Celtic Song Workshop at Field

ケルティック・ソング・ワークショップ by レズリー・デニストン

2010年7月23日 金曜日 7:00p.m.～8:30p.m. by Leslie Denniston at Kyoto Field Irish PUB

2005年5月から続いているロングランシリーズの体験講座「アイルランド＆スコットランドの歌を歌おう！」ケルトの歌…その魅惑的世界。本年は奇数月第4金曜日に開催予定。

●これまで、アイルランドのダンス音楽や楽器に関しては各地で様々な講座が開かれてきましたが、歌の講座は関西一円でもほとんどありませんでした。そこで、今回初の試み！ＵＳＪや各種イベント、国際交流舞台等に出演し、演奏活動を続けているレズリー・デニストンが、アイルランドやスコットランドの歌を、その歌の歴史や背景の解説も交えながら紹介し、皆さんにも数曲体験していただきます。また、レズリーはバウロンとボーンズの奏者でもあります。ご興味のある方はどうぞ！ 受講料￥1,700（会場費、教材費込み） メモ用紙、筆記用具。参加ご希望の方は事前にメールでご連絡下さい。fieldまで直接。　

Gig at Field - Review

Leslie Denniston & Felicity Greenland at Irish Pub Field Kyoto 2008年4月24日木曜日、by うみさん
出演者／楽器
Felicity greenland／Vocal、Guitar、Bodhran
Leslie Denniston／Vocal、Bodhran
もはやすっかりおなじみとなった唄の翁レズリー＆歌姫フェリシティ両氏によるfield平日ライヴシリーズ！イングランド、スコットランド、そしてアイルランドの紀元前から続く(ウソ)伝統的な歌の数々を心ゆくまで堪能出来るこのイベント、さすがに平日とゆう事で相変わらずアイ研メンバーの視聴者は少ないわけだが(泣)、ワタシは以前から二人の大ファンなのだ！既に入神の域に達しているこのヴォーカルユニットの独特のハーモニーは、たとえどれほど超ヘコんでいようが一発で立ち直れる程の魔法のヒーリング効果を秘めているのよ。もちろん今回も、朗々と歌い上げる二人の歌声が穏やかにfieldを包み込んでゆく。その空間の静謐さ加減は、普段のおもちゃ箱をひっくり返したような雰囲気しか知らない人はきっとビックリする事であろう。曲の合間にはこちらもすっかりおなじみ、デニストン婦人の秀子さんによる解説が入り、ちょっとした勉強にもなってしまうという親切設計！アイリッシュ音楽を志向する人なら、ホント一度は聴いておくべきよなあ。ってゆうか、いっそアルバム作ったりしないすかね？スゲエ人気出ると思うのでスが。ちなみにこの日のPA担当は、今年から加入した新人スタッフのおーしま君。彼も大いに感銘を受けていたようだったのがとても印象的ですた。

Twa Corbies 二匹のからす

Audiofile (Recording: London 1995 with Rory Campbell)

スコットランドの大分古い歌
1. 一人で歩きながら　/ 二匹のからすのカーカーを聞て、
一匹はもう一匹に / 今日はどこへ食べに行こうかと言うた。
2. あちの土壁の向こうに / 殺されたばっかりのナイト爵がいって、
だれも知らず… / タカとイヌと奥さん以外。
3. タカは狩猟して行ったり / イヌは捕らえた野生鳥を持って帰ったり
彼女が新しい恋人と合ったり、/ ポンポン食べても良いよ。
4. あなたが彼の白い首の骨に座って / 私は彼のきれいな青い目をつつく。
金髪の毛で / はげた巣をふく。
5. 彼のためにうなり声でも / どこに行ったか知らず
白くてはげた骨に / いつまでも風が吹く。
Japanese translation by Felicity Greenland (draft)

Mouth Music/Twa Corbies 口音楽／からす二匹

Two songs with Rory Campbell in London (1995)
二つのスコットランドの歌 (ロンドン1995)
MP3s
MOUTH MUSIC　ー　口音楽
Learned from "Broken Hearted I'll Wander" by Dolores Keane and John Faulkner
TWA CORBIES　ー　からすの二匹
Learned from Les Denniston. Japanese translation 日本語

