Page Two
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Tuesday, February 29, 197
Page Two THE MICHIGAN DAILY Tuesday, February 29, 1972
Irish gather at the Ark
. . images
The Golden Ring; a
gathering of friends
By DIANE LEVICK
Sunday night's Irish benefit
concert at the Ark spanned an
amazing array of moods and
subjects, and attracted an un-
usually ,unified crowd.
One minute a ,merry tune
about brewing and drinking po-
teen. The next minute a bitter
bong- cursing' the Orangemen,
Northern Iieland's aristocratic
Protestant organization. Songs
-related Ireland's long, bloody
struggle against England while
,thets told of illicit romances.
Al Purcell, an Irishman from
Detroit, played' rousing Uilleann
~pipes to an audience that bore
little resemblance to the Ark's
usual patrons. Some of the usual
folk enthusiasts were present,
but a large number of listeners
proudly revealed their Irish ac-
cents.
Many local Irish citizens and
students paid their $1.50 at the
Ark to support Ann = Arbor's
Irish Relief Fund. The benefit
even drew a few Irish from De-
troit. More older adults showed
up than usual - some with
young children - to show soli-
darity with their cause.
These Irish by birth - or by
spirit - were entranced by
Irish folksinger Treasa O'Dris-
Czechs brighten Hill
By DONALD SOSIN.
Whenever Prague musicians
come to town, it seems, every-
ofeha' good time. The Prague
QuIartet =gave- an extremely en-
joyable performance earlier in
the year; in sHill Aud. Sunday
night the Prague Symphony Or-
chestra, under Jindrich Rohan,
proved to be a warm stirring
group who had as much fun as
the audience did.
The" program, sponsored by
the University Musical Society,
began with a work by Peter
Eben, a modern Czech, entitled
."Vec Clamantis." Scored for
three trumpets and orchestra,
the work is: reminiscent of Bar-
tok and Hindemith, although
nunwerous -.coloristic effects add
.an original touch. Apparently
.well-crafted, the work neverthe-
less seemed like a Xerox of other
aronal-sounding material, and
the repititious us'e of sequences
in the trumpets gave the piece
a hackneyed sound sometimes.
For Smetana's Czech Song,
the orchestra was joined by the
Festival 'Chorus of the Univer-
'sity Choral Union. The four
short movemnets are based on
a poem of Jan Marek, and con-
vey the patriotic feeling of the
text in a powerful, yet simple,
way. The last movement reached
a- height of emotion that both
orchestra and chorus were most
successful in bringing out. Ther
audience was warm in its re-
sponse and after Choral Union
-Director Donald Bryant took
several bows, the last movement
was repeated. Later in the pro-
gram Rohan spoke of his de-
light in working with the chorus,.
saying it had been a rare exper-
ience for him and the orchestra
to perform a nationalistic. song
so far from their homeland, and
to hear the Czech words so
clearly pronounced by the choir.
He thanked the audience, too,
for making the evening some-
thing the musicians will never
forget.
This impromptu speech came
after an encore -Dvorak's Sla-
vonic Dance No. 9. Rohan then
led the group in No. 10, and
after warning the audience that
he only had one more encore
prepared, and not to expect any
more, No. 15. These were rous-'
ingly presented and contained
some of the finest playing of the
evening. Rohan spared nothing
in communicating ideas to his
ensemble, with sharp looks and
broad gestures forming the basis
for smooth, refined perform-
ances. The sound of the orches-
tra was first-rate, for the most
part, although the low brass
sometimes cut through too
sharply.
Before the Slavonic Dances,
we heard Dvorak's Symphony
No. 5 in F, a neglected work that
might as well stay that way; it
is too long, the ideas are worked
out in the most obvious ways.
Only the third movement
showed any real imagination,
the rest sounded stale next to
the tasty dances.
coil whose delicate soprano voice
suited her songs so well. She
sang a capella with eyes closed,
hands folded. Her haunting love
songs included poetry by Yeats
set to music.
Barry O'Neill, a local Irish-
American ballad singer, per-
formed a capella a series of
mainly non-political tunes. A
few' of his Irish dance tunes,
played on concertina, elicited
foot-tapping from the audience.
Tom Maclntyre, an Irish poet
now living in Ann Arbor, treat-
ed the Ark to loose translations
of 17th and 18th century Gaelic
poems. His anecdotes to them
concerning "maverick priests"
andl the. Irish passion for the
" (adrink) were amusing.
In contrast, his own poem en-
titled "January, 1972" evoked
the madness of the recent
Bloody Sunday incident in
Northern Ireland.
Irish folksinger Owen McBride
was joined by much of the audi-
ence in singing eulogies to hero-
Ic Irish rebels like Wolfe Tone.
"Four Green Fields" and "The
Patriot Game" seemed to have
the popularity of national an-
thems.
Practically all of the audience
understood why such songs were
being sung. They knew Irish
history and enthusiastically ex-
pressed their nationalist pride.
Shouts in Gaelic could be heard
above applause for songs of re-
bellion - seemingly shouts of
solidarity.
