Musical Islands

ORCHESTRAL MANOE UVRES IN THE WEST

Many different strands of musical tradition can be found in the Hebrides. Carol Main pinpoints the inspiration four different islands provide

STAFFA

From its opening bars, Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture captures the grandeur of the island of Staffa’s famous Fingal’s Cave. The majestic basalt columns of its entrance, the waves rolling in from the Atlantic swells and the sense of nature’s wonders are all heard as fresh today as when the finished piece was premiered in Berlin in 1833 with the composer conducting. It was four years earlier that the 20-year-old Felix Mendelssohn had visited Staffa on his tour of Britain, next on his bucket list after visits to Italy, Switzerland and France. A day trip from Oban took him to Fingal’s Cave, where the first musical phrase of his overture was scribbled down on a postcard and sent off to the family back home. Mendelssohn was particularly close to his sister Fanny and, in a special note to her about his exciting new music, wrote: ‘In order to make you understand how extraordinarily the Hebrides affected me, I send you the following, which came into my head there.’ The full autographed manuscript of everything else which inspired Mendelssohn’s glorious music is now held in Oxford’s Bodleian Library. n mendelssohninscotland.com

JURA

2020 reset the dial on how vital it is to have nature’s open spaces somewhere in our sights. Yet it was over 20 years ago that musician Giles Perring realised that there had to be something different to life than darting across London at 2am delivering scores to TV producers. Knowing the value of taking his children out on the road to give them a change of scene from inner city life, a couple of chance holidays led to the family settling on Jura. Now Perring works on a variety of music projects from the old schoolhouse at Lowlandsman’s Bay, his World Organ gaining increasing attention. Don’t think organ pipes in the usual sense – although there are similarities in the physics – but a sound sculpture in Giles’ Sound of Jura studio garden. ‘It’s a different way of representing the landscape of Jura,’ he says. ‘It’s not Edwin Landseer and Scottish Romanticism. It’s more about what it sounds like, asking: What is this landscape, how do we connect with it and what is it doing to us?’ Bees, birds, wind, rain can all be heard through it. ‘It’s a response to this wild place,’ he says, ‘a place where you can’t hear any other humans.’ n soundofjura.com

ORCHESTRAL MANOE UVRES IN THE WEST

TIREE

‘Where the music meets the ocean’ is the evocative tagline of Tiree Music Festival. Long before the festival came into being, music and the sea were inextricably linked for its founder Daniel Gillespie. Growing up on the island, learning accordion while his younger brother, Martin, learned pipes, music was intrinsic to Tiree community life. ‘People gave their time freely to teach us’, says Daniel, ‘and that made us more committed to learning music.’ As teenagers, the island was how and why their award-winning, internationally acclaimed band, Skerryvore, came into being. Holidaying on Tiree, two other Scottish teenage musicians heard the Gillespie brothers playing in the local pub. Before long, they were performing together, the trademark fusion of styles introducing jazz and pop to Gaelic folk traditions. ‘Alec brings the feelgood buzz of Tiree summers into his lyrics, while all of us can’t help but be influenced by the sea.’ Martin’s haunting Gairm A’Chauin – Call of the Sea – is but one example. Skerryvore is Britain’s tallest lighthouse, built on a treacherous rock formation 11 miles southwest of Tiree. Derived from Gaelic for ‘big rock’ there’s an apt synergy that’s more than place alone. n skerryvore.com

RAASAY

There’s an excitement in visiting somewhere new on holiday, enticed by the unknown. One stage further, bass clarinettist Sarah Watts bought her Raasay home without having put a foot on the island. Twelve years on, it’s not only a place beloved by Watts, but the dozens of musicians who come from all over the world for educational courses focussed on bass clarinet and bassoon. Neither instrument is exactly mainstream; even Watts says ‘it’s all completely off the wall, to be frank.’ The market is mainly adults, with regular participants from the USA, Canada and Australia. Taking place in April and October, the courses give trade to local B&Bs at the start and close of the main tourist season, as well as business to Raasay House and free concert admission for island residents. ‘Usually on music courses everyone meets in the bar,’ says Watts. ‘Here on Raasay they meet taking photographs of the Cuillins. They’re here for the island experience as well as the music.’ Raasay’s influence is heard in special commissions, such as Dun Caan by Antony Clare, inspired by the main volcanic peak, and Ten Wee Drams, 2019’s series of new pieces premiered, appropriately, in the Isle of Raasay Distillery. n raasaymusiccourses.com