2015年8月9日日曜日

アイルランド音楽サマーキャンプ Scoil Acla/ Irish music and culture summer camp Scoil Acla

アイルランド最大の島、メイヨー州のアキル島にて1週間のアイルランド音楽のサマーキャンプに参加してきた。
I participated in a week long Irish summer music school in the largest offshore island in Ireland, Achill Island, Co. Mayo.

アイルランドでは7,8月にかけて国内各地にて伝統音楽・ダンスや言語を中心としたアイルランド文化継承のためにサマースクールが開かれている。
メイヨー州が私のお気に入りで、メイヨー州であるスクールに行きたい!と思って1週間の休暇を取って参戦。
There are many other summer schools around Ireland between July and August to inspire in new generations a love for Irish culture such as traditional music, dance and language.
County Mayo is my favourite county in Ireland, so I had been dreaming of joining a summer school in Co. Mayo. This is why I ended up taking the chance at last to go.

 

サマースクールの中でもScoil Aclaは歴史がある方で、今年で30周年を迎えた。
月〜金曜の毎日10時から13時まで楽器ごと、レベルごとにミュージックワークショップ(因みに今年は30周年特別価格で割引かれ、参加費は75ユーロ)があり、他に籠編み体験やセッション等が行われた。
Scoil Acla celebrated its 30th anniversary this year and it is one of the longest summer schools in terms of its history amongst other summer music camps in Ireland.  From Monday to Friday, we had workshops in the morning between 10am and 1pm, divided depending on music instruments and grades (by the way, the cost of the whole week was only 75 EUR this year due to the special anniversary discount, but normally it’s also a reasonable: 95EUR).
Apart from the workshops, we got a basket weaving class, and sessions day and night.
火曜日は籠編体験へ。

以前、Skerriesでのミュージックワークショップでのクラス分けのためのグレーディング・テストで大ミスを冒していた私。今回はレッスンが1週間とだけあって失敗は繰り返さない!と意気込み、かなり前から密かに練習していた。
When I went to other music weekend workshop in Skerries earlier this year, I totally messed up with the grading test on the first day.  I was determined not to do the same, so I secretly practiced and practiced several tunes so that I could play perfectly on the first day this time.

月曜朝、早めに行ってちょっと練習しようかと思っていたら、クラス分け担当のJohnに適当な質問を受けただけであっさりとクラスを指定される。
内心、アレ!?
クラスに入ってから、ちょっと曲弾いてみて!と言われて1人ずつ弾いてみる。
まわりは老若男女問わず2-3年の経験者。
そしてあくまでも本人の意思を尊重するようで、もう1つレベルの高いクラスに行きたい!と全員が弾き終わった時点で願い出た。
残りの半分をPaddy Ryan率いる6レベル中上から2番目のクラスへ。
進度や技術面でもクラスかな!と思った。
でもネックとなる人物がひとりいた。あるおじいちゃん、、、
耳で聴いてなかなかうまく弾けないこのおじいちゃんのためにPaddyもほぼ1対1でつき、
私含め残りの19人は、「・・・」という感じ。みんなが見守っていた。と同時に「1週間どうなるかな」と内心感じていた。

    ◯月曜の曲
  《Intermediate Class》
  ・Rose in the heather
  ・Kerry Slides
  《Advance Class》
  ・Few Bob
  ・The Edenderry Reel
  ・Hairy Chested Frog

On Monday, I arrived at the lesson venue a bit early because I was intending to practice. However, a teacher who would carry out the grading, John, showed up and allocated me a class after only a second, after asking me some questions, not by letting me play. I was like “whhhatt?!”.
In the class, the teacher, another John, asked us to play some short tunes, so we, around 20 students, played one by one in front of him. Everybody except me had been learning the fiddle over two years.  It seemed the teacher respected our wishes, so I asked the teacher to upgrade and let me move to other class. I joined the second highest class out of six taught by Paddy Ryan. I thought it was suitable class for me in terms of grade and technique I could apply. However, there was one ‘outstanding’ person in our group.  He was an old lad.  Paddy tried to teach him one by one, as he could not get tunes by learning by ear.  During that special one to one lesson time, other 19 students including myself had to wait to pass the time peacefully.  At the same time, I asked myself what it would be like this week.

