| Carmina Gadelica |
| 1. Rune Before Prayer: bending my knee - tenor, baritone, choir 2. Quern Blessing: on ash eve - soprano 3. Invocation: behold the lightener of the stars - soloists, choir 4. Smooring the Fire: the sacred three - baritone, choir 5. Love Charm: a love charm for thee - soprano 6. Sea Prayer: blessed be the boat - choir 7. Setting the Iomart: the black by the white - choir 8. Curse on the Rival: verses made at the waulking frame - soprano 9. Invocation: the flood and the battle to come - soloists, choir 10. Blessing: o holy spirit -soloists 11. Hymn: may I speak each day - choir 12. Birth Baptism: a little drop - soprano, tenor 13. Invocation: the sun and the moon -tenor, baritone 14. Charm for Consumption: I trample on thee -soprano, choir 15. Omens: Early on the morning of Monday - baritone 16. Incantation: the catkin wool - soprano 17. Sleep Belssing: I lay me down - soprano, baritone 18. Incantation: the yarrow - tenor 19. Supplication: I pray Peter - choir |
| Choir Sopranos Eunice Classon, Brid Cullen, Betty Ganson, Margo Imrie, Marilyn Maule, Maureen McCue, Linda Milne, Anne Myrtle, Linda Shipman, Jan Stuart, Jane Young. Altos Karen Austin, Cathie Brannigan, Claire Brown, Kathleen Crowe, Alison Goodwin, Linda McMann, Christine Thomson. Tenors Martin Butler, Peter Easson, Tony Hadden, Iain Hughes, Alex Keddie, Robert Milne, David Mitchinson, Bill Split. Basses Lawrence Crowe, Alex Kinninmont, Duncan Robertson, Neil Thomson, Alan Woolley. |
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| Over one hundred years ago, the culmination of Alexander Carmichael's life work came to fruition with the publication of Carmina Gadelica. Orally collected last century in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, Carmina Gadelica comprises English translations of traditional Gaelic hymns, chants, and incantations transcribed lest they be lost forever as the Gaelic language was ever swifter squeezed out of use in Scotland: these religious texts contain a strange blend of pagan, Celtic and Christian imagery. Ranging through invocations (prayers for protection, prayers before going to sleep); addresses to the saints; blessing for large events such as weddings and baptisms, and for everyday tasks (even banking up the fire for the night); incantations used in healing; love songs, milking songs, waulking songs; auguries, and the occasional curse, the texts document much about Scotland's beliefs and customs in days gone by, where the sight was as much part of everyday life as the church.The spiritual nature of the texts, with often-mysterious phrases and expressions, bring together these two beliefs which today are seen in opposition. Peter set nineteen of these texts to music for soprano, tenor, baritone, and choir. The instrumentation of harmonium, piano, violin, flute and clarsach provides a variety of textures for the singers, combining the idioms of old church music with the haunting, almost ethereal sounds of Celtic tradition. Carmina Gadelica is dedicated to the memory of Peter's grandfathers, George Robinson and Harry Simpson. |
| Musicians Dorothy Moncrieff - piano Alan Gibson - harmonium Moira Anthony - violin Mhairi Holligan - violin Stuart Brand - flute Heather Yule - clarsach |
| Soloists Soprano - Linda Miller Tenor - Peter Robinson Baritone - George Gordon |
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