From Folk to Baroque: Celtic Music Duo Rakish

Rakish is the duo of Violinist Maura Shawn Scanlin and guitarist Conor Hearn. They take their name from the traditional Irish tune Rakish Paddy, an origin that aptly suits the duo and their shared background in traditional Irish and Scottish music. They draw on the music they grew up with and perform it in a way that reflects their shared interest in and love for chamber and improvised music. Scanlin, a two-time U.S. National Scottish Fiddle Champion, and a winner of the Glenfiddich Fiddle Competition, has the technical range of a classical violinist and the sensitivity of a traditional musician. Hearn, a native to the Irish music communities of Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, MD, makes his home in Boston playing guitar for several traditional music acts and bands.

Using musical form and harmonic language as focal points, Rakish demonstrate the influence and overlap between dance music and airs from Britain and Ireland and art music or classical music from surrounding countries. Their concert includes musical dance forms and tune types including jigs, reels, hornpipes and airs, arranged from written collections to be performed on the fiddle and guitar. Using musical transcriptions from the American Folklife Center and the Library's Music division, Rakish trace the connections between traditional music from Britain and Ireland in the period from 1650 to 1750 and the late baroque and early galant music from surrounding countries such as France, Germany and Italy. The galant style (1720-1770) was a return to a simpler, more melody-driven musical aesthetic after the complexity of the baroque period. Galant music parallels the inherent simplicity of traditional tunes that were composed and played in Ireland, Scotland and England in the late 17th and early 18th centuries.

For transcript and more information, visit https://www.loc.gov/item/webcast-11345