Those at the Ark who didn't
understand the Irish fighting
spirit listened to the song lyrics
and learned what Ireland's his-
tory is all about. No rhetoric--
filled political speeches were
necessary at this benefit. It was
even more than a history lesson.
It was a joyful sharing of Irish
culture.
The performances Sunday
night were anything but pol-
ished. But that is irrelevant.
What was meaningful were the
expressions of hope and con-
structive pride which came
across in everything from the
Irish tales of the supernatural to
the clapping, stomping rendi-
tion of "Rising of the Moon."
HIGH IRISHMAN
The tallest Irishman alive is Jim
Cully of Tipperary. He towers
above lesser mortals at 7'6".
1U
By ABBY MILLER
As a musical act the Golden
Ring's performance isn't quite
together. But it's not really a
performance. It's a gathering of
friends, in front of a larger
group of the musical commu-
nity, for an evening of song.
The Golden Ring is perhaps best,
described as a biannual musical
party. A conglomeration of peo-
ple, varying in size, get together
each year at the Fox Hollow
Folk Festival and at the Ark.
And a couple of times during
the past several years they've
gathered to record. Nine people
sang on the first album; 26 were
on the second two, volume set,
Itive Days Singing (Folk Le-
gacy) - husbands, wives, chil-
dren, friends. Friday night at the
Ark brought together members
of that loose confederation of
friends who enjoy sharing music.
George and Jerry Armstrong
and their daughter Jenny, Ed
Trickett, Sandy and Caroline
Paton, Ruth Meyer and our own
Barry O'Neill assembled from
Chicago, Ann Arbor and Con-
necticut.
Diversity in song and instru-
mentation characterized Friday
night at the Ark. A Scottish bal-
lad, the hammered dulcimer and
fiddle together playing a tradi-
tional fiddle tune, a Bahaman
hymn, a children's song and
white country gospel songs were
among those shared. Besides
hammered dulcimer and fiddle,
mountain dulcimer, guitars, a
bagpipe practice chanter and
concertina joined in the music
making. You could never tell
what would happen next. Half a
dozen versions of "The Two Sis-
ters" might be swapped or a
totally new genre jumped into.
The informal setting allowed
musical and personal interaction
and a spontaneity seldom seen
on stage. The friendilness drew
in the audience and they be-
came part of what was going on.
There were fine musicians and
fine voices. There was a diver-
sity of music - something for
every taste. But it wasn't the
kind of evening ghat can be
judged critically. I can simply
say that the Golden Ring pro-
vided a pleasant musical get to-
gether.
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MI
musical notes
ORIGINALITY IS
Guitarist and lutenist Julian
Bream has canceled his sched-
uled appearance at the Power
Center Wednesday because of
illness.
The University Musical Society
said it hopes the concert can be
rescheduled sometime t h i s
spring.
Roger Powell, electronics de-
signer of, and performer on the
Arp synthesizer will be in Room
2038 at the School of Music this
afternoon to present a program
written for the synthesizer. He
has had years of experience with
this equipment and is currently
recording an album of all syn-
thesizer jazz-rock compositions.
He will bring adidtional elec-
tronic instrumentation to demon-
strate external 'source input and
will be available for questions
arising out of the use of such
equipment.
AVAILABLE!
STUDENT MADE...
p
" pottery
" glasswork
" candles
* photography
" seragraphs
" sculpture
HAROLD
MAUDE
Color by Tchnicolo
A Poramount'Pkttwe .""" I
GP jM
CAMPUS
, ..
letters:
TRANSCENDENTAL
MEDITATION
as taught by
Maharishi
Mahesh
Yogi
SUPPORT YOUR STUDENT
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Follow the Daily and Univ. Record for special
events: Demonstrations and workshops
To. the Art's Editor:
Thursday, Feb. 24, marked the
publication of a review of "Fun-
ny Girl" which is the most re-
cent of .a long line of mediocre
revieft in The Daily.
you' can imagine a critic
without tact, taste, or profes-
sionalism, then you might be
able to.reconcile Carol Dunitz in
the role. Frankly I can't.
Her criticism of Comstance
Meng in the role of Fanny Brice
was far too severe. In the first
place, a professional critic would
never criticize an amateur so
severely. And second, the per-
formance did not necessarily
justify Ms. Dunitz's comments in
any case. The role was well act-
ed and her voice did have much
of the bawdy and vigorous qua-
lity that was required.
The biggest disappointment in
the review was that there was
no mention that the orchestra
even. showed up to play. They
did a fine job and should get
the recognition they deserve.
"Funny Girl" is a musical after
all, and it happens that the or-
chestra is very important for a
successful production of this
play.
Offsetting these problems were
some very perceptive comments
on the timing, choreography,
and other aspects of the musi-
cal. I feel that "Funny Girl"
was a vigorous and exciting and
deserved more than a "fair" rat-
ing.
This review was very typical
of the super-critical, and often
pseudo-intellectual quality of
the reviews appearing in The
Daily, and I would call for more
judgement on the part of these
writers.
Also, I would like to apologize
for writing what, was perhaps
an overcritical comnent on the
efforts of an amateur critic.
-Bryant Pierce
SHOP WEDNESDAY 9:30 A.M. TO 5:30 P.M
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THE LADY.
DANCES
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