Submitted by Timberland Regional Library
How many instruments does it take to circle the world? The musical duo Four Shillings Short does it in 30. Aodh Og O’Tuama* of Cork Ireland, and Christy Martin of San Diego, California, will perform their all-ages concert, “Around the World in 30 Instruments,” at the Lacey Timberland Library on Saturday, September 14 at 3 p.m. The event is free of charge.
Folk songs and music on the playlist hail from Ireland, Scotland, England, India, the Americas and Medieval and Renaissance Europe, and are performed on Medieval, Renaissance and modern instruments. The husband-wife team introduces each instrument, talks about its history and uses it in a song or instrumental piece. Vocals are in English, Gaelic, Spanish and Sanskrit.
The names of the instruments alone call to mind a collection of gems: hammered dulcimer, mandolin, mandola, bouzouki (a long-necked stringed instrument from Greece), Medieval and Renaissance woodwinds, recorders, tinwhistles, banjo, North Indian sitar, bowed psaltery, the charango (small guitar) from Bolivia, bodhran ([′bauˌrahn], a shallow, hand-held Celtic drum), doumbek (picture a goblet-shaped drum) and spoons. The couple enjoys introducing children to all the unusual instruments, so people are encouraged to bring the whole family.
O’Tuama and Martin have been touring in the United States and Ireland since 1997, when they became full-time traveling minstrels. O’Tuama grew up in a family of poets, musicians and writers. He received his degree in Music from University College Cork, Ireland and received a Fellowship from Stanford University in California in Medieval and Renaissance performance.
Martin grew up in a family of musicians and dancers. She studied the sitar for ten years with a student of sitar master Ravi Shankar and studied with several masters of the hammered dulcimer. The duo’s websites are www.4shillingsshort.com and www.art.net/~4ss. Listen to some demos at www.art.net/~4ss/demo.shtml.
The event is sponsored by the Friends of the Lacey Timberland Library. The library is at 500 College Street SE, Lacey. For more details, call (360) 491-3860 or visit www.TRL.org.
* pronounced Ā yōg′ O’ Tu′-ama
