Chautauqua Series Summary
Pelon features more than two dozen ancient and modern instruments
Emmeline Elliott
Area residents were treated to the sounds from the 1st century to the modern day during a presentation by Lauren Pelon Saturday evening.
Pelon, a Minnesota musician, performed a free concert at the Dakota State University Jerald A. Tunheim Building Auditorium as part of the Madison Area Arts Council’s Chautauqua Series. Her program, called “The Living Roots of Music,” featured more than two dozen instruments and music from nations such as Ireland, China, South Africa, Iraq and Greece.
Pelon told the histories behind the instruments and music she played. The eagle bone flute, for example, was traditionally played by women “to calm the spirits,” Pelon said. On the contrary, the hurdy-gurdy was described by some people of the day as background noise for frogs, Pelon related. Before playing her antique concertina, Pelon said the instrument came to Ireland in the 1880s. This accordion-like instrument was widely accessible to the Irish people when it used to be sold in hardware stores and remains popular today.
Pelon showcased high-pitched German woodwind instruments called the crumhorn and cornamuse. The name for the crumhorn is derived from the German word meaning “curve,” Pelon explained. She also talked about the background of the Kiowa courting flute, a Native American instrument, and played it accompanied by a Pueblo rattle.
While much of her music came from other parts of the world, Pelon talked about the importance of local music and culture as well. She played a lute-guitar and pedalboard while she sang “Talking on the Water,” a song she wrote about an 1880 shipwreck that happened near where she grew up in Holland, MI and left apples bobbing along the shore in its aftermath. She used an electric wind controller in her final song, called “Sister to Sister, A Prayer for Arlene,” which Pelon wrote for her younger sister.
Other instruments Pelon played included the archlute, lyre, pennywhistles, guitar, gemshorn, bass recorder and double ocarina, which Pelon said is also called a sweet potato.
Pelon has performed in concerts worldwide and throughout the country. She has worked as a soloist with symphony orchestras and with Garrison Keillor’s radio show “A Prairie Home Companion.” In 2001, the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council honored Pelon with the Artist of the Year Award.
About 60 people attended Saturday’s event. This program was made possible in part by a grant from the South Dakota Humanities Council, an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. More information about Pelon can be found on her Web site at http://home.earthlink.net/~laurenpelon/.
MAAC meetings are held the first Thursday of every month at 7 p.m. in the Community Arts Center at 106 S.E. 2nd St. The Community Arts Center consignment gallery is open every Thursday from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Visit the MAAC Web site at www.madisonareaartscouncil.org for more community art news and events.
- Lauren Pelon played ancient and modern instruments during her program “The Living Roots of Music” Jan. 16.
- Lauren Pelon played ancient and modern instruments during her program “The Living Roots of Music” Jan. 16.
- Pelon greeted many of the audience members after her performance.
- Pelon exhibited several of her double ocarinas.
- A Kiowa courting flute hangs from the shelf beside a rattle instrument made with goat hooves. Above them sits a gemshorn, an instrument made from the horns of animals like cattle, goats and oxen.
- The crumhorn, left, and the cornamuse, right, come from Germany. Behind them is a pennywhistle.
- An electric wind controller
- Pelon with her archlute
- Pelon, holding a lyre, with MAAC secretary Emmeline Elliott
- A lute-guitar
- The eagle bone flute, far left, and recorder, second from right, stand behind the Pueblo rattle and gemshorn.
- Pelon plays about 25 instruments during her program.
- An archlute
