The Medieval Manuscript the 'Chronicles of Mann and Sudreys' mentions various locations, including the Isle of Man, Wales, Scotland, Ireland and even places as far away as Norway and Brittany.
Russell Gilmour (trumpet) and David Kilgallon (organ) use melodies from these countries and they merge and fuse these ideas together with their own to create unique compositions for trumpet and organ. The idea behind their musical collaboration is to explore traditional music from these countries and to adapt the music, interpret it and explore it. Chronicles' musical format is slightly unusual in that it combines trumpet and organ - not the instruments you may initially associate with folk music - but it is an approach that has sparked a lot of interest.
Their limited edition EP "Prologue" is a sample of things to come, as the production of a full album is underway. The full album will be Chronicles' musical impression of the Isle of Man's influences and rich history - as documented in the Chronicles of Mann.
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writing on music, photography, travel and life as a freelance professional musician.
Solomon's Knot - Purcell Pageant - Cambridge
%PM, %Europe/London %b %2019, %RSolomon’s Knot’s Purcell Pageant programme - which we first aired in the Ryedale Festival just one week ago - was in fact devised to celebrate the golden wedding anniversary of two of Solomon’s Knot’s loyalest supporters. The couple invited Solomon’s Knot to the Cambridge Buddhist Centre on Friday 2nd August 2019 to perform a musical pageant in celebration of their wedding anniversary in front of an audience of their friends and family.
The Cambridge Buddhist Centre was once the Cambridge Festival Theatre, and the interior of the theatre is preserved as a Grade II listed building. Historic England describes the interior as "a virtually complete example of a Georgian theatre with a three-tiered horseshoe auditorium with the galleries supported on cast iron columns."
Natural Trumpet, Purcell, Solomon's Knot, The SectionThe Cambridge Buddhist Centre was once the Cambridge Festival Theatre, and the interior of the theatre is preserved as a Grade II listed building. Historic England describes the interior as "a virtually complete example of a Georgian theatre with a three-tiered horseshoe auditorium with the galleries supported on cast iron columns."
This dramatised performance was a fantastic celebration of love and the couple were showered with confetti at the culmination of this pageant.
After the performance, I travelled to Suffolk to stay overnight in readiness to perform at a friend's wedding in Beccles on Saturday before staying at Heathrow Airport on Saturday night in readiness to travel to Ansbach to record Bach's Second Brandenburg Concerto [BWV 1047].
“Love, in all its various forms, sits smiling at the centre of this performance - a performance intended to evoke the majestic theatrical pageants and court masques of the time of Charles II, mounted (in this instance) in celebration of lasting marital affection…” - Tama Matheson (director)
After the performance, I travelled to Suffolk to stay overnight in readiness to perform at a friend's wedding in Beccles on Saturday before staying at Heathrow Airport on Saturday night in readiness to travel to Ansbach to record Bach's Second Brandenburg Concerto [BWV 1047].