The Lost Songs of St Kilda
These are The Lost Songs of St Kilda. Recordings discovered in a Scottish care home, handed down through generations of St. Kildans. Saved from the edge of extinction and now available for the first time for the world to hear. ‘The Lost Songs of St. Kilda’ have been brought back to life on a unique new Decca album, thanks to a 73-year-old retired teacher called Trevor Morrison, who lived in an Edinburgh care home and enchanted fellow residents with his strangely haunting music, played on a rickety piano. Trevor was taught these tunes as a small boy by an itinerant piano teacher from St Kilda, who sat him at the piano and placed his fingers on the keys to help him remember the melodies. Leading Scottish composer Sir James MacMillan wrote a string arrangement of the track Hirta and conducts the Scottish Festival Orchestra on the album. He remembers his excitement at hearing the story of Trevor and his musical memories of St Kilda: “Forgotten songs, melodies that had disappeared from popular remembrance, and he’s kept them alive playing them on the piano. Very beautiful, simple accompaniments.” Other composers who’ve transformed the original songs include Craig Armstrong, Mercury Prize nominee Christopher Duncan, Rebecca Dale and Francis Macdonald (also drummer of Teenage Fanclub) whose orchestration of the track Dùn includes a poem, ‘To Finlay MacDonald from St Kilda’, written by the late Norman Campbell – read and sung in English and Scots Gaelic by North Uist singer Julie Fowlis (who performed on the soundtrack to 2012 film Brave).
Scottish Festival Orchestra  (Artist, Orchestra),     Trevor Morrison  (Composer)    Format: Audio CD
{"Manufacturer": "Own Label", "Date First Available": "September 15, 2016", "Label": "Own Label"}