The Chieftains in China
Encyclopedia
The Chieftains in China is an album released by the Irish
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 musical group The Chieftains
The Chieftains
The Chieftains are a Grammy-winning Irish musical group founded in 1962, best known for being one of the first bands to make Irish traditional music popular around the world.-Name:...

 in 1985. In 1983 the Chieftains were the first Irish musicians to visit China and the first ever Western musical group to play on the Great Wall of China
Great Wall of China
The Great Wall of China is a series of stone and earthen fortifications in northern China, built originally to protect the northern borders of the Chinese Empire against intrusions by various nomadic groups...

. The album was the end result of this trip and was recorded in China and Hong Kong by Brian Masterson of Windmill Lane Studios.

Background

In 1980, diplomats from the Chinese Embassy in London attended Royal Albert Hall
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....

 for "The Sense of Ireland" festival, where the Chieftains were performing. The diplomats had enjoyed the performance so much that they invited the band to visit China on a musical tour. As China had no embassy in Ireland at the time this was problematic.

When full diplomatic relations between Ireland and China were restored in 1981, Moloney planned the trip with Chinese ambassadors and sent copies of Irish music to various Chinese orchestas. The Chieftains were one of the first groups from the West to visit China and became the first ever Western group to play on the Great Wall of China. While in China the group performed with various Chinese folk orchestras, as well as more impromptu performances with local musicians.

The Chieftains in China is a compilation of the songs played while the Chieftains visited China. It was released two years after the tour.

Track listing

  1. Full of Joy - 2:32
  2. In a Suzhow Garden - 3:33
  3. If I Had Maggie in the Wood - 3:24
  4. The Reason for My Sorrow - 3:40
  5. The Chieftains in China - 11:49
  6. Planxty Irwin - 2:56
  7. Off the Great Wall - 5:23
  8. A Tribute to O'Carolan - 10:54
  9. The Wind from the South - 3:23
  10. China to Hong Kong - 4:20

Legacy

The final concert The Chieftains performed was filmed by Chinese television and broadcast to 700 million people. Leading Chinese politicians attended the performance and chieftains biographer John Glatt wrote that the tour cemented diplomatic relations between Ireland and China.

Sun Sheng, the vice chairman of the Musician's Association of China said of the visit,"I think through The Chieftains' music I have seen the images of the Irish people. Music knows no boundaries for it is a unique and comprehensive language."

The Chieftains returned to Ireland with a large collection of Chinese instruments that they planned to learn and incorporate into their music. Moloney told RTE Radio
RTÉ Radio
RTÉ Radio is a department of Irish national broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann. RTÉ Radio broadcasts four analogue channels and five digital channels....

 that he planned to use some of the Chinese music in film scores that he was composing.

Personnel

  • Paddy Moloney
    Paddy Moloney
    Paddy Moloney is one of the founders of the Irish musical group The Chieftains and has played on every one of their albums.He was born in Donnycarney in Dublin. His mother bought him a tin whistle when he was six and at the age of eight he started to learn the Uilleann pipes. He also plays button...

     – Uilleann pipes
    Uilleann pipes
    The uilleann pipes or //; ) are the characteristic national bagpipe of Ireland, their current name, earlier known in English as "union pipes", is a part translation of the Irish-language term píobaí uilleann , from their method of inflation.The bag of the uilleann pipes is inflated by means of a...

    , tin whistle
    Tin whistle
    The tin whistle, also called the penny whistle, English Flageolet, Scottish penny whistle, Tin Flageolet, Irish whistle and Clarke London Flageolet is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument. It is an end blown fipple flute, putting it in the same category as the recorder, American Indian flute, and...

  • Seán Keane
    Seán Keane (fiddler)
    Seán Keane was born on July 12, 1946 in Dublin. He is a well-respected fiddler, and also a fiddle teacher. He was a member of Ceoltóirí Chualann in the 1960s, before joining The Chieftains in 1968...

     – fiddle
    Fiddle
    The term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...

  • Martin Fay
    Martin Fay
    Martin Fay is an Irish fiddler and bones player, and a former member of The Chieftains.In 1962 he became one of the founding members of The Chieftains. In 2001, he decided to stop touring with the group, limiting his appearances with the group to events in Ireland.-External links:*...

     – fiddle, bones
  • Derek Bell
    Derek Bell (musician)
    George Derek Fleetwood Bell, MBE was an Northern Irish harpist, pianist, oboist, musicologist, and composer, best known for his accompaniment work on various instruments with The Chieftains....

     – neo Irish harp, tiompán
  • Kevin Conneff
    Kevin Conneff
    Kevin Conneff is more familiarly known as the voice and rhythmic heartbeat of the legendary Irish folk group, The Chieftains, through his talents as vocalist and bodhrán player. He joined the group in 1976, replacing Peadar Mercier who had been the second bodhrán player for the group...

     – bodhrán
    Bodhrán
    The bodhrán is an Irish frame drum ranging from 25 to 65 cm in diameter, with most drums measuring 35 to 45 cm . The sides of the drum are 9 to 20 cm deep. A goatskin head is tacked to one side...

    , Chinese gong
    Gong
    A gong is an East and South East Asian musical percussion instrument that takes the form of a flat metal disc which is hit with a mallet....

    , and vocals
  • Matt Molloy
    Matt Molloy
    Matt Molloy is an Irish musician, from a region known for producing talented flautists. As a child, he began playing the flute and won the All-Ireland Flute Championship at only seventeen years old...

     - flute
    Flute
    The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...

  • Pearse Dunne - Mixing
  • Pat Liddy - Photography
  • Brian Masterson - Engineer
  • Mick O'Gorman - Assistant Engineer
  • Bill Somerville - Large Mixing
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