Evening Lecture at Highland Village Museum

On Wednesday, July 25, at 7 p.m. Highland Village Museum welcomes Giulia De Gasperi, a graduate of Ca' Foscari University in Venice, Italy and Tiber Falzett, a graduate student at the University of Edinburgh's School of Scottish Studies, to its Seòmbar na Gréineadh -- Summer Room lecture series. This evening lecture will focus on storytelling and piping traditions in Cape Breton.

Ms. De Gasperi will discuss the talented Kennedy family of storytellers of Middle Cape, Cape Breton Co., who immigrated to Canada from the Isle of Canna at the beginning of the nineteenth century. As well, her lecture will focus on stories gathered from tradition bearer Joe Neil MacNeil who learned many stories from members of this family and recited them to folklorist John Shaw during the last decades of the twentieth century. Some of these stories have no other counterparts in Cape Breton and can be traced back to the medieval manuscript tradition of Ireland and Scotland.

Mr. Falzett will discuss the nature of the bagpipe as a communal dance-music instrument in the Gaelic-speaking districts of Cape Breton and culturally kindred areas in Scotland. The lecture will focus on the relationship between the Outer Hebridean Island of South Uist and communities of South Uist descent in Cape Breton, where the last exponents of dance piping music, learned by ear, were present until recently.

This lecture attempts to specify precisely what elements are common to the piping styles of Cape Breton and South Uist, through the use of stories collected from native Gaelic-speakers on both islands. Recordings of the last ear-learned dance-pipers of Cape Breton will also be played to shed some light on the commonalities between South Uist and Cape Breton traditions, and similarities of the culture in the old world and new.

A small ceilidh will follow with live pipe music and Gaelic songs, along with refreshments.

For more information on this, or other Highland Village events call 902-725-2272, or e-mail <[email protected].>

Highland Village Museum is located on Highway 223 in Iona, Victoria Co., overlooking the Bras d'Or Lake.