24 January 2010 5 Comments

365 Songs – The Dark Island

365songsIt had to happen sooner or later… today marks the debut of my accordion on 365 Songs! I bought myself an accordion last April and have been enjoying teaching myself to play it. When I was recording some Scottish songs for this week I decided that it may be nice to do an arrangement of The Dark Island and record myself playing the piano part and then overdub the accordion. Because there’s so much rubato in a song like this it’s a bit difficult to get the timing perfect, but I hope you enjoy this nonetheless!

The Dark Island is often thought of as a traditional Scottish song, but it was in fact written for the BBC series of the same name in 1963 filmed in South Uist about the discovery of a torpedo on the shores of Benbecula.

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5 Responses to “365 Songs – The Dark Island”

  1. froggyval 24 January 2010 at 11:46 pm #

    Mark – absolutely beautiful and really well executed. I am a pianist too and I greatly appreciated your expertise. Wonderful tune. If only I didn’t teach, I’d be up there at the Celtic connections festival… Great music in Scotland.
    Thank you so much for this!

  2. Otono 25 January 2010 at 8:35 am #

    Mark, thank you for sharing this. That was beautiful indeed!

  3. Mary 31 January 2010 at 4:42 pm #

    I agree – I think it’s lovely too!

  4. Kathy 31 May 2010 at 9:42 pm #

    Fabulous. I perform this on harp and voice….but this is something else. Hauntingly beautiful. Thanks.

  5. wilma duncan 13 March 2011 at 9:25 pm #

    Fab, just makes me feel at home. love the piano


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