Work

Programme Note

The Carmina Gadelica, known in Gaelic as Ortha nan Gaidheal, is a six-volume collection of orally-transmitted prayers, poems, blessings and other material, collected by the folklorist Alexander Carmichael in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland in the second half of the nineteenth century. Carmichael subsequently translated this material, and edited the first two volumes. The death dirge An Tuiream Bais was published in the third volume, edited by Alexander’s grandson, James Carmichael Watson. I have set the first, fourth, fifth and sixth verses in the original Gaelic language.

Text Note:

An Tuiream Bais (Death Dirge) from The Carmina Gadelica (Ortha nan Gaidheal), traditional text edited and translated by Alexander Carmichael

Commissioned:

Commissioned by Baroque Voices with funding from Creative New Zealand

• Baroque Voices

Difficulty:

Advanced

Influences:

• Language and Literature
• Religious

Funders:

• Creative New Zealand

Performance History

	17 May 2009	Performed by Baroque Voices at the St Alban’s Church, Eastbourne, Lower Hutt
		Baroque Voices
	23 May 2009	Performed by Baroque Voices at the Sacred Heart Cathedral, Wellington
		Baroque Voices