If you are a musician or a
listener (or both), you've gotta love this. From the American
Heritage Dictionary, we call your attention to a truly beautiful
noun, consonance:
1.Agreement;
harmony; accord.
2.Close
correspondence of sounds.
3.The repetition
of consonants or of a consonant pattern, especially at the ends of
words, as in blank and think or strong and string.
4.Music: A
simultaneous combination of sounds not requiring resolution to
another combination of sounds for finality of effect and
conventionally regarded as harmonious or pleasing.
It is firstly about
agreement, a wonderful experience when it happens. There is a story
in an extraordinary book, The
Elegance of the Hedgehog (Muriel Barbery), about consonance;
a young girl character, Paloma, is watching synchronized diving
on TV, where two young Chinese divers simultaneously perform the
exact same dive at the same moment.
As she is watching, the
two girls take their turn- after a few graceful bounces they plunge
off the high board -- Paloma holds her breath as the divers spin
through the air, miraculous in their consonance-- but just then,
something happens, they get out of sync. "One of them is
going to reach the water before the other! It's horrible!"
What was potentially a 'magic moment', a work of artistry,
crashes down, Paloma's heart drops- she practically has to look away
before they reach the water, it is almost too much to take.
Paloma records this
incident for her "Journal of the Movement of the World",
where she is keeping her innermost thoughts- even at her young age
she is frustrated by "all those things that pass before us,
which we miss by a hair and which are botched for eternity..."
As a player, in a band,
I know just how the divers feel, how Paloma felt watching: the
never-ending quest for those moments of consonance, when it all comes
together, and the uneasy feeling when its not. But the quest never
ends, as aspiring artists continue to search for the "odd
moment of beauty, where time is no longer the same...a sort of
interlude in time, something suspended, an always within never."
Really? Absolutely- how
about the 15th Annual Cheltenham Folk Festival coming
right up, February 11-13 in Cheltenham, Great Britain, featuring some
of the very best of the UK folk world.
In 1996 Cheltenham Folk
Club organiser John Shorter approached Cheltenham Town Hall with the
idea of a mid-winter folk event to "banish the winter
blues". He wanted to produce an event that preserved the roots
of Folk tradition, showcased budding new talent, and created a
friendly atmosphere.
With another great
line-up shaping up for the 2011 Festival, they have put together a
program that showcases the latest from new, young performers such as
The Askew Sisters, Pilgrims' Way and the Melrose Quartet, to The
Yetties - stalwarts of the English folk scene playing their last ever
Festival gig, through to huge headliners Jon Boden and The Remnant
Kings, Nancy Kerr and James Fagan and finally a rare festival
apperence from Irish supergroup Lúnasa.
Reykjavík, Iceland Folk Festival, March 9th-11th: Reykjavik Folk Festival
2011 is a folk music festival where 14 Icelandic bands perform music
of different types and origins but what all the artists have in
common is that they play folk music, blues, world music or a mixture
of all this. This new festival is an initiative by members of South
River Band.
The Sarasota Folk Festival - March 26 & 27, 2011: If Iceland is too much of
a pull, head down to Sarasota, FL for a fun weekend. Primarily
centered around acoustic folk music and singer/songwriter performers,
you will also hear blue grass, old time, blues, country, jazz, pop
and Irish. Thirty musical acts will be performing on three stages,
plus a workshop area where you may get some pointers on playing an
instrument, singing harmony, or writing songs.
We
Steal Flyers is a catchy acoustic duo touring out of
Northumberland in the UK, and they offer up the title track from
their new album, this is very cool: Our World is a
Celtic flavored power-ballad of the first water, click and
download....More downloads available in the media player on their
artist page -- thanks, Derek & Shaggy!
Char
Butler and daughter Amber Whitworth were born in the heart of
America where the winds come sweeping down the plains in rustic
Oklahoma. They describe their music as a "spiritual
odyssey, ethereal voices in sync beckon like celestial mermaids for
the listener."
Char received the 2010
Indie Artist Award from Starliners Radio in the Netherlands on May
29, 2010, for "Peace (Whatever Happens)", chosen
by the listening audience of the radio station by a voting process.
Listen, download the full-length stereo track- thanks, ladies!
From the efolkMusic Archives, a
classic from the Carter
Family. Little Log Cabin By the Sea is from
recordings that the trio made during the "Border" radio
shows in the late 30s. A.P., Sara, and Maybelle Carter were the first
vocal group to become country music stars, with a career that spanned
from 1927 to 1956. "Mother Maybelle" continued to tour into
the 1970s; this is a seminal band in folk music, download this track!
Special thanks to Copper Creek for this track.
David Roon offers up "Sphere"
from Skies full of Seas, his first recording of original
material. Living in northern Idaho, David makes his music "in
the interstitial spaces between canoeing and exploring wild places,
romping with family and friends, and reading to exhaustion."
Lovely playing and singing with a Celtic flavor, listen and
download this free track:
That's right, just like 1999 and
Napster all over again, we've opened the efolkMusic "Member
Library" doors wide, each and every full-length stereo track
is available for instant (almost) download. We've abandoned the
donate-to-download requirement, in the hopes that more fans will
enjoy more music. Fill your ears!
That said, we still need
your help supporting these exceptional artists and their music,
through our website and outreach activities.Please
consider making a secure donation, no amount too small
or too large. Donations of $30 or more get great premiums, like our 106-song
MP3/CD Sampler, Vol. 6, shipping now to new and renewing donors.
