The Routes Quartet - Drimnin House Residency

Last Monday, The Routes Quartet made the lengthy journey up to Drimnin to take part in a residency. This involved a few days of intensive practice, and a concert to showcase our hard work. For the first couple of days it was only myself, Emma and our fiddle dep. Charlie. Rufus was to arrive the Wednesday, as he had uni to attend. Joining us on the residency was harp duo The Duplets who are Gillian Fleetwood and Fraya Thomsen. 

We were being put up in Drimnin House, a renovated old manor, by Louise & Derek who were really fantastic hosts. They are founders of the St. Columba's Drimnin Trust, which is based around a chapel on the grounds of Drimnin estate. The trust ensures the upkeep of the chapel and brings musicians such as ourselves up for residencies at the house and/or to play a concert at the chapel. ​
Drimnin is situated on the Morvern Peninsula, so we went in the direction of Fort William, and got the Corran ferry across Loch Linnhe. It was a very long journey but the spectacular views made it worthwhile!

Drimnin House

When we arrived at the house we were blown away by the location - it is overlooking the sea, with the Isle of Mull in plain sight. After getting the grand tour of the gorgeous house, Louise sat us all down to a hearty lunch which was very much welcomed after the journey.

We quickly got settled into our new digs and set to work practicing, starting on an old set of ours, Roisín's. We fine-tuned the arrangement and also added some dynamics. The previous week we had a workshop/review with McFall's cellist Su-a Lee who had said that we had far more potential to use dynamics. Eg we could go magically quiet, or incredibly loud if we wanted to! It was amazing to see just how much we could do with our music purely by working on the range of our volume. We also tore apart a small section of the tune and rearranged it with some funky jazzy chords, which we were very pleased with!

The next couple of days were spent working on the rest of the sets we were to perform at the concert. These had been arranged with Tricia during the summer for AIYF so Charlie was still in the process of learning them. We fine tuned them, rearranged small bits and worked hard on the dynamics. It was wonderful to be working away at the music we loved in such a gorgeous backdrop with all the space we needed, and all our meals prepared by Louise, a fantastic cook!

Practicing in the chapel

On the Tuesday we walked down to the chapel to have a look and for a practice. It is closer to the coast, just overlooking the sea with a really breathtaking view! A really great space to play our instruments and we were really excited for Thursday performance after seeing it. We played our instruments outside for a while, as the weather was so lovely and then sat in the chapel to play. The sound really was marvelous! 
​On Wednesday evening, Rufus joined us after a long trip from Glasgow that day.

Thursday was spent working hard at our setlist and catching Rufus up with some of the changes we made, namely to his tune Roisín's Reel and the overall dynamics of all the arrangements. That evening we made our way down to the chapel for the concert.

The Duplets were first up playing, and put on a great show. I had never heard them before and it was a delight! They done a beautiful selection of tune sets and songs. I really enjoyed their quirky arrangements and of course their chat!
We were up next and performed a 45 minute set (photos of our performance to follow). After we finished, Gill and Fraya then joined us on the stage for an encore set which we had prepared during the week. We done some Scottish tunes and a Robert Burns song which I particularly enjoyed.

The Duplets

Once the concert was over, all musicians, Derek, Louise, and some locals involved in the trust made our way back to the house for a big dinner. It was overall a really lovely evening and a great way to finish our residency.
​The next morning Routes and The Duplets all went to a local primary school to play for the kids. They were all dressed up for Halloween and there were some very good outfits! The girls played first and the presence of the harps were certainly a novelty! They sang some songs and taught them a new song, The Rattlin Bog which we all joined in on. Routes then talked about our instruments and demonstrated how many scary noises we could make with them which went down very well. Rufus even done a very good rendition of the "Jaws" theme tunes which sounded great on the cello (it is played on double bass in the film score).
We then played our set Moose which begins with a tune written by Emma called Moose on the Loose and was named after a mouse appeared in her flat. At the begining of the arrangement we use pizzicato (plucking) on the strings, which really brings to mind a little mouse scurrying about! The children really enjoyed this.
After our school visit it was then time to leave our digs. We said our goodbyes and myself, Emma and Rufus (Charlie traveled back to Glasgow with Gill) set off on a very long journey to join Tricia in Crear for another residency!

To be continued...