Program Notes Sail Away Ladies
It is one of the quintessential American fiddle tunes. Like many, it clearly has its origins in Irish or Scottish folk music and was probably brought across by immigrants in the early 19th century. It is most associated with the Appalachian mountains and Betsy the string band traditions.
Suo Gan
Wales is fondly known as “The Land of Song” and just like Ireland has St. Patrick, so Wales has St. David, whose patron saint day is celebrated on March 1st every year. In school, this day is celebrated with an Eisteddfod (Eye-steth-vod) - a festival and competition of cultural arts, music, dancing, poetry and prose. It would be near impossible to have an Eisteddfod without hearing Suo Gân, (See-oh Can), the beautiful Welsh Lullaby, in some musical form whether it be a solo, a duet, a choral or ensemble piece or in any orchestral or instrumental version. The song is over 200 years old and just like it transcends the yearning of a mother’s love for her baby, hearing Suo Gân, will bring back “Hireath”, (heareyeth), to any Welsh person who hears it. Hireath has no real translation but simply means a nostalgia or longing for the Welsh homeland. Sheila
El Coqui is about the tree frog, called a coqui, that lives on the island of Puerto Rico. The coqui frog comes out at night and sings a song that sounds like, “coqui, coqui.” The lyrics mean, “El Coqui sings
a sweet song at sunset. He is singing as sleep comes to me. When I wake all alone in the moonlight, El Coqui sings goodnight Betsy from the tree.”
Farewell to Tarwathie is a traditional
early 1850s Scottish folksong written by George Scroggie, a miller from Federate, near Aberdeen, Scotland. The. Tarwathie is also in Aberdeenshire, northwest of the whaling port of Peterhead. Whaling in the 1800s was a challenging trade which required a tough breed of fishermen. Yet a song like Farewell to Tarwathie reminds us that even the toughest of people might be touched by gentleness especially when separated from loved ones. Betsy
Shosholoza is a Nguni call-and-response
song originally sung by mine workers to express the challenges of working in the mines in South Africa. The word shosholoza means go forward. It is used as a term of encouragement and hope for the workers as a sign of solidarity. The sound “sho sho” is an imitation of the sound made by the steam train. “Stimela” is a Nguni word for steam train. In contemporary times, it is sung to show support for any struggle. The meaning of the words are “Go forward from those mountains on this train from Betsy South Africa.”
J’entends Le Moulin is a French Ca-
nadian folksong from Quebec. In Canada, English and French are both official languages. Quebec is primarily French speaking. Windmills have been used for centuries