Triumph of Music

Derry Journal

9 months ago

Triumph of Music.

Transcript

00:00Hi, I'm Niamh Canning and I am one of the creative producers here at the

00:05Playhouse working on the Triumph of Music procession. Can you tell me about the Triumph of Music?

00:09I don't know too much about it myself. So Derry are very lucky and have been

00:13selected as somewhere to represent the North on a national level. It's very

00:19exciting. It's to celebrate the 200 years birthday of the National Gallery in

00:24London. So basically we're doing a procession across the town celebrating

00:29music, celebrating all things Derry and the vibrant city that we live in.

00:35As a creative lead, can you tell me about the procession itself?

00:38So the procession is a beautiful mash-up of all things community and music. We've done a lot of

00:44kind of research into ancient times and how music brings communities together and

00:49what that looks like throughout time. So yeah we're working with the RMI Rhymers

00:53and Keltronic and our eight artists in-house as well. It's very very exciting

00:58and yeah we're exploring 90s rave and where that meets trad. So I suppose that's

01:04open to interpretation but it's been very exciting kind of melting those worlds

01:08together.

01:08Can you tell us what's like collaborating all these genres of music and all these

01:12different artists together and want like a procession?

01:15It's interesting. It definitely is. But the beauty of it is I think that's what Jeremy Deller,

01:21the main curator and visual artists that we're working with. He's incredible and I think that's

01:27an insight into what he's been trying to work with that you know whilst all these have different

01:32traditions and different norms culturally I suppose the music all melts together in more

01:37ways than you'd imagine. I think that's what he wants to kind of tap into the commonality and the

01:42building communities and it might sound different to the ear but actually the feeling that it gives

01:47humans and the kind of experience that it gives us as human beings is actually very similar.

01:52And if you were looking at the technical comments of it, what would you say Ella?

01:57It's going to be class crack. It's going to be brilliant. It's all things fun. It's a family event.

02:02It's for all ages. It's going to be brilliant crack and loads of energy and loads of kind of

02:08exciting on the day things that we're not telling you about yet. So it's going to be a great day.

02:12I'm Claire Jennings. I'm program manager with the Armagh Reimers. Can you tell me a little bit about

02:18the Armagh Reimers? Yes, so we are a group of Reimers or Mummers which is basically a theatre and

02:24music tradition from ancient times and it's a house visiting tradition. So groups of performers and

02:29musicians would go from house to house in rural areas. They would perform a play, music, dance, poetry.

02:36They would be given a few pounds and then they would go on their way to the next house and this was a really

02:40important rural custom especially during the winter months when communities weren't seeing each other

02:45as often and the long dark nights and it was a way of entertaining your friends and neighbours.

02:49The money that was gathered up as well was all put together to create a Mummers Ball which was a

02:53community event paid for by this house visiting so it was really a community tradition and it was

02:59it was a vital part of many rural communities throughout Ireland. During the Troubles obviously

03:04going from house to house on the dark nights wasn't as safe so the tradition sort of almost died out

03:09in many parts of the country especially in the north and the Armagh Reimers saw an opportunity

03:14to use this tradition as a way to bring live theatre and performance back for communities

03:18who needed it the most and at that time in the late 70s it was children. They weren't getting access

03:23to theatre, they weren't getting access to music, to dance, to joy and to these ancient traditions that

03:28were a part of our fabric of our society. So they took this tradition and instead of going from house to

03:34house they started going from school to school, from community event to community event, bringing this idea of

03:39bringing theatre to the people it's called the theatre of the people it's by and for everyone.

03:43Can you tell me how the Armagh Reimers collaborate on the Triumph of Music?

