An Nollaig in Eirinn Photo by John D
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Popejoy favorite Danú returns to ring in the holiday season in true Irish fashion. This year, Schooltime will host their high-energy performance, featuring a glorious mix of ancient Irish music and new repertoire. Danú thrills music lovers around the world with virtuoso players on the tin whistle, fiddle, button accordion and bouzouki accompanied with unforgettable vocals. In An Nollaig in Éirinn, the group brings a fresh approach to the heartwarming traditions of an Irish Christmas, captivating audiences of all ages with their acoustic, Celtic and folk music. Christmas with Ireland’s leading traditional ensemble is fun, festive and full of surprises. “…a vibrant mix of virtuosity, energy, & empathy.” - The Washington Post An Nollaig in Eirinn photo by John D. Kelly STANdards addressed BY ATTENdiNG THIS performaNCE Monday, FINE ARTS/THEATER AND MUSIC Content Standard 3: Integrate understanding of visual and performing arts by seeking December 12, 2012 connections and parallels among arts disciplines as well as all other content areas. Content Standard 5: Observe, discuss, analyze, and make critical judgments about 10:15am only artistic works. Standard 6: Show increased awareness of diverse peoples and cultures through visual - and performing arts. Grades: 2 12 LANGUAGE ARTS Curriculum Connections: Language Arts, Strand I: READING AND LISTENING FOR COMPREHENSION Fine Arts/ Music, Social Studies Content Standard I: Students will apply strategies and skills to comprehend information that is read, heard and viewed. SOCIAL STUDIES In this issue of Dreamcatchers– Strand II: GEOGRAPHY Introduction & Synopsis ........................... 2 Content Standard II: Students understand how physical, natural, and cultural processes Irish Musical Instruments ........................ 2 influence where people live, the ways in which people live, and how societies interact with one another and their environments. Fun Facts ........................................................................ 2 Vocabulary .................................................................... 3 As part of our mission to integrate the arts into classroom academics, the The Goddess Danú ............................................. 3 Dreamcatchers Study Guides are designed to provide helpful information to be used by teachers and students before and after they attend our performances. Pre-performance Activities ..................... 4 The activities in these guides are suggested to stimulate multi-sensory Post-performance Activities .................. 6 explorations of themes and concepts, so that the theatrical events are used for Outreach Activities ............................................ 8 cross-cultural and language arts learning. Educators are encouraged to use Resources & Websites...................................... 8 our suggestions as springboards to lead students into meaningful, dynamic About the Company ......................................... 8 learning, thus extending the experience of the plays. Worksheet ...................................................................... 9 Etiquette ........................................................................... 10 Selected Dreamcatchers materials provided by various resources noted throughout the guide. Introduction (http://worldmusic.about.com/od/learningmusic/p/IrishMusic.htm and http://www.netplaces.com/irish-history/preserving-irish-traditional-culture/irish-music.htm) O Irish music sounds very much the same today as it would have two hundred years ago. It is a diverse genre of folk music with many regional variations. The majority of traditional Irish music is music for dancing, but there is also a substantial ballad tradition. O Irish music is a free-form style. The length, pace, and musical composition of a given piece will change from night to night and from group to group. Traditional musicians almost never play from written music; in the past, many of the best musicians couldn’t even read music. O The Irish love of poetic language mixed with their senses of humor and tragedy to produce the beautiful Irish ballad. The ability to compose and perform a beautiful ballad has been highly prized in Ireland for centuries. The ballad is generally sung by a single person, who may or may not be accompanied by instruments. Ballads range from a handful of lines to many hundreds of lines in length. They can tell stories of lost love, injustice and revenge, or what happened when the singer went to get a refreshment. O Traditional instruments used in Irish music include fiddle, bodhran, wooden flute, tin whistle, Uillean pipes, and the Irish harp. Also common are the accordion or concertina, guitar, banjo, and bouzouki (a large mandolin). These