Journey to Celtic regions

The accordionist, composer and musicologist Martin Tourish has now arranged this wonderful music for flute and accordion, following a booklet for accordion solo (UE 36125). The musician, who now lives in Dublin and originally comes from Donegal in the northwest of Ireland, has ancestors who "collected" traditional dance music and left behind manuscripts dating back to 1896. Tourish completed his doctorate in 2014 with his research into the style of Irish traditional music.

This booklet unites musical traditions from Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall and Brittany. The two instruments are used with equal emphasis. I like the variety of parallelism, unison playing, question-and-answer, but also the vocal overlaps between the instruments extremely well. The arrangements invite you to savor the wide scope for your own variations and interpretations. Martin Tourish writes in the foreword: "I hope that this collection will inspire you to literally think outside the box."

Some of the register recommendations for the accordion do not seem ideal to me. A combination of a "polychoral" register and densely played harmonies in the right hand makes me doubt that there is an optimal tonal (dynamic) balance between flute and accordion. In some pieces I could well imagine the use of the single-note bass (melody bass) - for a slimmer, more transparent sound.

The information on the origin and background of each musical work included in the appendix, as well as the valuable explanations on style and ornamentation, support your own active immersion in these great pieces. They motivate you to engage with this musical tradition through other channels. "Let yourselves be carried away, dear musicians!"

Celtic Duets for flute and accordion (M2), easy to moderately difficult folk songs from Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Cornwall and Brittany, arr. by Martin Tourish, UE 38035, € 19.95, Universal Edition, Vienna