   ◯Tunes on Monday
 《Intermediate Class》
  ・Rose in the heather
  ・Kerry Slides
  《Advance Class》
  ・Few Bob
  ・The Edenderry Reel
  ・Hairy Chested Frog

Keem のビーチへ。
火曜、まだ私は迷っていた。
あのおじいちゃんはまだいるのだろうか。。
せっかくなら、一番上のクラスを見てみたい。。。ということで1日、Liam O’Connorのアドバンスクラスへ。
Atlantic Roar、John Kelly’s ReelそしてPaddy in Londonの合計3曲習った。
最後まで楽譜も何も配られない。
ただ耳でインプットして、その場で即座にアウトプットする。
この過程がみんな恐ろしいほど早くて、すぐに重音やロール、カットといった装飾も自在に入れている。普段、耳で習うことに慣れていない私は、完全置いてきぼり。
やりきれない悔しさが残る。と同時に、いつか到達したい領域が見えた。
明日からもここで踏ん張ろうと思ったが、今回は背伸びをしても届かない領域があることがわかっただけで収穫、とわりきってPaddyのクラスへ戻ることに。

  ◯火曜の曲
  《Intermediate Class》
  ・The Blackbird
  ・Humours of Ballyconnell
  ・Trip to Birmingham

  《Advance Class》
  ・Atlantic Roar
  ・John Kelly’s Reel
  ・Paddy in London

On Tuesday, I was still like in a puzzle.
I was wondering whether that old guy was still there.
As I was curious how advanced the Advance class would have been, I upgraded further to the highest grade class, whose teacher was Liam O’Connor. He taught us three tunes that day: Atlantic Roar, John Kelly’s Reel and Paddy in London. Even after the end of the lesson, no music sheet was handed out. Simply enough, we input by ear and output immediately. I was really overwhelmed by the students in the class, because the process they absorbed music was crazy quick, and also they freely applied ornamentations such as double stops, rolls and cuts.  I have not gotten used to learning by ear, so I was way behind compared to others. I wished I could have done better, but I could see the next level I would like to reach soon.
One option was to straggle here from the following day like that day, but I chose to take the other option; that is, to go back to Paddy’s class. I thought it was meaningful to just notice that there was a level I could not reach even though I tried to touch it.

一方、そのPaddyのクラスから例のおじいちゃんが追い出され、1つ下のクラスへ行ったとの朗報(?)。
Meanwhile, I got the latest (good?) news that the old man had been thrown out from Paddy’s class, and joined the lower grade lesson.

  ◯Tunes on Tuesday
  《Intermediate Class》
  ・The Blackbird
  ・Humours of Ballyconnell
  ・Trip to Birmingham

  《Advance Class》
  ・Atlantic Roar
  ・John Kelly’s Reel
  ・Paddy in London
島では、羊も柵のない所で放し飼い。

水曜、何事もなかったかのようにPaddyのクラスに戻った。3日目にしてやっといるべき場所がわかった(遅)。
昨日やった曲の楽譜も配られ、レッスン冒頭みんなが弾いている間に音源もゲット。このクラスでも1日3曲。でもやっぱ耳から学ぶ。みんな2-3回ずつフレーズを繰り返しただけでさっと全体通して弾けるのがすごかった。ここでも自分は置いてきぼり。2フレーズ目やったら一つ前のフレーズを忘れてしまうんだもの。わからないままレッスンが進んでゆく〜

  ◯水曜の曲
  ・The Ballinafad Polka
  ・Kitty come down to Limerick
  ・The Promenade

On Wednesday, I came back to Paddy’s class as if nothing had happened. It was a bit late for the third day, but I finally figured out where to belong this week.
The teacher Paddy handed out the music they learnt previous day and I recorded tunes while others were playing.  In this class as well, we covered three tunes in a day. Of course, they learn by ear, too. It was amazing to find everybody could play immediately after they heard and repeated to play some phrases a few times. I could not follow them very well, because I easily forgot the previous bar while learning the second bar!! The lesson flew fast while I was struggling…

  ◯Tunes on Wednesday
  ・The Ballinafad Polka
  ・Kitty come down to Limerick
  ・The Promenade

天と地が逆さま。
木曜、わからない場所をわからないと言えるようになった。例のおじいちゃんのこと、悪く言ってたけど明日は我が身。まわりの温かさに救われた。いろんな年代がごちゃまぜだったのだけど子供(中学生くらい)たちはものすごくたくさん曲を弾いてきているようだし、楽譜に頼らず耳で聴いて間違いを恐れず弾くから弾けるようになるのも早い!Paddyはアイリッシュ音楽の歴史家のような人。曲と曲の間にアイリッシュフィドラーのこととか地域によるスタイルのこととか教えてくれる。

  ◯木曜の曲
  ・The View across the Valley
  ・The Whistler
  ・The Gold Ring

Day 4- On Thursday, I could give a shout to Paddy that I had been confused a bit in certain parts of the tunes we were working on. I said something harsh about the old lad before, but the similar situation was about to occur at me!! However, other kind students helped me a lot. It was interesting to observe that especially children about junior school age seemed to have been playing hundreds of tunes and they were not afraid of making a mistake, so they were much faster to learn to play compared to older students in the class. The teacher Paddy was like a historian of Irish trad music. He taught us a lot inbetween about Irish fiddlers and some techniques which were different depending on regions in Ireland.

