The Stove Network
Great weather – great people – great town – great river…..art making places. More than 5000 people were on the Whitesands for the Nithraid over Saturday afternoon – even Alex Salmond turned up at one point. Happy Days!
This is a really quick set of images from the day…..more to follow soon
Photos from The Stove Documentation Team (Colin Tennant, Galina Walls, Kim Ayres, Drew Johnstone) and ‘Our D+G’ Facebook Page…thanks all!!
From Ruth Morris
By far the most difficult part of the whole thing has been finding enough young musicians to take part. We had the idea of a Balkan style street carnival band. To sound like that, one needs a few brass/ woodwind instruments, which turn out to be like hen’s teeth in Dumfries and Galloway! However we have a few now, including a euphonium, a trombone, some clarinets and some saxophones. We also have fiddles, accordions, flute and percussion. So it should be very lively!
To hear it at it’s best, join the parade through Dumfries from 1.30pm this Saturday, or see the band perform the full piece on our stage on the Whitesands later in the afternoon.
Writing music for transposing instruments, eg clarinets, saxophones, euphoniums is full of interesting challenges. For example, if I want everyone in the room to play the note ‘C’, I have to tell fiddles, flutes, accordions etc to play ‘C’. But I have to tell clarinets and euphoniums to play ‘D’, and I have to tell alto saxophones to play an ‘A’. This can lead to confusion, as I’m sure you can imagine.
But once everyone has worked out what the notes are, it’s a truly wonderful sound, loud and powerful. For most of the people involved, this is a very different kind of music to what they normally play, so it’s a great opportunity for everyone to try something a bit different.
Writing it was a lot of fun. We usually start with an idea for a melody line, then once that has become fixed, find some nice chords that work with it. We often then record that, which gives something to try different harmony parts against. We adapt the parts to suit the players that are involved. We’re very pleased with how the Nithraid music has come out, it will work well for a parade.
Ruth Morris and Gavin Marwick are part of the Stove’s Nithraid team, working to develop and grow the procession that will see the salty coo carried through the streets of Dumfries and down to the riverside where it will take pride of place over the River Nith to welcome in the arriving boats. This year’s Nithraid takes place on Saturday, 13th of September. A dangerous dinghy race from Carsethorn upriver, the boats will arrive in the centre of Dumfries with the high tide at approximately 3.45pm. There is a lot going down on the Whitesands all afternoon, full details on our Nithraid page here.
From Mark Zygadlo
Here’s
the rainbow scum
in the peaty puddle,
the floating wabbling moss
pressed to a trickle, to the stony sykes
and the burns with the overhanging alder banks,
the Marr, the Scaur, you know them all.
Plunge pools between the rocks
where something cold in the shape of a tiny fish
slimes to the stones and you dare not touch it,
innocuous though you are.
The falls and the places of the saved, the plains flood, bunds and bridges now, drains and stinking outfalls, rich weed and confluences, abbey ruins, mills, houses, fishing beats those who should and those who shouldn’t, lord bless us and slow us every one.
Now here’s a river that flows both ways twice a day, here’s a river with a bore, here’s a river of great salmon and otters in the town centre, here’s river that worked, here’s a river that sent a thousand swanskin gloves in a single ship, here’s a river that’s been trained and straightened, blasted, dredged, bridged, forded, made electricity, turned the town mill. It’s the replying torrent that floods the town and carries off the eroded hills, it fills and empties with millions upon millions of tons of seawater twice a day and here’s a benign stream of clear tea stained water with islands and ducks and white flowering weed.
Here are the docks and wharves o’ergrown, the flattening merse, the ooze, the whetted wind that opens the distance to the sea. This is the sea. The Nith is a constant with darkness laying along its meandering silty bed. No day is the same yet…
Mark Zygadlo is part of the Stove’s Nithraid team, developing the boat race itself and this year has also been working to create a large installation in the centre of the River Nith. This year’s Nithraid takes place on Saturday, 13th of September. A dangerous dinghy race from Carsethorn upriver, the boats will arrive in the centre of Dumfries with the high tide at approximately 3.45pm. There is a lot going down on the Whitesands all afternoon, full details on our Nithraid page here.
The Whitesands came alive this weekend – as the Nithraid did indeed come up with the tide. From the starting point at Carsethorn, thirteen boats made the trip up the Caul – with first place being awarded to Piella, skippered by Adam Booth with a time of 2 hours and 6 minutes. But a challenging race it proved, as sand banks, strong currents and low winds proved the course to be a tricky one.
The Salt Cow was paraded through the streets of Dumfries with all ceremonial care which gathered numbers as it passed the Midsteeple, rounded the Burns statue (twice), down the Vennels and across the Devorgilla bridge to continue a loop around the river bridges to the beating of drums (and diggeri-moos).
Banners were released over the old bridge as the boats arrived, proclaiming the words of Dumfries including:
Seize the potential.
On the brink.
Decent.
Cut rates.
Despite the slightly dreich conditions – spectators arrived and lined both sides of the river to behold the unusual sight. Many thanks go out to everyone who was involved and to all who turned out on Saturday.
We’ve been busy gathering words for The Nithraid this week. When the boats arrive in the town on Saturday 21 September, they will be greeted by The Stove’s huge fabric banners floating downstream from the Old Bridge, welcoming them to Dumfries with messages from the townspeople.
The #Nithraid discussions on Twitter and Facebook have arrived at ‘Three words for Dumfries’ – as broad and as limited as it sounds. We’ve had some really interesting contributions.
Here’s a summary of The #Nithraid tweets and posts:
We’ll continue the discussion on Facebook and Twitter this week. Come along and join in!