Harpist Ruth Wall gives a recital on four harps "Migrations" at Gerrans Parish Memorial Hall for Roseland Music Society

Ruth Wall gives recital on four harps in Gerrans Parish Hall, accompanied by Graham Fitkin. There were over 100 strings in total requiring careful tuning before, and during the concert which ace harpist Ruth Wall gave on Friday 9th December at Gerrans Memorial Hall. Ruth’s  programme took as its broad theme Migration and she chose a remarkable variety of strands to captivate the audience – the programme was both highly creative and a spur to the imagination. There were four distinctive harps she played, the traditional clearsach, the bray harp, electro-acoustic harp, and a lever harp.

While Ruth Wall lives in Cornwall she  has mined the stories and music from her native Sutherland, and in particular the Highland clearances for the thread that she wove through this programme.    Her partner the composer, Graham Fitkin who was accompanying her adapted tunes from bagpipe music books and these were then  interwoven with looping techniques to create new sound worlds.  For example a recording of the natural sounds of skuas who have a distinctive cry and have been known to migrate in their thousands over  Uist were included with a traditional pipe tune captured by Graham for Ruth to play. 

If you ever travel up on the Paddington train from Cornwall and sit in the Quiet carriage,  beware if you begin to chatter! There may be a composer in the carriage picking up thematic ideas. Ruth and Graham’s concerts always provide surprises and in addition to reprising Steve Reich’s “Clapping music” , they performed a short work by Graham  which included snatches of teenager overheard in the Quiet Carriage  - backchat using rhythmic  body percussion, elements of dance and words.  

Ruth and Graham's recital ended with a Q & A session which elicited some fascinating questions from the audience of 60. The last question asked the (on the face of it) simple question "Why does the top bar of the harp have a curved profile?". As it tuned out Graham

The next concerts are in February 2023.  Do join us.  Tickets are open to the public available from Cornwall Riviera Box Office www.crbo.org.uk call  or look at the website. www.Roselandmusicsociety.org.uk and follow us on Facebook.  If you join the Society we can mail you the brochure and keep you updated (£15 per annum) and you get a 18% discount on tickets it also reassures the volunteers that the society is valued!     

The   Selene Scholars are 8 young male and female choral scholars at Oxford – they are coming for a three day stay in Cornwall   both to give a concert at the Memorial Hall, Gerrans at 1930 on Friday 10th February for RMS , a workshop for young people at school Roseland Academy School, and a further concert on Saturday 11th February 1930 at Mylor Church with Carrick Concerts.  

On Friday 10th February  the title is  “Lay a Garland” – some of the most sumptuous and evocative choral music ever written for those in Mourning  including polyphony  by  Jean Richafort,  Josquin des Pres,  Tallis, Byrd, Tomkins  to Pearsall and Harris.    On Saturday 11th February Selene’s completely contrasting  theme will be  an evening of  Lovesongs.   So for those contemplating a night out for   Valentine’s Day – this will hone your troubadour skills and allow you to use a proxy ensemble!      

Further concerts in the current season. Trio Cordiera – 24 March. (Beethoven, Brahms, Higdon);   Martin Jones – 21 April piano recital (Liszt, Debussy, Albeniz)   continue once a month on Fridays till June 2023.