Song of the Day: the end of a series
Ray Fisher RIP: 'a joy to know'

Song of the Day (Revisited): Alan Stivell and an unofficial massed choir in Cardiff ...

April 2021 update: Alan Stivell is now 77. We've all got older; indeed this item first appeared when I was 10 years younger.

 

Stivell has been a remarkable force in, to borrow the title of an 1971 instrumental album of his, The Renaissance of the Celtic Harp.

800px-Festival_de_Cornouaille_2016_-_Alan_Stivell_-_01
Alan Stivell live during Cornouaille Festival (Quimper, Brittany) in 2016. Image: Jérémy Kergourlay

I have seen Stivell live twice, both times in France, but the choice I made for his inclusion at the end of Salut! Live's Song of the Day series was something that cried out for and got the gadgetry of recording studios. Good as it is, the duet with Nolwenn Leroy appears first here but is secondary to the magical fusion of Celtic lyricism and the passion of a big stadium crowd. I have tidied up the original article, corrected a couple of typos, added a photo and changed a clip because the one that appeared here 10 years ago is now a dead link. Otherwise it is as published then. Please read on ...

This is how the item appeared in August 2011.

No, this is not a sneaky way of reopening the Song of the Day series, though it may, as I have said elsewhere, become Song of the Week/Month/Millennium as the mood takes. But the message from Janet, published here as a comment yesterday, and another from my old electronic acquaintance "Sir Robert Peel", at Talkawhile, made it clear that the hit rate for the series, and indeed this site generally, is a little higher than I feared.

An unknown (to me) number of people have signed up to receive e-mail updates each time a new posting appears. There is no need for them to come here at all but they do see what I am writing about. OK, not really hits to the site but at least the content is being read.

I have placed another clip of Nolwenn Leroy singing Tri Martolod (Three Matelots) at my main Salut! site, which deals mostly with matters concerning France. But what you see above is the performance to which I refer there, in duet with Alan Stivell and taken from a St Patrick's concert in Brest this year (ie 2011).

And here, as a special treat, is Stivell singing Bro Goz ma Zadoù (Land Of My Fathers, used by the Bretons and Cornish, too, as their anthem).

The snippet of Welsh rugby supporters belting it out at Cardiff Arms Park sends a shiver down the spine, and I am not Welsh and have no love of rugby.

 

 

Comments

Ian Evans

Colin,

I have recently returned from 3 weeks in the Pyrenees to learn the sad news of the demise of Song of the Day.

I have just indulged myself by listening to all the selections I missed while I was away.

What an unexpected and unbelievable final choice you made in Mae Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau; a fantastic note on which to end the series.

Needless to say, like you I found it spine tingling.

It brought back memories of the first time you visited us in Ipswich and introduced me to Alain Stivell by playing a version of him singing Mae Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau.

It was so long ago that Ipswich were still in the Premiership and Titus Bramble scored his first goal; for once it was not in his own net but against the opposition!

Thanks for some great musical memories and some new discoveries.

Please sign me up for your e e-mail alerts.

Ian.

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