Altan’s latest album art – The Widening Gyre
(Cover artwork by Édaín O’Donnell )
I listened to Altan’s latest album The Widening Gyre for the first time this week. It is traditional Irish folk music, and it’s not exactly my cup of tea. But, after Coming to it a Second time, it undeniably had a different effect upon me.
When reading the first line in Yeats’s The Second Coming, “Turning and turning in the widening gyre” (1), one thinks of a powerful gyre spinning uncontrollably, getting bigger and bigger. However, with Yeats, it’s really ambiguous as to what he is specifically referring to. This image of a widening gyre can represent various ideas. Because of this then, as suggested in the Paris Review essay, “Yeats’s lines [can be applied] to pretty much any book that documents confusion and disarray” (Tabor). In relation to Altan, ‘the widening gyre’ could represent their musical journey. It’s possible that when they first started out, they were unsure as to where their music would take them. But with the release of their latest album, they have grown as musicians. And this is not the end, since the gyre that they are traveling on will continue to widen and grow. Mairéad, one of the band members, states that “the title The Widening Gyre appeals to us and depicts the spiral of life, widening and embracing the new. It has an innate energy. We think that idea is reflected in the album’s music.”
The Triple T from Altan’s album The Widening Gyre
(YouTube)
Another way that Yeats’s may have influenced Altan is through the idea that a profound change is coming. Except in Yeats’s poem, this change includes the birth of a “rough beast” (21). Altan may have been inspired by this idea of change, since they returned to Nashville to record this album. The “rough beast” also implies some kind of hybrid creature. Their new album combines two very traditional modes of music, Irish and Appalachian, to create something new and modern. Just like the creature created in Yeats’s poem. And if this wasn’t enough to convince you of the remarkable impact that Yeats has had on Altan, then the next sentence might persuade you. They have also turned Yeats’s poem The White Birds into a song.
“6. The White Birds
This evocative poem was written by the renowned Irish poet W.B. Yeats early in his career. He wrote it the day after the great love of his life, Maud Gonne, rejected his first marriage proposal, after expressing that she would rather be a seagull than any other bird. Yeats, feeling rejected, imagines in the poem that as gulls they could both flee and escape reality, and live together forever. Here, we have asked Mary Chapin Carpenter to share the beautiful lyrics, for which our friend, Fiona Black, has composed the music”.
(Altan’s Website)
The White Birds off Altan’s The Widening Gyre
(YouTube)
Works Cited
Yeats, W.B. The Second Coming. Poetry Foundation. Web. 24 September 2015. <www.poetryfoundation.org>.
The Widening Gyre. Altan. Web. 24 September 2015. <www.altan.ie>
Tabor, Nick. No Slouch. The Paris Review. 7 April 2015. Web. 24 September 2015. <www.theparisreview.org>.
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