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You asked for it and we listened! The Celtic Arts Foundation is pleased to present two wonderful song workshops taking place at the Littlefield Celtic Center on Saturday, November 18th.
Learning Irish by Singing in Irish
10:30am-11:30am
Many of us are comfortable singing Irish songs in English, but the huge repertoire of songs in the Irish-Gaelic language is usually left to those few who speak the language fluently. In this workshop we will explore the language—its pronunciation, its meaning, and its ways of revealing other ways of seeing the world—by learning to sing in it. Participants will leave with two songs, lyrics sheets and a pronunciation guide, and a list of resources for further pursuit of the language online and in person.
Seal Songs of Ireland and Scotland
1:30pm-2:30pm
Seals, and the ways in which they have interacted with humans, have long captured the imagination; they appear in folklore, art, poetry, and song. By learning to sing one song each in Irish-Gaelic and Scots-Gaelic, we will explore what it means to try to understand the over-water/under-water/between-water world through the sung perspective of the seals themselves.
The workshops are one hour in duration, and will run from 10:30am to 11:30am, and 1:30 until 2:30pm. Cost for the workshops are $20 each ($15 for CAF members).
Sean Williams is professor of ethnomusicology and Irish Studies at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. Sean’s musical interests focus strongly on Irish-language songs and fiddle tunes, but also musics from Indonesia, Brazil, and Japan. Her books include Bright Star of the West: Joe Heaney, Irish Song-Man, which she co-wrote with Lillis Ó Laoire, and the textbook Focus: Irish Traditional Music. Sean was very fortunate to have studied with the sean-nós or old-style Connemara singer Joe Heaney in the last several years of his life, and counts him as one of her most important musical influences. She has also learned sean-nós songs from Gearóidín Breathnach, Máirín Uí Chéide, Lillis Ó Laoire, Celia Ní Fhátharta, Bridget Fitzgerald, and many others.
