A St. Patrick’s Day Prelude - concert this Friday

A St. Patrick’s Day Prelude
Friday, March 9 at 7:00 P.M.
Emmanuel Episcopal Church, 66 N. Main Street, Chatham.
Admission is by donation for the musicians.

Pipes and more pipes!  As a spirited tribute to Saint Patrick, the  Chatham Concert Series’ Season Finale this Friday evening promises to  be a performance to remember. Featuring Pipe Organist Kenyon Scott and  Bagpiper William Plail in a mostly Celtic-themed program anticipating  St. Patrick’s Day.

Mr. Plail will pipe the beloved air Danny Boy as well as other  traditional pieces such as Endearing Young Charms,The Wearing of the  Green, and Let Erin Remember.  Concert-goers can expect airs, reels,  marches, jigs and quicksteps.

Mr. Scott, who will play a modified Hamill pipe organ, has put the  lovely old Welch melody, Hyfrydol, on the program.  While the title  may not ring a bell, this is music you’re bound to know.  Several  well-known hymns, including Alleluia Sing to Jesus” have been set to  the tune.
Hyfrydol was the song the Welch coal miners sang so beautifully as  they walked home from the mines in the old movie classic, How Green  Was My Valley.

Scott will play two Irish/Celtic hymn tune voluntaries, and will also  cross into the English tradition for Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Sine  Nomine, associated with the hymn For All the Saints, which naturally  includes St. Patrick.

There will be several secular, sometimes rollicking Scots pieces for  the organ, and the medieval Organ Estampie.

Highlighting Virginia’s Celtic heritage, the program will also include  fiddle tunes from colonial-era Buckingham County, arranged for the  organ.

The program will conclude with J.S. Bach’s Little Prelude and Fugue in  G Major -- chosen to showcase the Hamill organ’s modified pedal board.  It should be fun to watch Mr. Scott dance his way through this short  piece.

William Plail lives in Amherst.  He is a pipe soloist and also a  member of Roanoke’s Warpipe and local pipe-and-drum bands in  Charlottesville and Lynchburg.  He is a composer of bagpipe tunes and  a prolific arranger of traditional carols and hymns for the pipes.

Kenyon Scott is a native of Pittsylvania County and lives with his  family on their farm east of Gretna.  He has studied music since age  five and accepted his first position as church organist at 14.  He  served 15 years as organist and choirmaster at Chatham’s Emmanuel  Episcopal Church and now serves Danville’s West Main Baptist Church.

Remember to don a bit of green as you attend “A St. Patrick’s Day  Prelude” this Friday, March 9 at 7:00 P.M. at Emmanuel Episcopal  Church, 66 N. Main Street, Chatham.  Admission is by donation for the  musicians.