It’s time for another entry in our Homegrown Plus series, in which we include a concert video, an interview video, and a set of links to explore. This one features the Celtic duo Rakish, made up of violinist Maura Shawn Scanlin and guitarist Conor Hearn. They take their name from the traditional Irish tune Rakish Paddy, an origin that aptly suits the duo and their shared background in traditional Irish and Scottish music. Maura and Conor draw on the music they grew up with and perform it in a way that reflects their shared interest in and love for chamber and improvised music. Maura Shawn, a two-time U.S. National Scottish Fiddle Champion, and a winner of the Glenfiddich Fiddle Competition, has the technical range of a classical violinist and the sensitivity of a traditional musician. Conor, a native to the Irish music communities of Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, MD, makes his home in Boston playing guitar for several traditional music acts and bands.
Using musical form and harmonic language as focal points, Rakish demonstrate the influence and overlap between dance music and airs from Britain and Ireland and art music or classical music from surrounding countries. The concert included musical dance forms and tune types including Jigs, Reels, Hornpipes, and Airs, arranged from written collections to be performed on the fiddle and guitar. Watch the concert in the player below!
In the interview, we talked about Maura and Conor’s lives and careers, and also how Rakish prepared for this concert. Using musical transcriptions from The American Folklife Center and the Library’s Music Division, Rakish put together a program to trace the connections between traditional music from Britain and Ireland in the period from 1650 to 1750 and the late baroque and early galant music from surrounding countries such as France, Germany, and Italy. We talked about the galant style (1720-1770), seen as a return to a simpler, more melody-driven musical aesthetic after the complexity of the baroque period. As they explained, Galant music parallels the inherent simplicity of traditional tunes that were composed and played in Ireland, Scotland, and England in the late 17th and early 18th centuries.
See the interview in the player below!
Collection Connections
If you enjoyed the concert and interview, check out the Collection Connections below. You’ll find links to archival collections, guides, and other materials related to Irish and Scottish folklife.
Blogs Featuring Celtic Music and Related Topics
Over the years, Folklife Today has featured concert videos, collection items, and analysis of Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Cornish, Galician, and related music. Find these blog posts featuring Celtic Music at this link.
Extensive Field Collections Online
AFC’s Alan Lomax collection contains music collected from many traditional performers in Ireland in 1951 and 1953 by Alan Lomax, Robin Roberts, and Seamus Ennis. The first anthology of Irish traditional music to be assembled on an LP record was drawn largely from these field recordings. Included were a range of Irish-language song and story, including keens, baby-bouncing songs, and fiddle tunes. The collection includes performances by playwright and poet Brendan Behan, the peerless banjo player and singer Margaret Barry, and Seamus Ennis himself, among many others. Lomax continued to record Irish music in Britain, America, and elsewhere throughout his career. Over at the association for Cultural Equity, you can explore the collection in a number of ways:
- This link will return a list of all materials in the Lomax Digital Archive labeled as Irish culture.
- This link will return a list of all materials in the Lomax Digital Archive labeled as Scottish culture.
- This link will return a list of all materials in the Lomax Digital Archive labeled as Welsh culture.
- This link will return a list of all materials in the Lomax Digital Archive labeled as English culture.
Other Field Collections
A number of online field collections from the American Folklife Center have substantial Irish American content. Look for these in particular:
- Alan Lomax Collection of Michigan and Wisconsin Recordings (Contains Irish songs and tunes recorded in 1938)
- Chicago Ethnic Arts Project Collection (Includes Irish music from such notable figures as Liz Carroll and Michael Flatley; recorded in 1977 by Mick Moloney.)
- Lowell Folklife Project Collection (Includes interviews with Irish community leaders in 1987.)
- Montana Folklife Survey Collection (Includes music, songs, and interviews of the Irish ethnic community in 1979.)
- Rhode Island Folklife Project Collection (Includes recordings of interviews and music with Irish Americans in 1979, including notable piper Patrick Sky.)
Event Videos
Rediscover Northern Ireland 2007-2008
In 2007 and 2008, the American Folklife Center teamed up with organizations in Northern Ireland to produce the Rediscover Northern Ireland series. Programs included:
- a talk with pianist Barry Douglas of Camerata Ireland
- a concert with traditional singer Rosie Stewart
- a concert with the Francis McPeake Family and past pupils from their renowned school in Belfast
- a concert with singer and guitarist Dáithí Sproule and Highland bagpiper Robert Watt
- a concert and lecture with flute player Gary Hastings and singer Brian Mullen
- a concert with Tommy Sands and his children Moya and Fionán Sands
- a lecture and concert with traditional singer Len Graham
- a lecture by Maurice Leyden on Weaving and Singing in Northern Ireland
Find the landing page for all these online Rediscover Northern Ireland 2007-2008 videos at this link.
The Rediscover Northern Ireland series also included a lecture by John Moulden on the history and influence of the Sam Henry song collection. The video was damaged, but the audio of John Moulden’s lecture can be heard at this link.
Robert Burns Symposium
To mark the 250th anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns, Scotland’s national poet, the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, in collaboration with the Scottish Government, presented a free public symposium on Burns’s life and work, as well as his impact on America and American culture. Leading scholars, poets, and musicians from Scotland and the United States joined experts from the Library of Congress in the two-day event.
James Hogg Symposium
On February 21, 2020, the American Folklife Center joined the University of Stirling to present a one-day public symposium celebrating the 250th anniversary of the contributions the influential Scottish song-maker, folklore collector, novelist, and poet James Hogg (1770-1835). Often called “The Ettrick Shepherd,” Hogg (1770-1835) was a colorful, often flamboyant, and influential presence on both sides of the Atlantic. Inspired by Robert Burns, a colleague of Walter Scott, and friend of Lord Byron, Hogg played a major role in creating and promoting Scottish culture, both within Scotland and internationally. Find the James Hogg Symposium description and video here.
Other Event Videos
AFC has presented scores of events over the years relevant to the music performed by Rakish, including lectures, interviews, and concerts with Mick Moloney, Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas, Billy McComiskey, Kevin Doyle, Iona Fyfe, The Murphy Beds, Gearóid Ó hAllmhuráin, John Killen, and many others. Find a list of our online videos with Irish content at this link. Find a similar and overlapping list of online videos with Scottish content at this link.
Thanks!
As always, thanks for watching, listening, and reading! The American Folklife Center’s Homegrown Concert Series brings music, dance, and spoken arts from across the country, and some from further afield, to the Library of Congress. The idea of the Homegrown Plus series is to gather concert videos, video interviews with the musicians, and connections to Library of Congress collections together in one place for our subscribers. (Find the whole Homegrown Plus series here!) For information on current concerts, visit the Folklife Concerts page at Concerts from the Library of Congress. For past concerts videos, visit the Homegrown Concerts and Interviews Online Archive.