instruments have all become popular in Irish music within the last 100 years. O The time signatures and styles of tunes commonly found in Irish music include single jig (12/8 time), double jig (6/8 time), reel (4/4 time), hornpipe (swung 4/4 time), slip jig (9/8 time), and occasionally versions of polkas (2/4 time) and mazurkas or waltzes (3/4 time). All of these tune styles have corresponding traditional dances. O Sean nos (pronunciation: sean like shawn, nos rhymes with gross) literally means “old style” in the Irish language. Sean nos refers to a style of solo a cappella ballad singing. Though sean nos songs are not for dancing, they are an important part of traditional Irish music. Traditionally, sean nos songs are Gaelic, but some more modern ballads may be in English as well. O Irish music has always been an important part of both rural and urban life for the Irish people. However, after centuries of British rule, significantly renewed interest in Irish music and dance coincided with the burgeoning Nationalist movement of the late 1800s. A second major revival coincided with the American folk music revival of the 1960s, and has continued until present-day. O It is a common misconception that Irish music was hugely influential on American old-time and bluegrass music. These genres came from Appalachia, where a small number of Irish immigrants settled. (Most immigrants in Appalachia were Ulster Scots, Scottish and English). Irish music did, however, have a significant influence on the 1960s folk revival. That later influence went both ways: many American artists influenced Irish artists as well. O In the late 20th century, it was commonplace for young musicians to merge their traditional folk genres with rock and punk. Irish musicians were at the forefront of these folk-rock pioneers. Fun Facts - Irish Christmas Traditions (http://www.santas.net/irishchristmas.htm) The Gaelic greeting for ‘Merry Christmas’ is: ‘Nollaig Shona Duit’, which is pronounced ‘null-ig hun-a dit’. Christmas in Ireland lasts from Christmas Eve to the feast of the Epiphany on January 6, which is referred to as Little Christmas. The Irish observation of Christmas has many religious overtones. Lighted candles are placed in windows on Christmas Eve, as a guide that Joseph and Mary might be looking for shelter. The candles are usually red in color, and decorated with sprigs of holly. The placing of a ring of holly on doors originated in Ireland as holly was one of the main plants that flourished at Christmas time and which gave the poor ample means with which to decorate their dwellings. Irish women bake a seed cake for each person in the house. They also make three puddings, one for each day of the Epiphany such as Christmas, New Year’s Day and the Twelfth Night. After the Christmas evening meal, bread and milk are left out and the door unlatched as a symbol of hospitality. St Stephen’s Day, the day after Christmas, is almost as important, with football matches and gathering. For children, the Wren Boys Procession is their big event. Boys carry a fake wren on a stick from door to door and sing. They are accompanied by others playing violins, accordions, harmonicas and horns. The reason for the ceremony is to ask for money ‘for the starving wren’, that is, for their own pockets. Children often put out Christmas sacks instead of stockings. It is tradition to leave mince pies and a bottle of Guinness out as a snack for Santa. http://www.infobarrel.com/Hunting_the_Wren%3A__An_Irish_Christmas_Tradition 2. POPEJOY SCHOOLTIME SERIES PRESENTS Danú: Christmas in Ireland, An Nollaig in Eirinn POPEJOY SCHOOLTIME SERIES PRESENTS Danú: Christmas in Ireland, An Nollaig in Eirinn The Musical Instruments of Ireland Foremost among the traditional instruments of Ireland is the harp, the symbol of the Irish Republic. The harp is a truly ancient instrument, with a history spanning almost 5,000 years. It has been used in Ireland for well over 1,000 years. The modern Irish harp stands about 4 feet high, and has 34 strings, as opposed to 47 strings on the modern orchestral harp. The so-called Neo- Irish harp, strung with gut or nylon, is the most popular. Its tone is soft, like water dripping into a crystal bowl. Contrast this with the penetrating, fuzzily resonant, bell-like tones of the wire-strung harp. Thebagpipe features a bladder made of leather that is inflated through a pipe by the breath of the musician. The inflated bag is held under the arm and pressed with the elbow to force air through several reeded pipes that are attached to the bag. Bagpipes were used mostly in armies to provide marching music. In Ireland these military pipes were gradually supplanted by the Uilleann (pronounced “illyun”) pipes, which were invented sometime in the 16th century. They have become the national bagpipes