fateful morning is carried by the wind and traveling folk singers who learned it by heart. Across the Atlantic, the Colorado Gold Rush was in full swing. It was a sweltering day when Irish-born Margaret Enright Weatherly (known as Jess to her friends and family) happened to overhear some Irish miners playing the tune. Musicologists believe that these migrant workers may have had some roots in the Limavady area from which the song was first transcribed. 

After asking one of the miners for the song’s name, she learned that it was simply referred to as a “Londonderry Air”. Immediately captivated by the melody, Jess wrote a letter to her brother-in-law, the lawyer Fred Weatherly, who was then residing in Somerset England. This letter included her faithful transcription of the Limavady original, and so the Londonderry Air made its way “across the pond” once more. 

Three years prior to receiving Jess’ letter, Fred Weatherly had been working steadily away at a hobby of his: composing lyrics and pairing them with memorable music. But there was a problem: his most potent set of lyrics just wouldn’t fit with the melody he had intended to pair it with! He would toy with different melodies on and off until 1913, when Londonderry Air arrived like a muse sent from heaven. Like Jane Ross before her, Jess Weatherly’s transcription continued the catalyst which assured the combination of Fred’s evocative lyrics with Londonderry Air’s melody. After adjusting the rhyme and meter of his lyrics to fit this new tune, Fred Weatherly was able to create “Danny Boy” as we know and love it today.

After their chance meeting at a gathering, Weatherly gave the newly-written song to vocalist Elsie Griffin, whose rendition immediately garnered international acclaim for the piece (and made Weatherly a household name). Ernestine Schumann-Heink produced the first known recording of Danny Boy, and it would go on to be sung by such greats as Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, and Mario Lanza. But it must again be stressed that such a happening could never have come to pass without the combined efforts of Margaret “Jess” Enright Weatherly and Jane Ross. They are the true and unsung heroes of Danny Boy’s infamy, along with the fiddler who first enraptured Miss Ross at Limavady.  

But who was this mysterious fiddler? Heated debate amongst music scholars of the county Londonderry region has turned up one name… that of one Jimmy McCurry. Originally from Myroe, Jimmy was a traveling musician who didn’t let blindness stop him from becoming a superb violinist. He regularly played at the weekly market in Limavady, and was confirmed to have been residing somewhere in the town in 1851. The Londonderry Air which was copied down by Jane Ross certainly shows significant similarities to other known pieces of McCurry’s. So, until more information presents itself to the musical folklorists of Ireland, we’ll just have to take their word for it!