Concord Community Music School’s Bach’s Lunch Series offers free, informal lunch-hour lectures on the first Thursday of every month and a related concert on the second Thursday, November through June. The series opens with a talk by Keith Murphy titled “Folk Song: A Story of Emigration” on Thursday, Nov. 6. On Thursday, Nov. 13, Murphy (guitar, vocals, and foot percussion) will be joined by Becky Tracy (fiddle and vocals) and Music School faculty member David Surette (guitar, mandolin, and bouzouki) in a concert titled “Journey Across the Atlantic: New England Traditional Music.” Both the lecture and the concert begin at 12:10 p.m. and end by 12:50 p.m., and take place in the Music School’s Recital Hall, 23 Wall St.
On Nov. 6, Murphy will discuss the journey of folk songs and ballads to the New World from the Old World of the British Isles and France. For hundreds of years, working people in Europe lightened their working days, their evenings, and their holidays with folk song. As those people emigrated to the New World they brought their songs with them. Some songs remained remarkably intact through their oral transmission through successive generations. Other songs changed in tone, shape, or substance, reflecting their new environment.
The concert on Nov. 13 will combine traditional song repertoire from Canada and New England with dance fiddle tunes and slow airs. The trio will cover even broader musical ground with music from France, Ireland, and Quebec intermingled with compositions grounded in these wonderful traditions.
For information, call the Concord Community Music School at 228-1196 or visit ccmusicschool.org.
