August session

The July edition of our Galician session / foliada is coming up next week, on Wed, 29.8., starting from 8:30pm, at the James Street Tavern as usual.

In the fourteenth session in the new sequence, we’ll again play lots of lovely tunes from our vast collection of Galician traditionals. The Oxford Pandeireteiras will play their tambourines and sing some of the songs they practise in their weekly classes. Sheet music will be provided for anybody who brings an instrument and wants to join in (I also have a PDF file with 19 of our favourite tunes which I can email on request). Feel free to dance if you find space to move. A bag of miscellaneous percussion instruments (plus cunchas!) is also on hand if you would like to rattle along with the rhythms.

Note that the Tavern has a 11:30 curfew for music activities, so the  session will close before that time with the traditional anthem of “Fisterra”. If you don’t have to leave earlier, it would be nice if you could stay for that. The curfew also means that if we start late, we’ll just have less time to play music.

For further info about the sessions and sharing audio and video recordings of the tunes we play, subscribe to this blog or join the Facebook group. There is also a mailing list for email reminders sent a week before the sessions.

 

Other events coming up:

From this Saturday: In news from other minoritised Romance languages, there is a rare chance to watch a Catalan movie at the Ultimate Picture Palace from 25.8.

Thu 20.9. Galician Session Cardiff, TBC.

Wed 26.9. Galician Session Oxford

Wed 31.10. Galician Session Oxford

Wed 28.11. Galician Session Oxford

NB our December date falls on Boxing Day this year, so we may have to move the date for once – any preferences let me know.

 

… and looking ahead a bit:

August 2 to 11, 2019, Galicia will be the featured Celtic nation at the Festival Interceltique de Lorient.

 

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animal expressions

things are a bit quieter here in the summer months, but the Galician sessions are continuing on the last Wednesday of each month, so save the date of August 29 – official announcement to follow in a week or so.

Meanwhile, here are some goodies that have channeled through the facebook group in one form or another, liberated for the benefit of the lucky few who don’t have facebook:

An article about animal expressions in Galician – apparently a scientific study found 1300 of them, and there are of course lots of animal references in the songs we sing as well.

From the Festival Interceltique de Lorient the official confirmation that at next year’s event, taking place from August 2 to 11, 2019, Galicia will be the featured Celtic nation.  So we should really get our act together and send a delegation …

Plus, advance warning that I have added four pairs of cunchas to the big bag of percussions that I bring to the sessions. Which look like this:

more info about their use as percussions is here.

PS: In news from other minoritised Romance languages, there is a rare chance to watch a Catalan movie at the Ultimate Picture Palace from 25.8.

 

 

July session

The July edition of our Galician session / foliada is coming up next week, on Wed, 25.7., starting from 8:30pm, at the James Street Tavern as usual.

In the lucky thirteenth session in the new sequence, we’ll again play lots of lovely tunes from our vast collection of Galician traditionals. The Oxford Pandeireteiras will play their tambourines and sing some of the songs they practise in their weekly classes. Sheet music will be provided for anybody who brings an instrument and wants to join in. Feel free to dance if you find space to move. A bag of miscellaneous percussion instruments is also on hand if you would like to rattle along with the rhythms.

Note that the Tavern has a 11:30 curfew for music activities, so the  session will close before that time with the traditional anthem of “Fisterra”. If you don’t have to leave earlier, it would be nice if you could stay for that.

For further info about the sessions and sharing audio and video recordings of the tunes we play, subscribe to this blog or join the Facebook group. There is also a mailing list for email reminders sent a week before the sessions.

Other events coming up:

Thursday 19.7. 20:30

57th Caerdydd Galician Session

The Albany, Cardiff

Thursday 26.7., 19:00 Eurobal/fest-noz!  The Isis Farmhouse, Oxford (OX4 4EL – directions here: http://www.theisisfarmhouse.co.uk/location you can only get there by bike, foot or boat. Wod (Jim & Jane) will be playing for Breton dance; the glorious Tradtoechter (Vivien Zeller & Ursula Suchanek, from Berlin)
will be playing for German, French and Swedish dance. Expect hanter dros, mazurkas, schottisches, waltzes and more! And don’t worry if these dances are new to you; Jo Hamilton and Vivien will be there
to explain what’s what!

 

June session

The June edition of our Galician session / foliada is coming up next week, on Wed, 27.6., starting from 8:30pm, at the James Street Tavern as usual.

In the tweltth session in the new sequence, we’ll again play lots of lovely tunes from our vast collection of Galician traditionals. The Oxford Pandeireteiras will play their tambourines and sing some of the songs they practise in their weekly classes. Sheet music will be provided for anybody who brings an instrument and wants to join in. Feel free to dance if you find space to move. A bag of miscellaneous percussion instruments is also on hand if you would like to rattle along with the rhythms.

