The Celtic Cafe is
grateful to Keltika Magazine of Italy for sharing some of the work of Alfredo
De Pietra, its Music Column Editor, translated into English. Click
here for Alfredo's bio page at the Celtic Cafe, with links to some of
his other features available here at CelticCafe.com. •
• • The dynamic duo formed by Ditte Fromseier Mortensen
on violin and Michael G. Rose on piano is named Fromseier
Rose, and they perform modern acoustic Celtic music so very beautifully,
in Copenhagen, Denmark and on tour. From the Fromseier Rose website:
"It was the middle of a late night session at the 2001 Copenhagen Irish Festival.
Ditte launched into a lively version of Kitchen Girl and Michael joined in on
the piano. It was the first time they played together and their chemistry was
evident in the music. By the end of the tune it was obvious that they had to play
together... The music of Fromseier Rose is based on the Celtic tradition.
Ditte draws on the heavily rhythmic Scottish and northern Irish styles. This is
complemented by the swinging pulse from Michael's New England roots. These traditional
sources are combined with their own compositions and a rich variety of musical
influences. The result is a swinging and stimulating conversation between two
talented musicians that appeals to a broad range of audiences." Michael
was kind enough to provide the Celtic Cafe community with a report on his trip
to the Tonder Festival in 2003, along with many wonderful photos of the great
performers. Click here
for that. Thanks to Alfredo
De Pietra, the following is an interview with Michael about Fromseier
Rose's terrific Contradiction
CD, which also features the inimitable voice of Niamh
Parsons! • • •
CONTRADICTION
Interview
with Michael G. Rose of Fromseier Rose Piano & violin is
very common in classical music, not so in Irish music. How did you decide to play
together? While piano/fiddle isn't so common in pure Irish music,
it is a common combination in Boston, where I grew up, and also in Cape Breton
and Scotland. So if there is a piano at a session then I'll slip in for a few
tunes so long as the other musicians don't raise their eyebrows too much. Ditte
and I met at a session and our playing just seemed to fit together right from
the start. We also could tell we had similar tastes because we were learning the
same tunes from the same Liz Doherty CD even before we started playing together.
From January 2002 we started to get together once a week just to have fun playing
tunes. After a few months we realized that we were developing our own sound from
adapting to each other's style, playing more lyrically together, improvising and
having fun with the rhythms. Since we were enjoying playing together and people
seemed to like what we were doing, so we decided to make the duo official and
to start gigging and recording.
Due to the "uncommon"
situation of piano & violin, we could say that you have no "reference
points"; in other words, you have no "models" in your approach
to Irish music. Is this a stimulating situation? The folk dance
style in Boston is descended from Irish, Scottish and English dancing, along with
a bit of French Canadian. The instrumentation features fiddle and the piano is
the main rhythm and harmony instrument. The bands in Boston have pushing the boundaries
and improvising during the dancing for the last 30 years. So in a way they have
been a model for me. But we perform mainly in concert settings. So rather
than concentrating on giving a beat to the dancers we are free to explore the
character of the tunes we play. We like to try and tell a small story to each
other and the audience with each set. In this respect, our model is more like
small jazz combos, even though we are not playing jazz. It is very inspiring,
and we are, without meaning to, always motivating each other to try more and extend
what we are doing.
What are your previous musical experiences? I've
spent most of my life hopping between guitar and piano. When I was in high school
I would accompany folk singers. From there I went on to study classical guitar
and played in a trio called Barolk Folk that played a mixture of classical and
O'Carolan. After moving to Denmark I played in a few different folk groups and
started hanging out a jazz and salsa clubs, much to the distress of some of my
folk music friends. It seems to have affected my rhythmic and harmonic sensibilities. Ditte
grew up playing classical violin, starting when she was four. She went to England
to continue her studies at a conservatory in Colchester. But she fell in with
a crowd of Irish musicians, and as soon as she saw how spontaneous and spirited
the music was, she was hooked. On moving back to Denmark she helped form a traditional
Irish band, Flax in Bloom. She is spending this year in the Master's of Traditional
Music program in Limerick Ireland. *Update, September 2004: Ditte
has graduated (with First Honors) with a Master's in Traditional Music Performance
from the University of Limerick and she is now studying traditional Danish music
at the Carl Nielsen Academy in Denmark.*
What are your main
influences? Of course Irish music, and then...? Ditte's main Irish
influences are from her current teachers at Limerck. Matt Cranich is inspiring
her to explore all of the technical possibilities of the fiddle and Frankie Gavin's
drive and energy is also a big influence. Of course growing up with classical
violin and traditional Danish fiddle music has also influenced her style. And
we will also be adding more tunes from Ditte's home island of Bornholm to our
repertoire, they are lovely and some of them fit perfectly with Irish tunes. My
original Celtic influence was Scottish - Capercaille, especially the guitarist,
Manus Lunny. In fact, I'm still stealing (...er...borrowing) a lot of ideas from
contemporary Irish guitarists, like Gerry Paul and Tony Byrne, and adapting them
to piano. The pianists I listen to most are Michel Camillo, Chick Corea and Niels
Lan Doky - all jazz pianists who are very inventive and energetic. There are also
a couple of great pianists I grew up with in Boston, Peter Barnes and Jackie Schwab
- they were my original inspiration for using the piano in folk music.
Please
tell us someting about the presence of Niamh parsons on the album...
I
was talking with a friend of mine, Mich Nielsen, and told him that we were planning
on recording a CD and were looking for a singer for a few songs. Mich is a good
friend of Niamh Parsons and he took it upon himself to contact her for us. She
said yes, and she was wonderfully generous with her time and talent. It was an
honor to play with her, and an absolute delight.
Why the title
"Contradiction"?
We originally called our duo Contradiction.
It seemed to be a natural name given our totally different backgrounds and approaches
to the music. But then we found out that there is a German thrash metal band called
Contradiction, and we were worried that their fans might be disappointed if they
came to one of our gigs in Germany expecting some heavy rock. So we changed our
name to Fromseier Rose and kept Contradiction to use as the title of the CD.
See
the official Fromseier Rose site at: FromseierRose.com Click
here for Michael's coverage of the 2003 Tønder Festival Click
here for Alfredo De Pietra's section at the Celtic Cafe and click
here to go directly to his own site. • •
•
Interview: Alfredo
De Pietra
Feature: Bernadette
Price
Original Web Design: Alexander
Servas
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