Post by shamelin on May 31, 2005 3:31:18 GMT -5
Hello,
My name is Angus Macleod and I have recently joined the "The Scottish Connection" message board. My family originated on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland's Outer Hebrides, before being evicted from their croft and transported overseas by Lewis landlord James Matheson. Both my father and grandfather were native Gaelic speakers. In fact my grandfather and great grandmother were both talented interpreters of Gaelic song. My earliest memories of my grandfather are of a kindly old gentleman singing to me in a strange and awkward tongue. At the time I thought that the old man was making up his own "special" language. I was in my teens before my father explained to me that my grandfather was really singing to me in Gaelic, the ancestral tongue of our Hebridean homeland.
A couple of years ago I released a CD entitled The Silent Ones, A Legacy of the Highland Clearances. The recording tells the story (in song) of 109 families who were evicted from their crofts on Scotland's Isle of Lewis in 1851 and shipped overseas, settling together in a block of farms in Bruce County, Canada. The group who has become known as the Lewis Settlers maintained their language and culture well into the 20th century. I even know a couple of local families who still speak Gaelic in the home. I have also recently published a book on the same subject matter entitled, "1851 Exiles".
The Silent Ones CD is especially dear to my heart as I am direct descendant of these Gaelic pioneers. In February of 1998, I left a comfortable administration job and returned to Bruce County where I set up Torquil Productions and Recording Studio on land first cleared and settled by great grandfather and namesake, Angus Macleod (a native of Mid Borve on the Isle of Lewis' west side and one of the evicted crofters). The Silent Ones was recorded, there, on the very homestead of my great grandfather. Producing the recording at the exact location where my ancestors lived, breathed and toiled so diligently in the Canadian wilderness was truly an emotional and deeply spiritual experience for me.
The motivation to research and record The Silent Ones CD came as a direct result of a family history fact finding mission. The location was the Isle of Lewis in Scotland's Outer Hebrides where on a cold and rainy November morning I found myself surveying the ocean and a tiny collection of ruins which looked more like randomly placed rock piles than former dwellings. I had come to Lewis with my aging father to find the village of our ancestors. With the village in sight and tears dripping down my cheeks from the emotion of the moment and from the gale force winds pounding off the Atlantic, the motivation to pursue my life long dream came like a thunderclap.
Returning to Canada, I vowed to tell the story of my family and their forced exile from their ancestral homeland - a story that can be echoed by literally hundreds of thousands of Canadians of Highland and Island descent. To tell the story I knew that I had to return to the place of my childhood - a place where there was still a glimmer of my Hebridean past, a place where images for The Silent Ones were first stirred within in me some forty years earlier.
My production company, Torquil, is devoted to preserving the Highland and Hebridean Heritage of North America with The Silent Ones CD being the new company's flagship production. We are also involved with a number of community related activities including a Gaelic learning program and an annual Hebridean Heritage Festival. The first festival took place last August and we had visitors from all over North America in attendance (Washington State, Oregon, Colorado, Texas, California, New York State, Manitoba and New Brunswick - just to name a few locations). In addition, a special contingent made the trek over from the Isle of Lewis. The contingent included the Convenor (Mayor) of the Western Isles and the Gaelic Development Officer.
I spent around three and a half years researching and recording The Silent Ones project, interviewing old-timers, pouring over seemingly ancient manuscripts and family histories kept many of the area's Lewis descendants. Many of the area's older generation still possess wonderful old photos, family bibles and a variety of antique artifacts including a spinning wheel dating back to the 1700's brought to Canada during the 1851 Lewis evictions.
Further information on The Silent Ones CD, the "1851 Exiles" book, the Lewis Settlement of Huron Township, Bruce County, Canada and the Highland Clearances in general can be found at my website located at www.torquil.net
I look forward to participating in board discussions.
Tapadh Leibh
Angus Macleod
MEDIA RESPONSE TO "THE SILENT ONES" CD
“a must for anyone who wants to understand the many links between Scots and the New World.”
From a review by
Alasdair Maclean
The Scots Magazine
Dundee, Scotland
Nominated for Album of the Year.“The story and history are fascinating and the music is stunning.”
Patrick Laffan
Host/Producer
Celtic Connections
Radio Show
Middletown, CT
“The production is exceptionally good, very much in the style of Capercaillie at their best. …Unless you happen to be a blinkered adherent of heavy metal or Improvisational jazz or are totally devoid of a soul, this recording deserves a place in your CD rack.”
From a review by
Brian Palmer
The Ileach Newspaper
And Web
Isle of Islay, Argyll
Scotland
“The music of The Silent Ones is absolutely stunning, both in performance and content, more so, because it comes from deep within the soul of Angus Macleod. Perhaps all Celtic music flows from the heart, but very little of it has the heartfelt quality of The Silent Ones.”
