Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue- how folk is a route to reinvention

  Circle Singers are excited to be releasing their first album, ‘Songs from the heart’, on Friday 25 th September. ‘Folk-choral’ in nature but with a unique touch of jazz and full, expressive voices, this is emotionally warm music, accessible to all.   The album reaches into early music but draws heavily on a contemporary folk and choral lexicon, showcasing both new songs and remade classics. It bursts with colour and variety; the tracks span the British Isles and Scandinavia and offer something for every mood and season, moving from lilting, summery folk to a warm, ‘tub-thumping’ Christmas glow.   New to your ears will be a reworking of William Cornish’s ‘Ah, Robin’, featuring Trish Elphinstone’s saxophone duetting with internationally-acclaimed countertenor James Bowman CBE’s lead vocal, and a newly-translated version of 14 th Century Swedish carol ‘The Star is Shining’ which was originally arranged by Gunnar Idenstam. Other ...

  Something borrowed something blue something old, something new… Why Folk is a gateway to appreciation and reinvention of music Folk music is so embedded in British culture we’re hardly aware of its potency and it a great gateway into other forms and appreciation of music .From the earliest nursery rhymes to the Celtic songs and English sea and military songs, we all know a tune or two at all levels of society : Danny Boy, Skye boat song, what shall we do with the drunken sailor? Molly Malone and Scarboro fair etc. If we go back to the first British folk revival just over hundred years ago, when Bill Kimber, Cecil Sharpe and other ethno-music pioneers collected the remains of country folk songs from aging folk, we saw a huge revival in neo classical music – inspiring   Vaughan Williams, Benjamin Britten   and Percy Grainger and yes, even Stravinsky in Russia, Kreek in Estonia and Bartok in Hungary to name a few. But go back a few hundred years, and the same applies...