Foundering

A voyage of contemporary folk music for fiddle, Scottish harp, and string orchestra, featuring Gaelic song and live poetry

Foundering: 'to send to the bottom; to sink or fall; collapse; submerge, sink, fall to the bottom; shipwreck.'

Foundering is the story of finding one's way home: a voyage chronicled through contemporary folk music for fiddle, Scottish harp, and string orchestra; and overlayed with poetry and Gaelic song.

Premiered in Glasgow Cathedral in May 2025, Foundering features soloists Eleanor Dunsdon (Scottish harp) and Claudia Edwards (fiddle/composer) and a collective of artists drawing connections between folk and classical music. Now expanded for St. Giles Cathedral, the programme will feature the premier of new works, Scottish-trad arrangements of classical repertoire, and Chris Stout and Catriona McKay’s fiddle/harp concerto Moder Dy. The concert opens with the premier of Edwards’ new work, The Deep Moans Round with Many Voices (2026): a folk-inspired piece for fiddle, harp, live poetry, and string ensemble. Inspired by and featuring Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem 'Ulysses', the piece combines folk melody, improvisation, and movement to form a watery sound world. 'Ulysses' is performed by actor Adam James Johnston, commencing our voyage and ushering us into the next chapter. Foundering begins with a Gaelic lament performed by award-winning Gaelic singer Ruairidh Gray. The piece follows the journey of a ship destined for desctruction: an inevitable sinking into the depths of the sea. Glasgow-based Irish poet Aidan McEoin performs his original poem 'The Merciless Sea,' both both tender and forboding.

The second half of the programme miraculously lifts us from the depths, interrupting the inertia of 'Foundering' with a Scottish trad version of Gustav Holst’s St. Paul’s Suite: arranged by the ensemble and highlighting the folk melodies in this four-movement piece. Full of rhythmic bass lines, danceable melodies, and folk idiosyncracies, this unique arrangement is a lively take on the classic work for chamber orchestra, fiddle, and guitar.

Aval Moon, written by Catriona McKay and arranged by Eleanor Dunsdon, features a final poem written and performed by writer Abigail C. Edwards, 'Icarian'. The poem was commissioned for this concert, and will be performed for the first time alongisde McKay’s tune. It is only fitting to finish the concert with Chris Stout and Catriona McKay’s Moder Dy (Mother Wave): a three-movement concerto for fiddle and harp full of Shetland melodies and spirited solos. The 'Moder Dy' is 'the ocean’s secret rhythm, an undercurrent that can guide the experienced seafarer home' (Stout/McKay, 2023).

'There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail: There gloom the dark, broad seas. ...The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep Moans round with many voices.' (Ulysses)