Green Grow the Rushes O

An old home recording from Camden, London
Recorded 2000? - thanks to Gervais Currie
MP3
Robert Burns' GREEN GROW THE RUSHES O　ロバートバーンズ

三つのイギリスの歌

Three songs with Les Denniston in Kyoto, Japan
Recorded 2007 - thanks to Sugaki-san and Anime-san at Field
THE GREY FUNNEL LINE　ネズミ色の煙突船線
( Cyril Tawney - copyright Gwyneth Music)
SOUTH AUSTRALIA　南オーストラリア
(Trad.)
THE FALSEHEARTED LOVER　不忠実な恋人
(Trad.)

Bibliography - Western Song in Japan

Information in English about Western songs in Japan
- on the web
Music education in Japan by Kensho Takeshi
Music in Japan Today by Takako Matsuura
The Beginnings of Western Music in Meiji Era Japan by Ury Eppstein
Japanese Children's Folk Songs before and after contact with the West by Elizabeth May
Tokyo Kodomo Club 東京こどもクラブ 1965-80
History of Japanese Music @ Far Side Music site
Irish Music and the Experience of Nostalgia by Sean Williams
Asia Pacific Database on Intangible Cultural Heritage
Common Repertoire - a related article on this blog
- in print
TACHI Mikiko, Representations of American Folk Music in Japan: A Study of Heibon Punch Magazine, 1964-1970:- International Popular Culture Association Conference, Aug. 2005, Swansea, Wales, U.K.
TACHI Mikiko, American Folk Music in Japan: Crossing Cultures and Reconstructing Authenticity, 1960-1970:- American Studies Association Annual Meeting, Nov. 2004, Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A.
- audio
Misora Hibari - 不死鳥パートＩＩ全曲集ＩＩLabel: Ho Son. Catalog#: J-013. Track 19 Bara-iro No Jinsei is a version of La Vie en Rose made popular by Edith Piaf, with alternate lyrics: Verse 1 of 2 is in Japanese, Verse 2 of 2 in English.
Misora Hibari sings L.O.V.E.

British Songs in Japanese Schools 1962

Today in a second hand book shop I found a set of 3 thin textbooks from 1962 for the Junior High School curriculum (years 1,2,3) published by the Monbusho (Ministry of Education). They contain quite a few songs listed as Irish and Scottish (and Spanish, German and Italian) folk songs. The text is all in Japanese, including the lyrics (not translations but Japanese alternatives), but I could make out the tune of The Minstrel Boy and read Hotaru no Hikari (Auld Lang Syne), so I have had the set put aside. I am very excited and plotting to go through them with my fiddle and a wodge of post-its as soon as I can go back to the shop with my Y5,000 tomorrow. It'll be reinventing the wheel - there must be a list out there already - but I'll enjoy it.
By the way, this little experience really made me think about literacy - my reading of both Japanese and music is pretty basic but if I hadn't been able to read them at all I would have missed the opportunity altogether. There are always ads for EFL teachers like me to work on literacy programmes in Africa. At 43 I felt acutely the benefit of simply being able to read.
Bibliography: Western Songs in Japan

セシル・シャープのアパラチア民謡集 +++

Dear Companion: Cecil Sharp's Appalachian collection et al on this....
上のリンクで色々な音楽と歌の情報。。。man's blog.

BBC Virtual Session バーチュアルセッシュン

BBC Radio 2 ラジオのおかげで上のタイトルをクリックしたら色々な曲を一緒にどうぞ！
Click on title

Les Denniston レズリー・デニストン

日本語
Leslie Denniston came to Kyoto from Glasgow in 1975 to study kendo. He is still here!
He was probably the first unaccompanied traditional-type singer I ever heard - around 1989 I learned loads of songs from him, here in Kyoto - Jock Stewart, Twa Corbies, and General Taylor among them. Along with Bob Barraza, Les started me off on the bodhran and I got my first and favorite one by sea-mail from Les's maker Eamon Maguire. In the end everyone wanted one and I ordered six - Eamon told my friend "stick with her - she's rich!" (He didn't and I never have been.) The number of people playing Irish music in Kyoto in those days
was pretty small.
Now me and Les do a lot of singing together including Scottish Nights where Hideko (Mrs Denniston) explains the songs and background in Japanese. Les also plays every Saturday night at Hill of Tara in Kyoto (Oike-Kiyamachi) with Taro Kishimoto.
Les is a great interpreter of Robert Burns' poetry - without the book!
More about Les in his own words here (his photos include Akazawa Atsushi, Jay Gregg and John Matthews) or watch this 1983 kendo video of Les on the BBC documentary Way of the Warrior (this link is Part 4; he is actually introduced at the very end of Part 3 - if you can watch that too Part 4 makes more sense)

