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MUSIC PROJECTS
ELEMENT CHOIR Since moving to Toronto, I have been trying to find a musical community of singers and lately I have been working with an improvisational choir called the "Element Choir". Improvisation in many ways is the exact opposite of traditional singing - but I am enjoying the stretch, and feel that there are skills I am learning that will enhance my ability to sing in any genre. Specifically it trains you how to listen. Listening is one of the most underrated skills in music, and no-one can possibly get to much practice ;-) Also it's really a lot of fun!
DUETS WITH LESLIE BOYD-RYAN  My good friend for many years Leslie and I have started building a repertoire for performance around Toronto. It moves a little away from my traditional roots - and it is mostly meant to be really fun (though in typical style many of the songs are still about loss and longing) We are tentatively calling ourselves "Fallen Women", just because of the comic possibilities (We are Fallen off the wagon, Fallen into disrepute, Fallen from grace,  etc etc ;-)
UNACCOMPANIED RECORDING PRODUCED BY KEN BROWN
I started this project four years ago and have run into several snags - but am hoping that this is the year that it will get finished! I will keep you posted!
It will be a selection of some of my  favourite songs - some translations from the Irish in the sean-nós style (for more on sean-nós click here ), some repertoire from the collections of Helen Creighton and Peter Kennedy housed at the Canadian Museum of Civilization and a couple of Breton songs in French. My  goal, as always, has been to find interesting songs - songs with unusual melody and lyrics - and do them in a simple unaccompanied style. 
catherine crowe recording, the blackest crow

If you are interested in being informed when it is done please send an e-mail to 
imagocorvi AT gmail.com (please replace the AT with @) 

to hear sample click here: Old Grey Sheep (from the singing of Tomas O Neachtain)
to hear sample click here: Song of Renvyle (from the singing of Treasa Ui Chonghaile)

EXPERIMENTAL RECORDING - PRODUCED BY HANI HABASHI
Hani is an electronic musician, unfamiliar with the world of Irish music so I have asked him to work with me in the hopes of bringing a fresh perspective to the music. This is a project largely for fun, and has no projected completion date. I will be asking other musical friends from other musical genres to step in and see if we can't make something that wil make you listen to the songs a little differently...

CANADIAN MUSIC ARCHIVES
I have again been to the Canadian Museum of Civilization to do some research in the musical archives. I was surprised when last I was there to find so little of what an Irish singer would think of as Irish repertoire.  Though there are any number of songs about Ireland, many were written here (and many more from the Music Hall traditions) The large majority are Childe ballads, which would have been unusual in an Irish person's repertoire, though they certainly existed to some extent. Only Angelo Dornan (who contacted Helen Creighton and told her if she was looking for songs, he had a few) had a significant amount of specific Irish repertoire (hedge school, pride of place, etc)  In fact he had 125 songs that he remembered from his childhood, though apparently he had never sung them his whole life until he retired back to New Brunswick in his 60's.

This time around I listened to 478 songs and was able to capture the melodies of about 40 - so that should keep me going for a while.

VISIT MY   PAGE TO HEAR SOME CLIPS
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all text and photographs © 2001 - 2009,
Catherine Crowe