GEILT at Lochmaddy Community Hall by Rufus Elliot

GEILT (a number of ways) was commissioned by the Nevis Ensemble for their summer tour of the Hebrides, 2019. This performance was given by Jon Hargreaves (conductor) and the Nevis Ensemble at Lochmaddy Community Hall, 22 August 2019.

GEILT

Summer Isles (Am I); Soay (Offering); Thumbs (Two Fingers); The Haar (Absence); West Coast (Grazed Elbows); Zekari Pass (Bruised Wrists); Assynt (Seen From Afar); Hecla (The Witch); Glen Brittle (I am with you…); Sweeney (If I show my heels); Raasay (Listening to the surge on the stony shore); Escape from Inverie (Astray); Tabatskuri (Rubble); From the Black Sea (Kalashnikov); The Atlantic Ocean (Rotten Spring Tide); Hecla (Passed By); Loch Coruisk (A Prayer For A Breeze); Ullapool Sea Wall (Morning)

Geilt is an Old Irish word used to refer to the character Sweeney, and other wanderers and outsiders. Sweeney, the cursed king of Dál Araide, experiencing PTSD-like symptoms following a battle, transforms into a bird or a bird-like creature, and flits around the wilds of Ireland as an outcast. The clearest account of his story is found in a 12th Century Irish text; however, the story seems to have its origins in the medieval kingdom of Strathclyde.

GEILT reaches out to the places the Nevis Ensemble would pass on their journey -- places that brought with them an ephemeral life of moving on.