The Brendan Voyage by Shaun Davey Soloist Liam O'Flynn

Footage of Shaun Davey's 'The Brendan Voyage' with soloist Liam O'Flynn.
With his first major work, 'The Brendan Voyage' (1980) - Available for download from iTunes, Amazon, etc. -, Shaun Davey opened up totally new musical territory. For the first time, in a suite especially written for uilleann pipes soloist Liam O'Flynn, a traditional musician was integrated with a classical orchestra. The uilleann pipe passages in the Brendan suite, capturing all the force, emotion and beauty of Irish traditional music, here blend with the symphony orchestra in a synthesis of old and new, which has enchanted audiences around the world.
'The Brendan Voyage' is an emotive, symbolic work, seeming to answer a need in the Irish people to recognise and prove that a soloist representing an aural tradition can hold the stage on equal footing with members of a symphony orchestra.
The theme of Shaun Davey's seminal work is the epic voyage of historian Tim Severin who, in 1976, set sail in a small leather-covered boat to retrace the voyage undertaken by St. Brendan, Abbot of Clonfert in the year 500 AD.
According to Irish legend, St. Brendan, with a band of fellow missionaries, embarked in a fragile curragh to reach what many scholars believe was the New World. Tim Severin set out to test the legend, constructing his leather boat, 'The Brendan', in the ancient way and setting sail from Brandon Creek, Co. Kerry, on the first leg of a journey to Newfoundland. In Severin's account the boat takes on a personality of its own, becoming a parental figure, which guides and sometimes carries its offspring through the elements and dangers. In Shaun Davey's suite, the uilleann pipes represent the boat and carry the listener before the wind, through ferocious gales, over gigantic waves, through floating pillars of ice... evoking the journey from a small Kerry harbour to the Faroes, the Cliffs of Mykines, to Iceland, the freezing waters of Labrador and finally, to safe harbour in Newfoundland.

'The Brendan Voyage' was first performed in Rennes, France in 1982, and again the same year in Lorient. In 1983, it received its long-awaited Irish premier in the presence of the President of Ireland, Dr. Patrick Hillery and the explorer Tim Severin. This concert, greeted by a rapturous standing ovation from the capacity audience, marked the beginning of a history of sold out performances of 'The Brendan Voyage' in the National Concert Hall, Dublin.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Shaun
• Davey
• Liam
• O'Flynn
• Tim
• Severin
• uilleann
• pipes
• orchestra
• irish
• classicial
• ireland
• classical
• instrumental

[Taramusicdotcom]

Hi Gaelicwolf, the tracks you mentioned are available for download from iTunes, Amazon, etc.

[wildstick]

Have you other videos about "Brendan Voyage"? This is a must-listen for every lovers of uilleann piping.

[finnhere2]

Thank you for this wonderful clip and also the information. I've totally fallen for Uileann pipes and Liam O'Flynn is a master musician indeed... Once more I envy you Irish for your rich, powerful music and incredible music makers!

[gaelicwolf]

If anyone has it, I'd really love to hear "Free and Easy" and "The Gale" again. I heard them years ago on the Thistle and Shamrock radio show, and I used to have them on cassette tape. If anyone cares to upload them, it'd be great!

[nolicnotrut]

Thank you, you chose the best possible track to showcase this remarkable album.

This music is a complete triumph!

[cariboushow]

j'adore !!!

[whatsacraic]

Had the pleasure of seeing this live many years ago at Mandela Hall at Queens in Belfast. The first act was Davey's Granuelle suite. Mind blowing. Met Liam after a Planxty concert. True modest gentleman with immense talent.

[blzind]

an orchestra i played in (the C.Y.O) played this piece for our tour to italy a few years ago. its some tune!!! especially live. it didnt get boring even after rehearsing it about a hundred times. :)

[mcutler71]

I too have the vinyl. Would love to have seen this live. Stunningly beautiful. Wonderful to see a "folk" instrument holding its own with an orchestra.

[HumanDimensionsTV]

Brilliant. I have the original vinyl copy and this live versions sound inspiring!!!!

[haldeane1]

do any of you idiots actually know anything about this peice of music,? NO i guess not, so wind your necks in and piss off and insult someone elses music your opinion is not welcome here thankyou.

[LinnTractorNut]

Seriously all info would be sourced from the early Church of Ireland or Culdee Monks, they were the ones who set out in boats trusting their fate to God, they settled on the Northern Isles, Faroes and Greenland at least in summer months, seems likely to me the Norse who followed in their footsteps, might have learned of North America and the Brendan Voyage while looting and burning irish monasteries, but that's just my observation. And the Basques fished the Canadian Maritimes before Columbus.