  ◯Tunes on Thursday
  ・The View across the Valley
  ・The Whistler
  ・The Gold Ring

金曜、もう最終日。本当は土曜も2時間レッスンあって、その後クラスごとにステージに上がる発表会Open-air Concertがあるのだけど明日はダブリンで用事があるため泣く泣く今日のレッスン後に帰る。最後の3時間。耳で学ぶことに少しずつ慣れてきてPaddyの手を焼くことも少なくなってきた。Sligo地方のMountain Roadという本の紹介とその題名にもなった曲などを弾き、Foxhunter’s (Slip Jig)を〆に習い、終了!

  ◯金曜の曲
  ・Michael Dwyer’s Jig
  ・The Mountain Road
  ・Foxhunter’s Slip Jig

On Friday, it was already the last day. Actually, there would be a two-hour lesson on Saturday and the open-air concert afterwards, where every classes and instruments played on stage. However, I had to head for Dublin with some other friends to make it to something else for the following day. The last three hours- I gradually got used to learning by ear and I had less time to make trouble for Paddy. We learned some tunes including a main tune from a tune book called “The Mountain Road” from south Sligo area. We called it a day with a lovely tune called Foxhunter’s Slip Jig.

  ◯Tunes on Friday
  ・Michael Dwyer’s Jig
  ・The Mountain Road
  ・Foxhunter’s Slip Jig

毎日、表情を変えるAchill Island。
今回は他のアイリッシュ音楽を学ぶ人たちがどのくらいのペースで曲を吸収して行っているのか目の当たりにして刺激的だった。
サマースクールに出られるくらいのレベルまで1年2ヶ月で持ってこられたのはよかったけど、目標となる次に到達したいレベルが見つかったのも収穫。
今回のScoil Aclaではフィドルに関しては1クラス20人(アドバンスクラスは30名越え)もいたのが難点で、もっと個々へのより細かな助言があれば最高だったけれど。。。
Reflecting on one week workshop, it was stimulative to know how fast other Irish fiddle learners absorbed tunes. I had made efforts to some extent so that I could make it to the summer school in one year and two months. It was really meaningful to join, as I could find the higher grade I would like to reach next. Overall, the summer school Scoil Acla was fruitful and I really enjoyed. However, it could be better if they reduce the number of students per class, since we had at least 20 students (in advance class, there were even more than 30 people). In smaller classes, it would be possible for both students and teachers to interact and provide more individual tips and advice.

後日談。
Paddyのクラスから追い出されたおじいちゃん(※我々に追い出した自覚なし)。
1つ下のクラスでその後大人しくやっていたようだが、レッスン中の身の上話が度を越しクラスメイトに冷たくあしらわれ(?)、木曜から姿を消したという。。。
なかなか面白い展開をもつ人だった。
A sequel to the story: The old man who was removed from the class (we did not really recognise nor do such things, though). It seemed he behaved well in the class at first, but he spoke about himself too much during the lesson. As his classmates treated cold (?), he had never shown up at the class since Thursday. He had an interesting circumstances around him over the week!

あぁ、今夏はもう終わりでもまた来年以降またぜひサマースクール行ってみたい!
次は、ドネゴールのフィドラーズウィークかアイルランド最大のクレアでのウィリークランシーかな。。。
今年、リサーチ後にExcelで一覧作ったため日程等アップデートする
Though summer school season is going to end soon, I definitely would love to participate in summer music camps next year onwards. What’s next? Maybe my next target will be the fiddlers week in Donegal or the biggest Irish music summer school, Willie Clancy in Co.Clare? I am going to update the details on excel file that I made after some hard work and  research this year.

2 件のコメント:

  1. Thank you for sharing your experience at Scoil Acla. I am planning to go there this summer so your story helps me a lot.

    返信削除
    返信
    1. Hi Soomee,
      Thanks for your message! I'm really glad to hear my blog post helped you somehow. I'm sure you will love your experience in Scoil Acla this summer:) Enjoy it!

      削除