Search - Maggie Sansone :: A Celtic Fair

A Celtic Fair is a festive musical gathering of traditional Celtic music and innovative arrangements. It features Maggie Sansone on Hammered dulcimer and Scottish smallpipes on Tr. 3, 9 and with Bobby Read, (Producer and performer on soprano saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet, wooden flute, C flute, alto flute, piccolo, keyboard, percussion and drum programming; Sara Read on fiddle and Rob Greenway on guitar, Irish flute, button accordion. From the traditions of the past to the sounds of today, Maggie Sansone's music expands the boundaries of Celtic in a new release that rings with a Renaissance spirit, Celtic melodies and world percussion. Includes: lively jigs and reels, haunting Gaelic airs from the Celtic lands of Ireland, Scotland, traditional circle dance tunes from Brittany, France, new variations and compositions including Train to Dublin by Sansone. Praised as America's premier hammered dulcimer player and recording artists, Rock N Reel says, "Sansone opens the perception of Celtic music far beyond the usual sources with a Celtic jazzy crossover that bubbles with life." Sometimes called a melody drum, the hammered dulcimer has a unique sound that is both percussive and melodious and with a continuous sustain that brings a special beauty to the music. Trapezoidal shaped it has over seventy five strings and is played with wooden mallets. Sansone s own dulcimer, made by Nick Blanton, has an extended range and pedal dampers which creates a marimba-like sound allowing a greater variety of sounds and textures Sansone says the unique nature of the hammered dulcimer with its percussive undertones as the mallets strike the strings blends well with the larger family of percussion instruments and sounds to create rich rhythmic textures throughout the recording. In her collaboration with producer Bobby Read, Sansone says Celtic music reflects many things... Celtic can mean more than a specific place or a time it can reflect a timeless spirit, a sensibility, a groove and this is achieved on this recording, she says with a music that is rooted in the past.