i
Wednesday, September 23, 1981
daily nebraskan
page 1 1
Irish group among bands at country-folk festival
By Bfll Graf
The Walnut Valley Bluegrass Festival in Winfield.Kan.,
the Midwest's largest country-folk festival, was a bit dif
ferent this year.
Usually the bands perform purely American music. But
one band that commanded large crowds wasn't American
at all. It was an Irish folk band that performed music rep
resenting hundreds of years of Irish music history.
It isn't unusual to include an Irish band in an American
music festival. The Irish are responsible for much of what
Americans call bluegrass, old-time string music and mod
ern folk music, said De Danann banjo player Charlie Pig
gott. De Danann, whose members live in the west Irish town
of Galway, first hit the American shores during the Ameri
can bicentennial celebration in Washington, D.C.
Since then, Piggott said, the band has been back each
year to perform to crowds that get larger each year.
Part of the reason Irish folk music has lasted for several
centuries, he said, is that it's the music of oppressed peo
ple. i don't want to get into a political conversation," he
said, "but there's that famine and the like. Oppression
also has to do with the survival of jazz and bluegrass."
The music De Danann performs is generally made up of
jigs, reels and hornpipes. Piggott said the American blue
grass bands very often play reels and hornpipes, which are
usually called fiddle dance tunes by American counter
parts. But jigs, he said, by definition, have a different time
structure, which doesn't lend itself as well to country
dance styles and therefore isn't heard as much in the
United States.
However, the Americans have had their influence on
the Irish, Piggott said.
Talking about his instrument, the four string banjo,
Piggott said it is an American jazz instrument that made
it's debut in Irish music about a hundred years ago.
But instead of being a rhythm instrument, as it is in
early jazz, the Irish changed the tuning to match fiddle
tuning and made it a melody instrument, he said. That
rote is filled by the mandolin in American bluegrass, he
said.
Piggott said the band plays in several large European
cities, so American cities don't seem unique. But, he said,
the American people are different in different parts of the
country.
"We've played the East Coast and the West Coast and
to me they seem like different countries," he said.
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Photo by Bill Graf
Dawn Watson, a UNL student, practices an old Irish tune, "Whiskey Before Breakfast," at her campsite during
last weekend's Walnut Valley bluegrass festival in Winfield, Kansas.
Shlomo Mintz will open
Kimball fall season Friday
Shlomo Mintz will open
the Kimball Recital Hall
1981-82 performing arts
season with a concert Fri
day, Sept. 25 at 8 p.m.
Tickets for the concert are
available at the Kimball
box office in Westbrook
Music Building. Ticket
prices are $7 general admis
sion and $3.50 for UNL
students.
Mintz, a Russian-born
Israeli violinist, is a prote
ge of Isaac Stern. He has
developed a large follow
ing in Europe and Israel
as a result of many radio
and television perform
ances. He has performed
with every major musical
organization in Israel, in
cluding the Israel Philhar
monic Orchestra, to which
he was first selected by
Zubin Metha to replace an
indisposed Itzhak Perlman
for a performance.
Mintz made his first
American appearance in
1974 with the Pittsburgh
Symphony, and has since
performed with the New
York Philharmonic, the
Cleveland Orchestra and
the Los Angeles Philhar
monic. The program for the Fri-
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Starring . i Ift'W'1
KELLY NICHOLS IV 0
Ssa3 and RANDY WEST) f , , :1 ?tl
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III I 3 I I 1
day night performance at
Kimball will consist of the
following: "Rondo Brilli
ant in B minor," Op. 70
by Schubert; "Sonata,
Op. 134 by Shostakovich;
"Sonata in A major," K.
526 by Mozart; and "So
nata for Violin and Piano,"
by Ravel.
THEATRE
STUDIO 12
329 N. 12th St.
472-2073
"Tickets: $3 & $4
. ft
re
William Ingle's
COMEDY
Sept. 24, 25. 26
& 29 thru Oct. 3
at 8:00p.m.
UNL - An Equal Opportunity Educational Institution
13th &P 475 2222 ;
5:15-7:20-9:25
IMMtnM
Br or rut
At
5:20-7:20-9:20
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miMiomgtrii
KLLUITBSAT
STRIPES
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5:v15-7:15-9:15
UPC American Film Classics Committee
Presents
A Bogart Film Festival
Tuesday. Sept. 22
"Caine Muntiny"
7 p.m.
"To Have and Have Not.'
9:15 p.m.
Wednesday. Sept. 23
"Treasure of the Sierra
Madre."
7 p.m.
"Casablanca."
9:15 p.m.
Nebraska Union Rostrum ,
Students wI.D. $2.00 General Public $3.00
In Conjunction With UPC "Awareness Week"
Today's Programs 1
Wood Carving Demonstration
featuring Robert Steel and his Western Art
1 1 :00 a.m. -1:00 pjn. Nebraska East Union - Lobby
Women's Resource Center Open House
Refreshments Served 1 :00 p.m. - 4:00 pan.
Nebraska Union - Room 1 1 6
Talks & Topic's Afternoon Speaker
Featuring Political Science Prof. Forsythe
Topicr Reagan's Policy - Domestic & Abroad
Nebraska Union - Main Lounge 2:30
Pink Panther Film Festival
"The Return of the Pink Panther" plus "The Pink Panther Strikes
Again" and Pink Panther Cartoons 7:00 -1 1 :30 p jn.
$1.00 Students $2.00 Non-Students Nebraska East Union - Great Plains Room
Bogart Film Festival
"Casablanca" plus "Treasure of Sierra Madre"
$2.00 Students $3.00 Non-Students 7:00 pjn.
Nebraska Union - Rostrum
COMING ATTRACTIONS:
Feminist Forum
Topic "Feminism & Peace' Speakers: Moni Vasz & Helen Moure
Thursday 7:00 pjn. Nebraska Union
Sidney Poitier Film Festival
"Heat of the Night" plus "They call Me Mr. Tibbs"
Free Admission Friday 7:00 -1 1 :00 p jn. Nebraska Union - The Rostrum
Hoedown Dance
Featuring: "Sandy Creek Pickers"
$1.00 Admission - Free Admission with cowboy hat or farmers cap
Friday 9 :00 pjn. - Midnight Nebraska East Union Great Plains Room
University Program CounciUMMa
If you want to ioin
UPC - City or
Culture Center
call 472-2454
nil pspa
Join UPC - East
Today Call
472-1780