Music starts at 04:50
after introduction.
A piece written by me, Emil Wingstrand, 2020, for Wind orchestra. It is about the Great Blasket Island and it's evacuation in 1953.
Performed by the Gothenburg Wind Orchestra under Finn Rosengren in Kronhuset, Göteborg in October 2020.
Background:
The Great Blasket Island is an island in the atlantic outside the Irish west coast. It has been inhabited for hundreds of years and is famous for it's amazingly high frequency of authors and the fact that the inhabitants spoke exclusively Gaelic.
But the island was tormented by the Great Famine which led to extensive emigration (to Ireland and America) which continued after the Great Famine and caused demografical issues. In the end there were almost no women or young people left on the island.
The first half of the 20th century was hard for the islanders. They were very exposed to extreme weather. During bad weather they were cut off from the mainland. The inhabitants described their life on the island as a hard but happy life in a culturally rich environment.
These conditions, and the death of a young boy, caused the islanders to ask the Irish government for help. The government set up a group to help the islanders. They advised evacuation and the island was completely evacuated in 1953.
Would it have been possible to help the islanders stay on the island and preserve their culture and home and still secure their safety? What practical inconvenience and economic price are we ready to pay when it stands against something of a unique cultural worth?
The piece is based around traditional folk melodies from the island.
You can find out more here: blasket.ie