| With his first major work, 'The Brendan Voyage' (1980),
Shaun opened up totally new musical territory. For the
first time, in a suite especially written for uilleann
pipes soloist Liam
O'Flynn, a traditional musician was integrated
with a classical orchestra. The uilleann pipe passages
in the Brendan suite, capturing all the force, emotion
and beauty of Irish traditional music, here blend with
the symphony orchestra in a synthesis of old and new
which has enchanted audiences around the world.
 'The Brendan Voyage' is an emotive, symbolic
work, seeming to answer a need in the Irish people
to recognise and prove that a soloist representing
an aural tradition can hold the stage on equal footing
with members of a symphony orchestra.
The theme of Shaun Davey's seminal work is the epic
voyage of historian Tim Severin who, in 1976, set
sail in a small leather-covered boat to retrace the
voyage undertaken by St. Brendan, Abbot of Clonfert
in the year 500 AD.
According to Irish legend, St. Brendan, with a band
of fellow missionaries, embarked in a fragile curragh
to reach what many scholars believe was the New World.
Tim Severin set out to test the legend, constructing
his leather boat, 'The Brendan', in the ancient way
and setting sail from Brandon Creek, Co. Kerry, on
the first leg of a journey to Newfoundland. In Severin's
account the boat takes on a personality of its own,
becoming a parental figure which guides and sometimes
carries its offspring through the elements and dangers.
In Shaun Davey's suite, the uilleann pipes represent
the boat and carry the listener before the wind, through
ferocious gales, over gigantic waves, through floating
pillars of ice... evoking the journey from a small
Kerry harbour to the Faroes, the Cliffs of Mykines,
to Iceland, the freezing waters of Labrador and finally,
to safe harbour in Newfoundland.
 'The Brendan Voyage' was first performed in
Rennes, France in 1982, and again the same year in
Lorient. In 1983, it received its long-awaited Irish
premier in the presence of the President of Ireland,
Dr. Patrick Hillery and the explorer Tim Severin.
This concert, greeted by a rapturous standing ovation
from the capacity audience, marked the beginning of
a history of sold out performances of 'The Brendan
Voyage' in the National Concert Hall, Dublin.
The work, recognised as a unique concert experience,
has been performed in Australia, the U.S.A., Canada,
France, Spain, Germany, England and Scotland, always
attracting enthusiastic audiences.
|
Track 3 - Jig; Water under the keel:
Running before the wind, the 'Brendan' is capable of
quite a turn of speed. The crew discover this for the first
time in the Minch channel between the Outer Hebrides and the
west coast of Scotland.