A Song for Haddo 2020: Fables and Foibles
by Moira Morrison and Peter Kemp
On Thursday October 8th A Song for Haddo returned as the finale performance in the 2020 Haddo Arts Festival, as a joint Haddo Arts and McOpera response to the challenges and restrictions of the Covid pandemic and a refusal to deprive the children and young people of Aberdeenshire the opportunity to perform together.
Despite both singing and the playing of wind instruments being forbidden in schools or in groups due to the Covid 19 pandemic, the McOpera composers and musicians worked with children, young people, tutors and teachers from Aberdeenshire’s schools and East Lothian children’s choir Dunbar Voices to create a project celebrating music making.
Following a specially devised series of pre-recorded videos, masterclass sessions and musical tracks for the classroom and at home, a cast of 148 singers, wind and string players took part in an online musical re-imagining of 7 of Aesop’s fables, taken from the series of Russell’s paintings in Haddo House. These stories were used as springboards into text, images and music to inspire us to keep our heads, learn about ourselves and respond creatively to challenging times amidst frenetic social media activity and advancing technology - something which our Hare in particular found very difficult to do!
In the final piece of Fables and Foibles, the performers were joined by string players from previous projects in a massed orchestration of A Song for Haddo (composed in 2017).
A Song for Haddo 2020: Fables and Foibles had over 1.3k views in the 3 weeks following its premiere.
A Song for Haddo project was supported by: Udny Community Trust Company Ltd and the David & June Gordon Memorial Trust
FABLES AND FOIBLES
Stories (The Fox and the Grapes & The Bear and the Bees)
The Crow and the Pitcher
The Parliament of the Owl
The Stag Looking into the Water
Tortoise and Hare
The Dog and the Stick
A Song for Haddo
Songs by Moira Morrison: Stories; Parliament of the Owl; Tortoise and Hare; A Song for Haddo
Instrumental Music by Peter Kemp: The Crow and the Pitcher; The Stag Looking into the Water; The Dog and the Stick
PROJECT PARTICIPANTS
New Deer Primary School (Primary 5/6 and Primary 6/7)
Pitmedden Primary School (Primary 7)
Rayne North Primary School (Primary 6/7)
Dunbar Voices
Alford Academy
Ellon Academy
Inverurie Academy
Kemnay Academy
Meldrum Academy
Westhill Academy
