Bagpipes and hurdy gurdy reign supreme at Early Music Festival

A harp that thinks it’s a guitar, bagpipes of every shape and form, hurdy-gurdies, viols, theorbos and flutes, Gaelic singing and a GPS/Smartphone early music tour of Galway – this weekend, expect the unexpected as the Galway Early Music Festival returns to the city.  

The festival explores Social Harmony: When Tradition and High Art Meet. It looks at what happens when tunes played at a peasant’s wedding find their way into the castle feast; when hurdy-gurdy and bagpipes become the fashion at court and when baroque harp discovers the rhythms of the New World. It also looks at the music of the Gaelic areas of Scotland and Ireland where tradition is high art.

François Lazarevitch brings an unusual concert to the Chapel of the Poor Clares when he celebrates 1000 years of bagpipes in France this Friday at 1 pm, and later in the evening he joins his ensemble Les Musiciens de St Julien for Le Berger poèt, a programme of 17th century court music that features the ‘peasant’ hurdy-gurdy and court instruments theorbo, violin and flute.

This Saturday evening, harpist Andrew Lawrence-King makes a welcome return to Galway with Steve Player (guitarist and dancer) and Ricardo Padilla (percussion). Tiny baroque guitar that makes a mighty rhythm, scintillating percussion, Andrew’s baroque Spanish, and Steve’s exuberant dancing will really get your feet tapping and send you out on a musical high.

Sunday brings it all back home as the trio Coracle takes audiences back to the Gaelic music of Ireland and Scotland. Barnaby Brown introduces the triple pipes, organ of the Celtic church, Siobhan Armstrong plays her early Irish harp strung with brass, silver and gold, and Griogair Labhruidh sings Fenian Lays from Scotland.

Also on Saturday there is the family event, The Musicians of Bremen in the Kings Head as well as dance, bagpipes and ancient Irish horns in the City Museum, while there will be a screening of Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World on Sunday– because of the early music in the soundtrack.

To top it all off, throughout the Festival, iPhone and android owners can take a musical walking tour of 16th century Galway, guided by Spanish merchant Captain Moreno. This is a GPS/Smartphone app commissioned by Galway Early Music and realised by Máiréad Ní Chróinín.

Detailed programme, prices and bookingare available at www.galwayearlymusic.com. Printed programmes are available all around town. Tickets are also on sale in Charlie Byrnes bookstore.