Recording with Elgar in Pigeonsford?

I have been back to Llangrannog quite a few times now and have recorded the sea in nearly 20 different locations so that I can go into my studio and put all of 'the seas' together as one and then listen to see if I can feel the intensity of Elgar’s composition Welsh Tune.

I am convinced now that I will feel the intensity, having heard and stood in the waves crashing against the towering rocks.

This visit I went for a good walk over the coastal path and it is a moving experience! As I went for this walk, I passed a National Tourist Board Sign telling the story of the Giant Bica who lived in Llangrannog and telling how it is his big foot steps and his raging tooth ache have cut up the land, leaving little rock islands stranded sometimes by water. So I need to think about his footsteps when composing the piece.

I saw a friend while I was down there, Yo, and she said that she thought that Pigeonsford Mansion, where Elgar is known to have stayed when he composed his Welsh Tune, is down the turning opposite the Urdd Centre site.

So we bundled back in the car and pootled off to Pigeonsford to see if we could find it. AND WE DID!!

Or at least we think we might have. It said outside that there are holiday cottages to let in the grounds of the farm so I’m going to ring them up.

Imagine if I can actually go to stay at the place where Elgar stayed and compose my piece there! I would be blown away! If I can, and if it is the right place, I will take my recording studio with me and set it up and the cottage to record it there too.

The grounds are absolutely stunning so I am hoping it is the right place. I think Elgar would have liked this. He was one of the first composers to really experiment with recordings.



Many thanks to The Arts Council of Wales for my Individual Mainline Grant. It really is giving me the opportunity not just to journey through my creative mind, but to challenge and expand it in a way I could never have done otherwise.

www.cherylbeer.co.uk

Tracing Elgar's Welsh Tune

If I have to sit for one more minute in front of this computer, I thought, I will blow a fuse!

So I put my coat on and decided to got to Llangrannog. Do you remember in an earlier blog I was saying that I had heard Elgar's Welsh Tune on Classic FM and it had influenced my computer generated industrial piece for the first movement of Dance the Ribbons with the children of the Eco Council??

Well, I thought it might rather be fun to go down to the beach where he was inspired and listen/record the sea and try to find the 4 part string section .. See if I could hear Elgar in the waves.

Imagine it ...  I've got my trousers rolled up, hair wild and random, up to my knees in waves recording the sea in different spots to hear the Bass, Alto etc when I am approached by a camera team making a film for Theatr Felinfach's Cultural Olympiad Celebrations ... so I ended up being in thier film :)) Fabulous!

It was great for recording and I so wish I had taken my little digital recorder but I only had my video. I will wait for another quiet weather evening and pop down again.

I couldn't find the plaque on Elgar which on the internet says is there, so will need to look again but a chap in the cafe said that Elgar was staying with friends from London at Pigeonston Manor?? Now then, I've looked that up on the internet and can't find it so I'm wondering did I hear him right??