SILKROAD | "Far Down Far" - Silkroad Ensemble with Rhiannon Giddens (Official Video)

"Far Down Far" from 'American Railroad,' the album from Silkroad Ensemble with Rhiannon Giddens, due November 15 on Nonesuch Records: https://silkroadensemble.lnk.to/ameri... Composed by Silkroad artist and Celtic harper Maeve Gilchrist, the piece is inspired by the jig “The Far Down Farmer,” transformed by the stories and sounds of the Irish laborers who toiled over the building of the railroads. “I was drawn towards a jig called The Far Down Farmer, pulled from Francis O'Neill's Music of Ireland, a collection of over 1,850 pieces of Irish folk tunes and songs. During my research into the Irish involvement in the building of the American Transcontinental Railroad, I read about the tension that existed on occasion between Catholic and Protestant workers. The Catholic workers – often from a more economically depressed background – were sometimes referred to as 'Far Downers'. I took this simple, two-part jig, and deconstructed the vocabulary, using the motifs and intervals as if I were building a train, laying the tracks and allowing the melody to build up momentum and speed as it gets slung between our respective instruments. I hope that this composition pays tribute to the roots of the tune and the back-breaking work of the workers on both sides of the religious and cultural divide while allowing the melody to fly in the hands of women who would likely never have been given a fiddle or a flute – let alone a hammer to build with!” -- Maeve Gilchrist Shawn Conley (Bass) Haruka Fujii (Percussion) Karen Ouzounian (Cello) Wun Man (Pipa) Mazz Swift (Violin) Niwel Tsumbu (Guitar) Francesco Turrisi (Accordion) Michi Wiancko (Violin) -- Learn more: http://www.silkroad.org/ Follow Silkroad here:   / silkroadproject     / silkroadproject     / silkroadproject   See Silkroad Live: http://www.silkroad.org/calendar