Note that the Tavern has a 11:30 curfew for music activities, so the  session will close before that time with the traditional anthem of “Fisterra”. If you don’t have to leave earlier, it would be nice if you could stay for that.

For further info about the sessions and sharing audio and video recordings of the tunes we play, subscribe to this blog or join the Facebook group. There is also a mailing list for email reminders sent a week before the sessions.

Other events coming up:

Thursday 21.6. (today) concert with singer Najla Shami, 7:30pm at Queens College, High Street, Oxford.

Saturday 23.6. Noite de San Xoan – from 6pm at Port Meadow. Facebook event.

Fri 6.7. Concert at the Brixton Jamm, London, with gaiteiro Anxo Lorenzo. Tickets here.

Wed 25.7. 20:30h  Galician session Oxford at the James Street Tavern

Najla Shami

Palestinian-Galician singer Najla Shami is going to give a concert at Queens College Oxford on Thursday 21.6., tickets available from Eventbrite, and here’s here latest video, a song based on a poem from Rosalia de Castro:

 

O son de Galicia

There is a lovely project that just launched on Facebook, presenting the variety of people who contribute to the amazing global phenomenon that is Galician folk.

In a standardised format, everybody gets to share two photos and a statement saying what they do (living it, i.e. the sound of Galicia, is an option if what you do is too complicated to fit in the frame). Full participation details here.  The resulting displays are shared via the facebook page which is publicly visible – just click away the pop-up message that asks you to log in and then you can look at all the lovely people. There are names and links to recordings as well.

I’ve nicked a few, just for illustration purposes. I’ll leave out the names, so you can play a guessing game. One of them was interviewed in last Sunday’s Un Pais Mundial, one I’ve seen live on stage in London, one we’re hoping to see in Oxford later this year, and the other two I don’t know.

 

Oh, and I should mention that the genius behind the project is Benoit Kensier, a gaiteiro based in Brussels: https://cornemusegaliciennebe.blogspot.com/2016/11/benoit-kensier_67.html

Mira-me Miguel

Looking into versions of Mira-me Miguel, one of the songs in our repertoire, I discovered this one which features simultaneous playing of two recorders, much as in the banner picture at the top of this blog. I should try this some time …   But everything else about this video is lovely too, from the viola da gamba to the Portuguese singing (we sing a Galician version but this is actually a Portuguese song, from Miranda do Douro).

 

 

6th anniversary session

The May edition of our Galician session / foliada is coming up next week, on Wed, 30.5., starting from 8:30pm, at the James Street Tavern as usual. It will be a little bit special, however, as it was in the same place, on the same date, six year ago, that the very first Galician session in Oxford took place. (Unfortunately, I missed the first half of the six-year history, but there are veterans around who can share their memories!)

So I’m hoping that the opportunity to celebrate an anniversary might bring back some of the veterans who may not have found the time to attend in recent months and years. 

Other than that, the established procedure applies: we’ll again play lots of lovely tunes from our vast collection of Galician traditionals. Sheet music will be provided for anybody who brings an instrument and wants to join in. The Oxford Pandeireteiras will play their tambourines and sing some of the songs they practise in their weekly classes. Feel free to dance if you find space to move. A bag of miscellaneous percussion instruments is also on hand if you would like to rattle along with the rhythms.

Note that the Tavern has a 11:30 curfew for music activities, so the  session will close before that time with the traditional anthem of “Fisterra”. If you don’t have to leave earlier, it would be nice if you could stay for that.

For further info about the sessions and sharing audio and video recordings of the tunes we play, subscribe to this blog or join the Facebook group. There is also a mailing list for email reminders sent a week before the sessions.

Other events coming up:

Thu 21.6. The 56th Caerdydd Galician Session (Cardiff)

Sat 23.6. Noite de San Xoan – details TBC

Wed 27.6. 20:30h  Galician session Oxford at the James Street Tavern

Fri 6.7. Concert at the Brixton Jamm, London, with gaitero Anxo Lorenzo. Tickets here.

Wed 25.7. 20:30h  Galician session Oxford at the James Street Tavern

Javier Otero Neira

Just discovered that the classical pianist Javier Otero Neira (from A Estrada, Pontevedra, if you must know) has recorded a whole album with adaptations of 14 Galician folk tunes, including five or so that we also play.

Here’s his take on our favourite muiñeira:

 

And here you can buy the whole set as MP3 album and/or listen to 30-second samples of each track: amazon.es

Oh, and his biography is available in Galician – bonus points for that (but if you must read it in a less beautiful language, there are little flags to switch).

 

 

 

 

O carro

While obsessing about the Día das letras galegas, I found this video with an adaptation of O Carro, a poem by the 2016 featured author, Manuel Maria. As it happens, the song is also part of the repertoire of our Galician session, although it may have been a while since we last played it.