Frank A. Mills
Celtic Heritage Magazine
Halifax, Nova Scotia
“The Silent Ones has to be one of the best concept pieces that I’ve heard in decades and as a composer/arranger, Macleod’s work is absolutely brilliant. It is a rare treat indeed to listen to an extended work that is as sensitively melodic throughout as this one is.
As well, this CD offers a composition/arrangement mix of traditional and now sound that is so well blended, it deserves a style name of its own. Allegorically, the sound of this CD would visually translate as watching
cinemascope on the big screen after black white 17” television.”
From a review by Alan Argue, Creative and Performing Arts, The Wellington
Advertiser, Fergus, Ontario
“wonderfully atmospheric Gaelic verse and narration, fantastic instrumental music, and accompanying Angus on vocals, the soothing and at times haunting voice of 16 year old Sarah Buckingham – a talented singer who’s got a bright future ahead of her…anyone with Celtic heritage will not fail to be moved by this album.”
Calum Macdonald
Celtic Set
Isles FM 103
Stornoway, Isle of Lewis
Scotland
“one of the greatest works from or about Scotland in many years”
Dave MacLean
ScotRadio
“The CD is probably not like any you have heard before…you can feel the history, the great sadness and loneliness at forced emigration and the longing to return someday.”
Catholine Butler, The Celtic Connection Magazine, Vancouver, British Columbia
“a hauntingly beautiful experience”
Moira Mackay
Scottish Memories Magazine
“hauntingly beautiful…Angus Macleod’s music has a compelling eloquence…”
SCOTS – Celebrating Our Scottish Heritage Magazine
Bowral, N.S.W., Australia
“It’s all too easy for such works to be shrouded in a faithless Scotch Mist of Fairy – Tale and Brigadoonery, but The Silent Ones has a darkness at its heart, as well as an undeniable romance, which gives it a strength and
validity it could all to easily lack.”
Roy McMillan
Manx Radio
Douglas, Isle of Man
“Absolutely amazing…an incredible project. The music is first rate.”
David Chiasson
CKDU Radio
Halifax, Nova Scotia
“The most wonderful history lesson accompanied by superb music.”
Jo Hayes
KOHM Radio, Lubbock, Texas
“...Enya-esque, but with more bite and verve…”
Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak, Ancestry Daily News
“a wonderful tribute to the Celtic heart of North America’s history.”
Tom Coxworth
CKUA Radio Network
Website: www.torquil.net
Official Site of Angus Macleod
Email: info@torquil.net
My name is Angus Macleod and I have recently joined the "The Scottish Connection" message board. My family originated on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland's Outer Hebrides, before being evicted from their croft and transported overseas by Lewis landlord James Matheson. Both my father and grandfather were native Gaelic speakers. In fact my grandfather and great grandmother were both talented interpreters of Gaelic song. My earliest memories of my grandfather are of a kindly old gentleman singing to me in a strange and awkward tongue. At the time I thought that the old man was making up his own "special" language. I was in my teens before my father explained to me that my grandfather was really singing to me in Gaelic, the ancestral tongue of our Hebridean homeland.
A couple of years ago I released a CD entitled The Silent Ones, A Legacy of the Highland Clearances. The recording tells the story (in song) of 109 families who were evicted from their crofts on Scotland's Isle of Lewis in 1851 and shipped overseas, settling together in a block of farms in Bruce County, Canada. The group who has become known as the Lewis Settlers maintained their language and culture well into the 20th century. I even know a couple of local families who still speak Gaelic in the home. I have also recently published a book on the same subject matter entitled, "1851 Exiles".
The Silent Ones CD is especially dear to my heart as I am direct descendant of these Gaelic pioneers. In February of 1998, I left a comfortable administration job and returned to Bruce County where I set up Torquil Productions and Recording Studio on land first cleared and settled by great grandfather and namesake, Angus Macleod (a native of Mid Borve on the Isle of Lewis' west side and one of the evicted crofters). The Silent Ones was recorded, there, on the very homestead of my great grandfather. Producing the recording at the exact location where my ancestors lived, breathed and toiled so diligently in the Canadian wilderness was truly an emotional and deeply spiritual experience for me.
The motivation to research and record The Silent Ones CD came as a direct result of a family history fact finding mission. The location was the Isle of Lewis in Scotland's Outer Hebrides where on a cold and rainy November morning I found myself surveying the ocean and a tiny collection of ruins which looked more like randomly placed rock piles than former dwellings. I had come to Lewis with my aging father to find the village of our ancestors. With the village in sight and tears dripping down my cheeks from the emotion of the moment and from the gale force winds pounding off the Atlantic, the motivation to pursue my life long dream came like a thunderclap.