Auld Lang Syne in Japanese 蛍の光

The melody of Auld Lang Syne is very well-known in Japan as it is used for the students' song Hotaru no Hikari (Fireflies' Glow). It has nothing to do with New Year, but it always signifies the end of something; its four verses are sung at graduation ceremonies, and the melody is played in many stores to signal closing time - if you hear it in a shop, you are about to be thrown out. The words are a series of images of hardships that the industrious student endures in his quest for knowledge, starting with the firefly’s glow, which the student uses to keep studying when he has no other light.
Light of fireflies, snow on the window,
Many suns and moons spent reading
Years have gone by without our noticing
Day has dawned; this morning we part...
Click on header for Japanese words, romaji, translation and score sheet.

Common musical repertoire: Britain-Japan

I am slowly building a list of trad songs/tunes that are known both in Britain and Japan.
Some Western folk songs are known actively in Japan, having Japanese lyrics (to the same melody) or being used for English study. Others are simply familiar through movies, TV ads, radio etc. American Folk Revival stuff is pretty well known - Peter Paul and Mary (called PPM), Credence Clearwater Revival (called CCR) and Pete Seeger type stuff.
According to the Nihon Kyoiku Ongaku Kyokai (1934) the first time Japanese formally learned Western music at all was when the British conductor of the Satsuma (Kagoshima) Army Band (a Mr Fenton), taught 30 young band members at Yokohama in 1869. From the Meiji Period Western influence became apparent in schools, not least due to the adoption of Western educational systems. The Ministry of Education certainly promoted some of the well known foreign folk melodies (with Japanese lyrics) via the national curriculum in the 50s and 60s - I am currently going through the text books. Also, a lot of western nursery rhyme tunes are known. Some of these tunes appear in toys, music boxes and ansafones (many manufactured in China!) and beginners' instrument tutors and in the Tokyo Kodomo (Kids) Club popular records. Anyway here are a very few widely known melodies gathered so far. You can add to this list by posting in 'comments'. (J) means it's also a song in Japanese.
Auld Lang Syne (J), Amazing Grace (J), The Water is Wide (TV commercial), Suil A Ruin (J), Greensleeves, Scarborough Fair, Danny Boy, Sally Gardens, Home on the Range, Little Bird (I have heard, what a merry song..), Twinkle twinkle little star (J), The Minstrel Boy, My Grandfathers Clock, I've Been Working on the Railroad, Brahms' Lullaby, Sur le pont d'Avignon, Mockingbird, Pop Goes The Weasel, Happy Birthday To You, When The Saints Go Marching In, Puff The Magic Dragon, Danny Boy, You Are My Sunshine, Greensleeves, Waltzing Matilda, Camptown Races, Sipping Cider Through A Straw, The Blue Bells Of Scotland, Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms, Annie Laurie, Early One Morning, The Muffin Man, The Man On The Flying Trapeze.See also the tracklists for records produced for kids by Tokyo Kodomo Club 1965-80.

Japan Times Article - multicultural influences on Japanese music/dance/song

Scottish Song Workshops スコットランド歌教室

スコットランドのレズリーさん(Leslie Denniston)はよく伝統的な歌の教室をします。Further Information

Pipefest Japan 2008

Pipefest Japan 2008 will be held in the Osaka area, 12-19 October 2008. The aim is to have 1,000 pipers/drummers marching together. This event aims to raise money for the UK charity RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) www.justgiving.com/pipefestjapan. The event is organised by Japan resident Maud Ramsay MBE, organiser of the Ramsay Pipe Band. Volunteers are needed. For dedicated website click title.
For info e-mail: ramsay atmark gol dot com
See also http://www.pipefest.com/japan.htm