Festival of New Writing in Aberdeen and North-East Scotland
8–29 September 2011
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Walk the Way
with the Artisans, Vanderbilt and Aykroyd
Stewart's Hall, Huntly
[Map]
Tickets £8, £5 (concession), £1 (schoolchildren) available from
Deveron Arts, Brander Library, Orb's Bookshop, Rizza's, or at the door
Medieval music, poetry and prose inspired by the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela
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Walk the walk of walks from the comfort of your seat. Let London's early-music group
The Artisans whisk you to the Iberian Middle Ages of song and praise. Be
stirred by Paulina Vanderbilt's poetic pilgrimage — a journey of reflection
and observation. Enjoy Lucy Aykroyd's experiences on St James's Way in extracts
from her walking diary. Come and share the highs and lows of the Camino de Santiago
de Compostela — but without the sore muscles or the blisters.
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The Artisans
Emily Askew (vielle, recorder, bagpipes)
Yvonne Eddy (voice)
Hazel Askew (voice, harp)
Sarah Stuart (percussion)
with
Paulina Vanderbilt (reader)
Lucy Aykroyd (reader)
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Ritual pilgrimage was an important part of medieval Christianity. Churches and places
of worship would often be founded on sites where miracles took place or where religious
relics were located. Music was an integral part of the pilgrim's experience and
provided a language through which pilgrims of different nationalities could communicate.
Songs and hymns of devotion to the Virgin Mary helped to give pilgrims the strength
to travel the long distances.
The Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela was built in honour of St James the Apostle
after his grave was rediscovered in the ninth century. It is said that his remains
were carried by boat from Jerusalem to the city of Santiago de Compostela. The cathedral
became one of the most important pilgrimage centres and The Way of St James
or O Camino de Santiago was a very popular pilgrim route during the medieval
period.
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The music performed by the Artisans is taken from three collections, known as the
Codex Calixtinus, the Cantigas de Santa Maria and the Llibre Vermell.
See
www.centeral.co.uk
for more about the music.
The poems performed by Paulina are from her book The Way — a poetic pilgrimage
(Blue Salt Publishing), which will be launched at this event. It is a collection
of poems enriched with information on the Camino, Galician folklore, traditions
and even cuisine, called a "lively mix" by Anna Crowe, who also describes the poetry
as having "great verve and freshness and evoking landscapes and people with immediacy
and empathy".
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The Artisans are an exciting new medieval band emerging from London. Formed
of musicians from diverse backgrounds in folk, world and early music, they bring
together a broad experience from different genres. This has helped them to create
fresh and exciting interpretations of this ancient music, whilst still remaining
historically informed.
They have an interesting variety of well-researched programmes of music, spanning
four centuries from England, France, Spain and Italy. With exotic dance tunes to
rousing choruses, their playing enchants all those who hear them.
Performing on a range of fascinating instruments including recorders, bagpipes,
vielle, harp, rebec, symphony, oud and a variety of percussion, this is a band to
look out for!
See
www.the-artisans.co.uk
for more about the Artisans.
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Emily Askew is an extremely versatile musician who plays recorders, vielle
(medieval fiddle), bagpipes and fiddle. Her interests are wide and varied reaching
from the deep roots of folk music through to medieval, baroque and contemporary
repertoire.
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Yvonne Eddy is an exiled Geordie. Yvonne studied music at the University
of Manchester and the Schola Cantorum in Basel, Switzerland, before finally giving
in and moving to London, where she now sings with many professional church choirs
and chamber choirs. She directs her own medieval vocal group Levedy and is a member
of the medieval ensembles Le Basile, Mediva and Vox Animae.
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Hazel Askew is known on the folk music scene for her singing and melodeon
playing, but she started her musical education on the specialist music scheme at
Pimlico School, where she studied concert harp.
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Sarah Stuart's interest in medieval and renaissance music has grown out of
her early encounters with period performance as an apprentice on the Orchestra of
the Age of Enlightenment's experience scheme for young players.
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Paulina Vanderbilt mostly writes poetry but has a number of short stories
and even half-finished novellas stashed away in her drawer — waiting their
turn. She describes her poetry as a watercolour of impressions, vibrant and immediate.
She lives in Holland now, but Scotland is the bones of her.
Paulina recently set up her own creative writing business to take her energetic,
slightly chaotic approach to creativity to schools in Holland and the people in
The Hague.
Her second collection The Way — a poetic pilgrimage (Blue Salt Publishing,
2011) will be launched at this event in Huntly. Her successful first collection,
In Search of Salt (Koo Press, 2009) is available by special request.
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Wiltshire born, Aberdeenshire matured... Lucy Aykroyd is a mother of five
and multiple granny. A virgin writer — cutting her teeth on transcripts of
a mega walk across Spain in 2010, the Camino....
Naturally artistic, this new venture follows on from an extended painterly period,
adding a new facet of creative expression to her portfolio of life... an interesting
and unexpectedly exciting sideline to being a freelance gardener, yoga teacher and
Swedish masseuse.
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North East Writers and its partner organisations undertake to produce
all events in the New Words festival as advertised, but we can accept no liability
for details that are changed due to circumstances beyond our control.
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Week 1
Thursday 8 September
7pm
The Lemon Tree, Aberdeen
A non-stop review in poetry, prose and music
Friday 9 September
9pm
Cellar 35, Aberdeen
Performance poetry showcase
Saturday 10 September
11am
Douglas Hotal, Aberdeen
Steven Porter's experience with self-publishing his novel "Countries of the World"
Saturday 10 September
7.30pm
Stewart's Hall, Huntly
with the Artisans, Vanderbilt and Aykroyd
Sunday 11 September
1pm
St Nicholas Square, Aberdeen
Ten poems by ten local writers on the tenth year since the atrocity
Week 2
Thursday 15 September
6.30pm
Books and Beans, Aberdeen
Aberdeen launch of Stuart B. Campbell's new collection
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