Returning to Canada, I vowed to tell the story of my family and their forced exile from their ancestral homeland - a story that can be echoed by literally hundreds of thousands of Canadians of Highland and Island descent. To tell the story I knew that I had to return to the place of my childhood - a place where there was still a glimmer of my Hebridean past, a place where images for The Silent Ones were first stirred within in me some forty years earlier.
My production company, Torquil, is devoted to preserving the Highland and Hebridean Heritage of North America with The Silent Ones CD being the new company's flagship production. We are also involved with a number of community related activities including a Gaelic learning program and an annual Hebridean Heritage Festival. The first festival took place last August and we had visitors from all over North America in attendance (Washington State, Oregon, Colorado, Texas, California, New York State, Manitoba and New Brunswick - just to name a few locations). In addition, a special contingent made the trek over from the Isle of Lewis. The contingent included the Convenor (Mayor) of the Western Isles and the Gaelic Development Officer.
I spent around three and a half years researching and recording The Silent Ones project, interviewing old-timers, pouring over seemingly ancient manuscripts and family histories kept many of the area's Lewis descendants. Many of the area's older generation still possess wonderful old photos, family bibles and a variety of antique artifacts including a spinning wheel dating back to the 1700's brought to Canada during the 1851 Lewis evictions.
Further information on The Silent Ones CD, the "1851 Exiles" book, the Lewis Settlement of Huron Township, Bruce County, Canada and the Highland Clearances in general can be found at my website located at www.torquil.net
I look forward to participating in board discussions.
Tapadh Leibh
Angus Macleod
MEDIA RESPONSE TO "THE SILENT ONES" CD
“a must for anyone who wants to understand the many links between Scots and the New World.”
From a review by
Alasdair Maclean
The Scots Magazine
Dundee, Scotland
Nominated for Album of the Year.“The story and history are fascinating and the music is stunning.”
Patrick Laffan
Host/Producer
Celtic Connections
Radio Show
Middletown, CT
“The production is exceptionally good, very much in the style of Capercaillie at their best. …Unless you happen to be a blinkered adherent of heavy metal or Improvisational jazz or are totally devoid of a soul, this recording deserves a place in your CD rack.”
From a review by
Brian Palmer
The Ileach Newspaper
And Web
Isle of Islay, Argyll
Scotland
“The music of The Silent Ones is absolutely stunning, both in performance and content, more so, because it comes from deep within the soul of Angus Macleod. Perhaps all Celtic music flows from the heart, but very little of it has the heartfelt quality of The Silent Ones.”
Frank A. Mills
Celtic Heritage Magazine
Halifax, Nova Scotia
“The Silent Ones has to be one of the best concept pieces that I’ve heard in decades and as a composer/arranger, Macleod’s work is absolutely brilliant. It is a rare treat indeed to listen to an extended work that is as sensitively melodic throughout as this one is.
As well, this CD offers a composition/arrangement mix of traditional and now sound that is so well blended, it deserves a style name of its own. Allegorically, the sound of this CD would visually translate as watching
cinemascope on the big screen after black white 17” television.”
From a review by Alan Argue, Creative and Performing Arts, The Wellington
Advertiser, Fergus, Ontario
“wonderfully atmospheric Gaelic verse and narration, fantastic instrumental music, and accompanying Angus on vocals, the soothing and at times haunting voice of 16 year old Sarah Buckingham – a talented singer who’s got a bright future ahead of her…anyone with Celtic heritage will not fail to be moved by this album.”
Calum Macdonald
Celtic Set
Isles FM 103
Stornoway, Isle of Lewis
Scotland
“one of the greatest works from or about Scotland in many years”
Dave MacLean
ScotRadio
“The CD is probably not like any you have heard before…you can feel the history, the great sadness and loneliness at forced emigration and the longing to return someday.”
Catholine Butler, The Celtic Connection Magazine, Vancouver, British Columbia
“a hauntingly beautiful experience”
Moira Mackay
Scottish Memories Magazine
“hauntingly beautiful…Angus Macleod’s music has a compelling eloquence…”
SCOTS – Celebrating Our Scottish Heritage Magazine
Bowral, N.S.W., Australia
“It’s all too easy for such works to be shrouded in a faithless Scotch Mist of Fairy – Tale and Brigadoonery, but The Silent Ones has a darkness at its heart, as well as an undeniable romance, which gives it a strength and
validity it could all to easily lack.”
Roy McMillan
Manx Radio
Douglas, Isle of Man
“Absolutely amazing…an incredible project. The music is first rate.”
David Chiasson
CKDU Radio
Halifax, Nova Scotia
“The most wonderful history lesson accompanied by superb music.”
Jo Hayes
KOHM Radio, Lubbock, Texas
“...Enya-esque, but with more bite and verve…”
Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak, Ancestry Daily News
“a wonderful tribute to the Celtic heart of North America’s history.”
Tom Coxworth
CKUA Radio Network
Website: www.torquil.net
Official Site of Angus Macleod
Email: info@torquil.net