Sophie von Brauchitsch one of our form V pupil's from Germany writes about the Alexandra Trad Band visit to the school.On Tuesday, the 8th December, nine girls and their teacher from Alexandra College, Dublin visited our school to hold a concert of traditional Irish music in the BSR.
This concert was a great opportunity for the music students in forms V and VI to hear traditionalal Irish music, an important part of the Leaving Certificate Music course, live. However, not only music pupils attended this concert. Many others curious about Irish music style came too.
The group consisted of four harps, three fiddles, a flue, a tin whistle and a bodhrán, which is a traditional Irish drum. They played twenty-two pieces in blocks of three and four, dances like Reels, Jigs, Slip jigs and Slides along with traditional Irish songs, like The South Wind, Drowsy Maggie, Trip to Sligo and Sally Gardens. In some pieces, players performed solo accompanied by the harp, presenting their instruments and how they sound on their own.
In the breaks between the blocks, Justine Heffernan, a form VI pupil from our school, preformed three traditional Irish dances, first a Reel, then a Jig and finally a Slip jig.
After the concert, everyone went up to the Cadagon main room, where the performers and the audience talked about their experiences with traditional Irish music.
This concert brought Irish music, which can sometimes seem a little dry, nearer to the us all and gave the pupils who haven’t dealt with this topic before an idea about traditional Irish music.
