Album Notes

About Kaade: "I love visiting the worlds hidden inside musical instruments, reaching into the histories, the various cultures, and the mythology surrounding each instrument. I admire the way artisans bring out the spirits in wood, bamboo, and metal. ...at a loss for words, my debut CD, represents my first forays into capturing some of the music I love to play live. About half of the melodies are from my journeys in early and traditional music, the rest are my own compositions and improvisations I was fortunate to catch with a microphone." Stories behind the tracks: 1. Leslie's- original melody on river-cane flute and semi-toyo (bass panpipes). Traditional Bear Tunes: 2. Eisbärentanz (The Polar Bear Dance)- in spite of the German name, this is probably Hungarian, but the many versions throughout Europe and North America attest to its long history in the folk repertoire. On renaissance-style 6-hole flutes. 3. Karhunpeijiaspolska (The Bear Feast Polka)- traditional Finnish/Karelian kantele tune. Original Bird Tunes: 4. Tommy's Loon- named for the maker of the wonderful cedar flute on which this is played. 5. Lord of Cranes- based on an old chinese legend and played on a bamboo reconstruction of a 5000 year old Chinese crane-bone flute. Traditional Faerie Tunes: 6. Sidhe Beag Sidhe Mor (aka Sheebeg Sheemor, Sí Beag Sí Mor) was the first melody by Kaade's favorite composer, the blind Irish harper Turlough O'Carolan, about the fighting between the Little Fairy-Hill and the Big Fairy-Hill. 7. King of the Fairies- an Irish hornpipe with the power to summon the Fairie King himself. Play with care. 8. The Faerie Queen- another of Carolan's compositions, which some say he heard by listening at the sides of the Faerie-raths. 9. The Fairy Dance- attributed to Scottish fiddler Niel Gow, the first part of "Largo's Fairy Dance" in 1803. This tune has since spread in many versions throughout the world of Celtic music, including variations in Ireland, Wales, the Isle of Man, the Shetland Islands, and even to Appalachia and the Ozarks as "Old Molly Hare." Mediaeval and Neo-Mediaeval 10. Ductia 2- one of the roughly four dozen mediaeval secular dance tunes that bored monks jotted down in the margins of parchments of the church music of the time. 11. Kyrie- Kaade's instrumental setting of a cantus fermus from the Monastery of St. Blasius, Scotland. 12. Estampie Surreal- an original melody in the form of a mediaeval "stamping" dance. "I think I can" 13. Cantiga de Santa María #166 (Como Poden per sas Culpas)- from the Spanish King Alfonso X's collection of songs dedicated to St. Mary in 1252. 14. Can Cairn- one of many names found for this traditional round, still sung to many words at campfires around the world. 15. Cantata in G- from J.S. Bach's Notebook for Anna Magdalena. The Boand Trilogy: improvisations of tunes inspired by a tale from the Irish epic Tain Bo Froech, about how the Sidhe Queen Boand gave birth to the three strains of music played by the Gaelic bards. 16. Golltraigi (also spelled Golltraighe)- The grief strain. Kantele. 17. Genntraigi (Genntraighe)- The laughter strain. Hear the sound of the storage box that Kaade was sitting on break halfway through recording the track. Mbira. 18. Suaontraighi (Suantraighe)- The sleep strain. Based on melodic patterns heard in a dream. Flutes. Improvisations on Ritual Elements 19. Fire: Djinn- According to legend, mankind was made from earth, the angels from light, but the djinn were made from fire. Turkish nay flute. 20. Wind: Cloud Waltz- several layers of Swedish overtone flute. 21. Water: Approaching Rain- Japanese shakuhachi flute. 22. Earth: Jasmine- Tibetan singing bowls and kantele tuned to a Burmese scale. , About the instruments and their craftsmen: Bamboo flute in D. Patrick Olwell. Nellysford, WV. tracks 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 18 Flute in G. Olwell. tracks 5, 10, 11, 13 15-string kantele (Finnish lyre). Gerry Henkel. Duluth, MN. www.kantele.com tracks 3, 12, 16, 22 Apache 4-hole rivercane flute. Maker unknown. track 1 Semitoyo panpipes. Andres Mamani. La Paz, Bolivia. track 1 5-hole American cedar flute. Tommy Lee. Flagstaff, AZ. track 4 Bamboo reconstruction of 5000 y.o. crane-bone flute from Jiahu, China. Erik Sampson, Davies, FL. www.eriktheflutemaker.com track 5 Ney flute. Maker unknown. Mevlevis of Konya, Turkey. track 19 Shakuhachi, Kinkoryu style. Maker unknown. track 21 Alto Recorder. Yamaha company. Japan. track 12 Mbira. Hugh Tracy Kalimbas. South Africa. track 17 Singing Bowls. Lingtsang Metalworking Community. Dharamsala, India. www.dzi.com track 22 Frame drums. Remo. USA tracks 2, 9, 16 Doumbek. Touch the Earth Drums. USA. track 10 Jaw Harp. Austria. track 9 Overtone Flute. Auris. Sweden. track 20 To keep up with Kaade's tours and productions, visit www.myspace.com/kaade