Veils & Shamrocks

Last week gone has been an ultimately busy week - it was St Patrick's on Saturday, and let me tell you, St. Patrick's really is a big thing in Montserrat! A week-long festival which started last Monday saw myself conducting the secondary school choir for their debut performance, playing with Volpanics in what was my first ever steel pan gig, dance behind a truck loaded with massive speakers moving at half a mile an hour (this is called a jump up!), embark on a rum shop tour, crash a stage where the string band was playing (well, not quite: I just grabbed a pair of shakers and edged in), and eat lots of food. Glorious, Caribbean food!

More pictures of these all to follow. But first, last night was the Emerald Community Singers' annual cabaret performance (as part of St Paddy's festival), and the Chinese folk dance quartet finally had their chance to showcase their moves in complete splendor. This folksong is native of the Xinjiang region in China, where majority of the region's total population adheres to Islam. This lyrics describe a young lady whose beautiful features are covered by a veil, and she is being edged on by the singer to reveal some of her alluring facial features, while he extols her resplendent qualities in song.


This item was performed by Gerren Gerrald, Beth Breuer, Vicky Wilson and Cupid Francis, with Sujue Davis providing artistic advisory and myself playing music man, of course.

Royals & Masquerades

The previous Friday, 2 Mar 2012, was the day of the royal visit by the Earl and Countess of Wessex, who spent a day at Montserrat as part of the The Queen's Diamond Jubilee Tour. This was to be one of the royal couple's stops on their nine-country tour around the Caribbean. This was, of course, big news for the island - weeks of preparation were dedicated during the lead-up to this visit, although I must admit the biggest benefit I received from all this was that all the pot-holes on the road were being filled - albeit only those that were on the 'royal route'.

Prince Eddie and Princess Sophie got off on a busy morning start, after mooring off the coast of Montserrat - an RFA ship which I'm sure has been outfitted for more luxurious guests. Well, better than a luxury yacht, given these times of austerity. Activities amongst their tour included an investiture, the opening of the Little Bay market (which I hear has been 'opened' for what is the sixth time now - every time a royal visit occurs, the market is opened, even though the market is never used on a regular basis), a visit to the MVO and watching a primary school steel orchestra at Blakes football field. I was present at the last event, just to soak up a bit of the royal atmosphere, wave a flag and generally be a good empire subject.

Children welcoming the royal couple.

My MSS students in the masquerade get-up.

The primary school pan orchestra in the background.

There was also a masquerade dance performance presented to the royal couple, something which I gathered seems to be a uniquely Montserratian dance tradition. It is both a ritual and celebratory element of folk music, with dancers donning bright costumes, voluminous adornments, colourful masks and even a whip. It 'whipper' appears to be the 'leader' of the dance, summoning and dismissing different dancers in the ensemble. This dance is accompanied on the fife and drums.

Masquerade dancers performing for the royal couple.

The popular prince.

And after twelve short hours, the earl and countess headed back to their ship before setting off for what I believe was St Kitts, where they would be treated to a somewhat similar programme. Must be hard, the life of a royal!