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   Button Boxes and Moothies

A Free Reed Convention in Aberdeen - 26-28 October 2007

• Click here to view a Gallery of the event

• Click here to download the PDF flyer
• Click here to download the Word booking form
• Click here to download the Word Programme Workshops

Great Concerts, Workshops, ‘Meet the Artist’, Seminars, and Sessions!

A unique celebration of small ‘free-reed’ instruments, including mouth organs, concertinas, melodeons, diatonic button accordions, and Jews harps, the convention will be just the place to enjoy the appealing music of these delightful instruments from some of the very best talents around, both local to Scotland and from further afield. It will be a great opportunity to find out more about the instruments and their music. You can visit a beginners’ session, join an elementary workshop, or if suitably experienced learn about style and repertoire at a players’ workshop. There are also several opportunities for informal sessions in local music-friendly pubs.

The Guests

George Current is a highly respected moothie player from Edinburgh, who plays regularly in the sessions at Sandy Bell’s Bar and leads an informal moothie group. He specialises in Scottish country dance and pipe tunes (he is also a piper), and has wide experience of leading workshops.

Jackie Daly (button accordion) comes from North Cork and plays in the style of Sliabh Luachra, the area bordering Kerry and North Cork, famous for its slides and polkas. Formerly a member of the Irish group De Dannan, he currently plays in Patrick Street.

Fred Davidson of Banchory is a well-known melodeon player in the North East. He has played at all the local festivals and won many competitions. He is also a favourite compère at local ceilidhs.

Gordon Easton, the octogenarian one-man folk festival from Wellhead of Tyree near Fraserburgh, includes moothie playing, Jews harp and diddling in his repertoire of skills. He is our special guest at the Saturday lunchtime concert in the Blue Lamp.

Stuart Eydmann plays English concertina and fiddle and has been a member of the Whistlebinkies since 1979. He received a Glenfiddich Living Scotland Award for research into the free reed instruments in Scotland (the subject of his PhD which can be read at www.concertina.com) and has published widely on the subject. He has taught with the Open University and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.

Vic Gammon is Senior Lecturer in Folk and Traditional Music at Newcastle University where he is programme director of the B Mus in Folk and Traditional Music. His new book, Desire, Drink and Death in English Folk and Vernacular Songs will be published by Ashgate in 2008. He performs regularly, both solo and with ‘Dearman, Gammon & Harrison’. His main instrument is Anglo concertina.

Robert Harbron is a leading light in the ongoing renaissance of English music, considered to be the finest concertina player of his generation. A member of the English Acoustic Collective and a duo with fiddler Emma Reid, he is acknowledged as a teacher and workshop leader.

Katie Howson is an expert on East Anglian Music, particularly stepdance tunes. She is a founder member of The Old Hat Concert Party, a group of singers, musicians, and stepdancers, and has led ceilidh bands for many years, notably Katie's Quartet. She has taught courses on the melodeon and is a director of the East Anglian Traditional Music Trust.

Régis Lechatellier is a Breton accordion player now living in Aberdeen. He is a beautiful stylist, and performs compelling tunes which will add extra spice to the programme.

Spider MacKenzie is ‘the star of the bloos moothie’. Playing since age 13, he is a versatile musician with roots in blues, but also plays country, rock, jazz and folk harmonica. He will be accompanied by Steve Crawford.

Mary MacNamara Mary's vision is that east Clare music will become as beautiful and popular as it was in the days of the house dances and that it will co-exist with all that is best in modern life. In her teaching, Mary encourages the enjoyment of music more than success in competition.  Her students can be recognised by their uncluttered style of playing, where sweetness of melody is foremost. Mary has performed extensively from England to continental Europe, Japan, and the USA. One of her former students, Kate MacNamara, will be with her for the festival.

Doddie Murray of Stuartfield has been playing mouth organ since he was a boy in the 1930s. He regularly plays on his own and with other instrumentalists, and is a great favourite at ceilidhs and festivals in the North-East.

Simon Thoumire from Edinburgh is a concertina virtuoso, composer, and educator. In 1989 he won the BBC Young Tradition Award and has featured on several CDs. He has also pursued interests in the industry side of traditional music forming Foot Stompin' Records in 1997, Scottish Traditional Music Trust (2000), and Hands Up for Trad (2003).

Pip Murphy is one of the legendary Murphy brothers from Co. Wexford who learnt to play the mouth organ from his father. He is widely acknowledged as one of the foremost players of the instrument in Ireland.

Tom Roche, originally from Mitchelstown, Co. Cork, but currently resident in Glasgow, plays C#/Dbutton accordion. He teaches and plays Irish traditional music in Glasgow and is a member ofthe Irish-reggae fusion group Paddyrasta. Tom also plays Balkan-Gypsy music with the Jani Lang Band.

Frances Wilkins took up English concertina whilst living in Shetland, and this tradition lies at the heart of her repertoire and unique style. She is a founder member of the group Solan, performs locally with ceilidh bands Danse McCabre and Cabrach, and with the Pictones.

Michael Wright has been at the forefront of researching, playing and promoting the Jew’s harp in the UK for the past ten years. Musically his interest is in the traditional, melodic use of the instrument and influences include Angus Lawrie of Oban. His research is focused on the history of the Jew’s harp in the UK and Ireland.

