BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

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Canada 150

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Music: Classical

Music: Rock & Indie

Music: Folk

Exploring the range and variety of Canadian music and arts, recorded on location in Canada

Exploring the diverse range of Canadian music and arts, recorded on location from the Rockies to the eastern seaboard. Part of a celebration of 150 years since Canada's founding.

Canada 150: The Maritimes - a Prince Edward Island Kitchen Party

The Maritimes - a Prince Edward Island Kitchen Party

30/06/2017

BBC Radio 3 - Canada 150, The Maritimes - a Prince Edward Island Kitchen Party

Mary Ann Kennedy visits Prince Edward Island, presenting music from bands such as Vishten.

Mary Ann Kennedy visits Prince Edward Island, introducing music from Francophone band Vishten and Anglophone group Gordie MacKeeman and his Rhythm Boys.

A week of programmes from across Canada, marking Canada's 150th birthday. Tonight, a Prince Edward Island Kitchen Party: from the island where French, English, Scottish and Irish traditions meet, Mary Ann Kennedy witnesses a battle of the bands featuring Francophone band Vishten versus Anglophones Gordie MacKeeman and his Rhythm Boys. Also including a Radio 3-commissioned collaboration exploring historical links between Nova Scotia and Scotland though a sound composition created by Amanda Christie, a Canadian with Scottish ancestry - it features Gaelic psalm-singing from the Isle of Lewis mixed with nature sounds from around eastern Canada. Plus a session with Teresa Doyle, a singer with Scots and Irish roots. 



Programme note for BBC Radio Commissioned piece by Amanda Christie: Uisgeachan Ciùin (Quiet Waters)

Taking inspiration from the Psalms and from nature, this sound art work spans the Atlantic using archival recordings of psalm singing from the Western Isles of Scotland and voices from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, interwoven with field recordings made in the natural landscape of Cape Breton. The piece progresses chronologically through the archival recordings, from 1964, to 1994, to 2017. The psalm singing from the Western Isles alternates with psalms being read and sung by Gaelic speakers in Cape Breton. The natural sounds in the work progress in three movements, from birds at sunrise, to a rainy mid-afternoon, to frogs at sunset. I structured the field recordings of natural sounds after the psalm singing from Scotland, so that when the Precentor is singing, only one sound from nature (usually water) is present, and then several other tracks of nature recordings swell up alongside the congregation when they sing, so that birds, wind, trees, frogs, and crickets are also singing the Psalms and the praises alongside the humans. This approach to the composition was inspired by Psalm 96: 11-12 which speaks of nature singing praises to God. As such, in this composition, all of nature joins in song with the congregation, following the same antiphonal and heterophonic structure as the traditional psalm singing.

Field recording and Composition: Amanda Dawn Christie

Male Gaelic Voice from Cape Breton: Rod C. MacNeil
Female Gaelic Voice from Cape Breton: Mary Jane Lamond

Archival Recordings of Psalm Singing from Scotland: Courtesy of the BBC
In order of appearance: 

1964: Psalm 72: v. 17 & 19
Location: High Church Stornoway, Isle of Lewis
Precentor: Angus MacLeod

1994: Psalm 23: v. 1-2
Location: Stornoway Free Church (Seminary), Isle of Lewis
Precentor: Finlay MacDonald

2017: Psalm 34: v. 17-19
Location: Tong Mission Hall, Isle of Lewis
featuring singers from congregations in the islands of Lewis, Harris, and Scalpay
Precentor: Iain Morrison.

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

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The Maritimes - a Prince Edward Island Kitchen Party

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