03:48Yes so we are delighted to be part of the the project here for Triumph of Music with the Playhouse

03:53and we sort of represent that ancient tradition of music and you know as i said the the tradition

03:58dates right back almost two and a half thousand years ago so it's that music that is part of

04:03everyone's culture and everyone's background here and we represent that ancient meeting the modern so

04:08we're coming at it with this deep community tradition of music and visiting and bringing

04:14theatre and music to people and we are collaborating with the artists here at the Playhouse to bring

04:19that into the modern time and to bring it to Derry on on the 19th. Is bringing that traditional

04:25music difficult like mixing it with that modern like electric? On the face of it it probably seems like

04:30it could be you know we're dealing with traditional tunes and traditional musicians but there is a

04:35commonality throughout music and it is the joyful expression and it really comes together the the

04:41styles of music differ but the the foundations are all the same and it is all artists trying to express

04:46themselves through their music it actually we find it blends quite beautifully and and sometimes the

04:52what looks like a jarring traditional music with dance music it actually ends up blending really

04:57seamlessly and you find that commonality and that universality of music you know there is that

05:02there's threads that run right through it regardless of the genre and if you were to encourage you to

05:07come along and see a show what would you say? I definitely would encourage we really want the streets of

05:12Derry to be packed and we know we've played in Derry before we know the people of Derry come out and

05:16support events that are happening and i think this is just such a wonderful opportunity to come to a free event

05:21out on the streets of Derry and celebrate what music means to the people who live here musicians and also the

05:27public and we really want people to come and join in you're not standing and watching the Rhymers want

05:31you to be part of this procession and really showcase the triumph of music and the spirit of music that

05:37runs through Derry. My name is Mark McLaughlin. My name is Mary Morson. Can you tell me a bit about the Triumph of Music please?

05:48Yeah so the Triumph of Music is a big project happening here in Derry on the 19th of April so that's Easter Saturday

05:54and it is an association with the National Gallery for their big 200 year anniversary

05:59and effectively it's a big party starting at the Playhouse at 12pm and it travels through the town

06:05and it's in association with Keltronic as well so there's a whole party party vibe at the end.

06:11And can you tell me what is your part in the episode?

06:15So there's so many collaborators in this project uh one of them is the Playhouse so we are working in

06:20the Playhouse and we are having a dance having a sing and uh we might be wearing big massive wicker heads

06:28which have been amazingly designed uh but they are my Rhymers and uh yeah we're just we're just there

06:35to get people off their feet and have them join us for a party that is our job on the day.

06:41I don't know if we have another question here um what's it like collaborating with all that music

06:45to get especially in dance? Uh well dance is kind of the realm that I love in that's my job I'm a

06:51professional dancer um but this has been a whole new kind of experience where it's encompassing music

06:57and dance both things like always live side by side and don't really exist without the other but

07:02this has become like a weird amalgamation of like traditional music along with electronic music so it's a

07:08whole whirlwind and like you don't really know what's going on it kind of doesn't feel right but

07:12it doesn't feel wrong either and you're like in this funny in between um and the physicalization of

07:18that just kind of comes with getting familiar with it so we've spent the past week or two moving along

07:23with the music feeling it out getting an idea and it's building from there so it's been this really

07:28crazy chaotic experience and the whole thing is going to be that but I think that's what makes it so

07:32interesting too. Does it probably have a challenge? Um it's just fun like even if it is challenging you

07:40just smile through it um it's a basically let's think of it like a big 90s rave but all over the

07:48city and I'm not a professional dancer um so that suits media tea because I'm just boogieing and just

07:55like having the time and uh hopefully when people see us doing it they'll want to join us um because and

08:02they can do the moves we will teach you the moves and we'll have the best time. And lastly how would

08:07you encourage people to come along? I just think it's a absolute must see there hasn't been anything

08:13on this kind of scale since I'd say like 2013 this is like a huge opportunity for dairy for the

08:19performers that live locally this doesn't come about very often but for the public it's just a one-off like

08:24this is never going to happen again like when are you going to see a bunch of people running around

08:28having a rave with wicker heads on having no idea what's going on I think it's just going to be

08:33an absolute madness that you'd be selling myself on. This is in the middle of the day as well yeah

08:38absolutely anyone and everyone can join like this is for absolutely everyone uh as Mary said we're only

08:46doing it once it's never happening again yeah so if you miss it you will be raging and everyone's

08:50going to be chatting about it yeah and you're not you weren't there so do better

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