This Boys’ Choir, with its enthusiastic conductor, singing in front of the GPO was really nice and made you feel like Christmas. They were singing all well-known Christmas songs and you couldn’t help starting to sing together with them. The choir was from one of the local Boy’s Schools nearby and the age of the boys was between 13-18, I guess. They seemed to enjoy it a lot and the the girls, who probably were from Girs’ School and who happened to pass, enjoyed it a lot too.
Tag: music
In Merrion park
Unfortunately this year the Street Performer’s Festival didn’t have the music festival included, but anyway, the Dublin band Keywest gave a short concert in Merrion park and a group of touring French musicians performed just for fun. They were the best part of the day because they were so much enjoying themselves and with their colourful and weird clothes they looked very funny.
Opera in the open
Every Thursday in August, exactly at lunchtime, at the Amphitheatre, which is situated at the Civic Offices near the Wood Quay you can enjoy the open air operas.
We went to see the Magic Flute by Mozart and it was great. Even the weather didn’t matter and when it started to rain the whole audience took out their umbrellas and continued. Of course, the poor singers got a bit wet, but mostly we were lucky with the weather.
It was almost like the real opera, just without all these decorations and costumes and to make it easier, there was a story-teller who just came and told what is going to happen and who is who and actually that was quite funny and really helped to keep yourself on the track better than without that.
As Magic Flute is a comic opera, the mixture of the past and nowadays was very enjoyable, The singers were the young musicians and opera students and they seemed to enjoy it a lot.
This opera was not so well known for me, I hadn’t seen it before and knew nothing more than the name of the composer. It was good too, but my favourite was Magic Flute, somehow it suited better to play outdoors without the real opera house and stage. These open-air operas reminded me the great outdoor operas in Italy or I just have to say they made me think about that again. Years ago I really wanted to go and see something like that, but somehow it hasn’t been in my plans yet. But who knows, one step brings to another and maybe after some years I can say – done it, been there – as I can say now about the Dublin Opera in the Open.
Music festival in Merrion Square park
The Festival of Street Performers, which took place in Merrion Square park, included a really nice two days full of music of different Irish groups.
It was a nice small music festival, even the weather was sunny and warm and no showers at all. So we enjoyed almost all the groups and picked up our favourites. One of them became my real favourite, so I even got their CD.
On the first day we were not clever enough to bring our blanket, but on the second day we took it seriously and laid down on the grass and listened to all the bands and I really felt that the summer had begun.
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The best of the day was Gypsy Rebel Rabble – and I have got their album now.
Interskalactic – a big band with a Jamaican flavour.
Colours Afrobeat Foundation – Irish afrobeat band, rooted in African music.
Somewhere over the rainbow
Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high
There’s a land that I’ve heard of once in a lullaby.
These were the lyrics that came to my mind when I had to say “good bye” to you today my dear old friend. I don’t know if there is a place over the rainbow, but if there is, then it’s good to know that you are there, just the way you used to be, looking at me with a big smile on your face and making some joke, or asking me if we could get a guitar and sing together again like in the old days when we were very young.
I am pretty sure that you would have picked that song because that was one of our best pieces 🙂 at least we thought so and we never missed that one.
I will be looking for you over the rainbow 🙂
Poor is the life without Music
I tried to remember my first touch with Irish music and the only thing I can remind is an old song about Ireland from my childhood. I have tried to find it, but as I don’t know the author or the heading in English, it’s not possible to find it anywhere and unfortunately I cannot find it even in Estonian. The song was a sad one, someone was leaving Ireland to find a job in New York and all the song was about how he missed the land and his loved ones. I don’t know why this song was sung in Estonian, maybe it was a bit connected with all these people who had to leave Estonia during the war and were living all over the world and missing their loved ones. That was what I thought when I heard it. The song has a very beautiful melody and such kind of longing words. I even remember the words quite well if I’m going to think about that.
When I started to watch Eurovision Song Contest and it was exactly in 1976, Ireland has always been among my favourites, because they sang in English and they had really capturing melodies. Very often the songs became quite famous and were even translated and sung by Estonian singers. Eurovision was a great thing for a teenager who was missing the real pop music from the wide world and through the Finnish TV, it was possible to get it right at home. To get it for a longer time than only that Great Night we recorded the songs and played them again and again. From these teenage years, one of my favourites was that one, it’s so 70s 🙂 and cannot be taken very seriously today, but it was very nice to meet it again. Anyway, they don’t lie, it is nice to be in love again, try if you don’t believe it. Is there anybody else who remembers that? I mean the song of course 🙂 I doubt a lot. But anyway, it got the third place in 1977.
YouTube helped me to find all kinds of oldies and so once I found Dana and “All Kinds of Everything”. That song didn’t reach Estonia, although a lot of others from this time period did. Actually one of the most beautiful pure and simple songs of the 60/70-s Eurovision style of music. It’s the winner of Eurovision 1970.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awhQjT14cdA
Yes, of course, I remember Johnny Logan and his two heartbreaking songs that became well known and spread even to my country. Wow, this is so beautiful even today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qURxESCEENc
And now comes my favourite. This song has a story and somehow it talks to me. It’s one of the most beuatiful Eurovision songs all through the years. And of course it was also the winner – Rock’n roll Kids Paul Harrington and Charlie McG, 1994.
And I cannot leave out the angel song “Voice” which was so Irish for me when they came out with that. It’s like from a Fairy Land and I think it was a reason that I liked Enya so much. When I was reading “The Mists of Avalon”, that song seemed to be the perfect one to be from that land. The winner again, in 1996.
Dublin Accent 