Philip Hammond: Tales of the Glens
Divine Art

Before engaging with Tales of the Glens, those unfamiliar with Northern Ireland's Glens of Antrim might do well to use a map of the region to orient themselves, especially when Anthony Capparelli's piano album of Philip Hammond's material locates itself at this picturesque part of the world. North of the Glens, situated along the east coast, one finds the village of Ballycastle and Rathlin Island, whereas farther south lies Ballygally. These places and others surface in the recording's most striking piece, the seven-part Tales from the Sea of Moyle (2021), a collaboration between Hammond and professional storytellers Liz Weir and Colin Urwin. Their commanding Irish voices, Capparelli's playing, and Hammond's writing collectively distill the essence of the area into musical form.

The seed for the project was planted years ago when Capparelli became enchanted by the village of Cushendall and the local tales that go hand-in-hand with rural communities. A chance meeting with Weir also proved pivotal in familiarizing him with her work and her involvement in the storytelling tradition. Capparelli's affection for the region deepened as he returned to it in the years after that initial exposure. Intent on creating an album that would honour the area he'd grown to love, the pianist teamed with Belfast-born composer Philip Hammond (b. 1951) on a project that would capture the spirit of the Glens, its people, and its folklore.

Now residing in Gent, Capparelli is originally from Wisconsin, but his early exposure to folk and Irish traditional music helps explain why he connected so strongly with the area. Tales of the Glens clearly resonates for him with deep meaning, as evidenced by his words, “I hear the sounds of waves on Cushendun beach with the Mull of Kintyre shrouded in mist across the water, the clinking of glasses and the rush of fiddle tunes in the pub, mournful curlews in the bog, and stories being told around a turf fire.” The versatile Capparelli has worked with many other artists, including Kronos Quartet, JACK quartet, pianists Orion Weiss and Emanuel Ax, and with members of Lorelei Ensemble. Hammond is likewise a man of many talents: a graduate of Queen's University Belfast (where he received his doctorate in 2003), he's recognized as a composer, teacher, broadcaster, and performer.

In augmenting Tales from the Sea of Moyle with solo piano works, Tales of the Glens offers a splendid sampling of Hammond's work. Two standalone pieces appear midway through the set, with premiere recordings of Aoife Óg (2020) and Forgotten Longing (2011) preceded by selections from Miniatures and Modulations (2011). A cycle comprising over twenty pieces of traditional harp tunes gathered by Edward Bunting, the work appears here in thirteen parts, with twelve of them six pairs that couple an original from the Bunting collection with a re-imagining by Hammond. The work charms instantly with Bunting's graceful transcription and Capparelli's elegant rendering of the poignant “If to a foreign clime you go”; indicative of the extensive changes Hammond brings to the material, his playful version dramatically distances itself from the tone of the original. Similarly, whereas “An Irish Lullaby” is in Bunting's haunting treatment sparse, in Hammond's the material unspools in a quietly dazzling shimmer. "The Little and Great Mountain” exudes an almost Bach-like stateliness in its Bunting form; the Hammond version recasts it as a brooding mystery waiting to be solved. As one pair cedes its place to another, it's fascinating to witness the transition from the folk character of the original to Hammond's imaginative makeover.

Dedicated to the young daughter of a friend of Hammond's, the brief Aoife Óg sparkles with childlike excitement and energy, while Forgotten Longing, inspired by John Hewitt's poem “Ireland,” expresses the enigmatic mystery of the Glens of Antrim through a chords-heavy series of brooding passages, discomfiting harmonies, wistful gestures, and a general sense of restlessness. Enlivened by the distinctive voices of renowned storytellers Weir and Urwin and the attentive piano of Capparelli, Tales from the Sea of Moyle (2021) sets the scene with an instrumental prelude whose expansiveness anticipates the richness of the stories to come. Weir's first with “The Rathlin Fairies,” which sees her inspired story of mischievous pixies complemented by jittery piano playing that peppers, pokes, and jabs at the narration like the fairy tree pricking the blackberry-picking boy Jim. As gripping is Urwin's narration in “Marina Jane,” which recounts the tragic tale of an old woman living in a stone hut on the beach of Ballygally Bay. Capparelli catches the attention first, however, with torrential piano playing evoking an 1823 storm that washed a boat ashore containing a dead mother and day-old girl given the name Marina Jane. Urwin's the narrator in the work's longest part, “The Last Wolf,” which across thirteen minutes recounts a chilling encounter in 1712 between a grey wolf and pony-riding priest in the forests outside of Carnlough and the startling discovery on the latter's part that the creature can not only speak but is in fact a curse-suffering “man in wolf's clothing” desperate for the priest to save his dying she-wolf. In these and the other stories, Hammond's piano writing partners beautifully with the storytellers' words, with each component reinforcing the impact of the other and the keyboard part often musically embodying details of the stories. Closing the work's circle effectively is a short, dreamlike postlude that incorporates a sprinkle from “The Rathlin Fairies” to resolve it even more satisfyingly.

July 2024