The Medieval Manuscript the 'Chronicles of Mann and Sudreys' mentions various locations, including the Isle of Man, Wales, Scotland, Ireland and even places as far away as Norway and Brittany.
Russell Gilmour (trumpet) and David Kilgallon (organ) use melodies from these countries and they merge and fuse these ideas together with their own to create unique compositions for trumpet and organ. The idea behind their musical collaboration is to explore traditional music from these countries and to adapt the music, interpret it and explore it. Chronicles' musical format is slightly unusual in that it combines trumpet and organ - not the instruments you may initially associate with folk music - but it is an approach that has sparked a lot of interest.
Their limited edition EP "Prologue" is a sample of things to come, as the production of a full album is underway. The full album will be Chronicles' musical impression of the Isle of Man's influences and rich history - as documented in the Chronicles of Mann.
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Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment Recording & Performance
%PM, %Europe/London %b %2014, %ROn Tuesday 4th of November 2014, I performed as an off-stage trumpeter with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in (or technically, just outside) the Royal Festival Hall in London. Sir Mark Elder conducted Donizetti's 'Les Martyrs', directing around 150 performers.
My modest role involved playing a straight fanfare trumpet, which was provided for me by the orchestra. It had valves (which I did not need) and was pitched in E-flat. I played the 4th offstage part, which consisted of 8 notes in total - all of them concert E-flats - over two consecutive entries. I played in only the second movement of the second act.
The orchestra had been working hard with Sir Mark Elder to record this four hour opera in the week preceding the performance. I attended the recording session on Wednesday 29th of October 2014 at St. Clement's Church in Clerkenwell.
The performance from the concert will be aired as a deferred broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on Saturday the 15th November at 6.15pm.