Directed by Ian Russell with generous help from Pete Murray, Vikki Petrie, Tom Roche, Malcolm Reavell, Norma Russell, Alison Sharman, Alex West, and Frances Wilkins

Stalls and Exhibitions

Celtic Chords, a specialist Celtic and traditional music shop from Stonehaven and sponsor of ‘Button Boxes and Moothies’, will be providing a stall at the Convention with new free-reed instruments (including low-price mouth organs), and CDs. If you are seeking specific help with an instrument purchase, Pete Murray of Celtic Chords will be pleased to provide you with friendly and impartial advice. The stall will be in Marischal College.
http://www.celtic-chords.co.uk/cms/index.php

Theo Gibb, established The Box Place in 2003 in Gateshead and has a growing reputation as a tuner and repairer of free reed instruments of all kinds.  He has a particular fondness for concertinas and for Hohner button boxes from the 1930s.  He will have a stall at the Convention in Marischal College, where he will be doing on-the-spot repairs and tuning and will have spare parts and a few second-hand instruments for sale.
http://www.theboxplace.co.uk/

Booking

To book by post

Please use the downloadable form (Word) and send it with payment to:

The Elphinstone Institute
University of Aberdeen,
MacRobert Building
King’s College
Aberdeen
AB24 5UA

Cheques should be made payable to ‘The University of Aberdeen’.

To book by telephone: call the Secretary of the Institute on 01224 272996 with your credit/debit card details.
E-mail: elphinstone@abdn.ac.uk

Programme

Friday 26 October

• 2.00-5.00 Registration & Seminar at MacRobert Bdg Rm 040, King’s College
• 7.30-10.30 ‘Sook n Blaw’, Concert at the Cowdray Hall, Aberdeen (most guests)
• Informal music at the Blue Lamp, Gallowgate, till late

Saturday 27 October – all workshops are at Marischal College

• 9.30-10.45 Session 1: Workshops
• 11.15-12.30 Session 2: Workshops / Meet the Artist
• 12.30-2.30 Free lunchtime concert at the Blue Lamp (George Current, Bob Hay, Doddie Murray, and Gordon Easton; Régis Lechatellier; Fred Davidson; Frances Wilkins)
• 3.00-4.15 Session 3: Workshops / Meet the Artist ‘Wheezin an’ Squeezin’ Concert at the Blue Lamp (Jackie Daly, Mary MacNamara, Katie Howson, Robert Harbron, Simon Thoumire, John MacDonald, and others)
• 11.30-2.00 Late Night Soirée, the Blue Lamp (Spider MacKenzie; Pip Murphy; Tom Roche; Kate MacNamara; and surprise guests)

Sunday 28 October

• 11.00-12.15 Session 4: Workshops
• 12.30-5.00pm Informal session with solo spots at the Globe, North Silver Street

Seminar Programme - Friday 26 October

• Download this information as a Word document

Stuart Eydmann - ‘RareTunes: A New Online Archive of Free Reed Music from Scotland’: Stuart introduces to the public, for the first time, a new online archive of traditional and popular music from Scotland that contains many early and rare recording of the free reed instruments.

Michael Wright - ‘A History of the Jew’s Harp in Scotland’: The earliest named players of the Jew’s harp or trump can be identified from trials that took place in Lothian in 1591 and Inveraray in 1677. There is a mystery surrounding the Jew’s harp players of St Kilda that goes back to 1697. The earliest village of makers found so far in the UK was near Stevenston, North Ayrshire and dates from 16th century. One of the finest players ever recorded in the 1950s was a champion piper from Oban. This talk pieces together the various fragments of archaeology, history, and recordings that looks at stories of witchcraft, abandoned villages, oral tradition, and musical excellence that is being pieced together for the first time. Taken from ongoing research, Michael will bring together the various elements of fact and supposition, recordings and live performance that will provide the basis of a story too long hidden.

Vic Gammon - ‘Exploring Style: Anglo-Concertina Playing in England': In this presentation I will consider ways of approaching questions of musical style through analysis of recorded example of two Anglo-concertina players, William Kimber of Headington in Oxfordshire and Scan Tester of Horsted Keynes in Sussex. Both these musicians have been the subject of important and enlightening studies in the past: in the case of Tester, Reg Hall’s pioneering 'I Never Played to Many Posh Dances'  and Dan M Worrall’s The Anglo Concertina Music of William Kimber. I will ask the questions about what more can be learned about their playing from the application of research techniques to sonograms of their playing and I will argue that an understanding of the musical meaning of style can only develop further from comparative analysis.

Supported by

• Aberdeen City Council
• The Blue Lamp
• Friends of the Elphinstone Institute
• The Globe Inn
• Scottish Arts Council
• SCaT
• The Wood Group
• TMSA (Aberdeen Branch)

Page last updated: Tuesday, 11-Dec-2007 16:59:27 GMT

The Elphinstone Institute
University of Aberdeen · MacRobert Building · King's College · Aberdeen · AB24 5UA
Tel: 01224 272996 · Fax: 01224 272728 · Email: elphinstone@abdn.ac.uk
© 2005 Elphinstone Institute.

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