Jean-René Guérin spends an evening on gallo and lets the language show its many facets. The session mixes short films, slideshows and told stories, and the audience is there to join in, not to sit still. What holds it together is the langue gallèse itself, carried by a host who works for it, not explained from outside. A friendly get-together follows at the salle polyvalente of Lamballe-Armor.
Tag: oral-traditions
Gwerzioù & sonioù du Trégor, Ifig and Nanda Le Troadec
Ifig and Nanda Le Troadec are a couple on stage as in life, and Brittany’s fest-noz dancers know them for the kan ha diskan of Centre-Bretagne and Haute-Cornouaille. This veillée leaves the dance floor for the gwerzioù and sonioù of their native Trégor, sung in French and in Breton. Love songs sit beside epic tales, grandes complaintes, satires, children’s songs and darker ones. These were fireside songs, or songs thrown out at fairs and pardons.
Jules Gros, une vie à l’écoute du breton populaire
Daniel Giraudon and Francis Favereau sit down at the Domaine départemental de la Roche-Jagu to talk about Jules Gros. He gave much of a very long life to noting the Breton spoken around him in Trégor, one turn of phrase at a time. The result, the monumental Trésor du breton parlé, is why his name still circulates among speakers of the language. The man who emerges from their recollections is a polyglot and a collector of the vernacular.
C’hwezh Houarnet at Notre-Dame, Plouaret
Louri Derrien plays trumpet, Simon Latouche trombone and Yann-Ewen L’Haridon saxophones, and two of them also sing. Their sources are the traditional repertoire of central Brittany: the tunes made for dancing, and the gwerzioù, laments sung in Breton. The players work from the historical texts behind that repertoire. They have played together for years in Modkozmik Galactik and bring original compositions to the series Les Balades en Tregor runs.
A house for the korriganed in the Toulfoën forest
The Pays d’Art et d’Histoire de Quimperlé Communauté takes families into the forest on the trail of the korriganed, the little people of Breton legend. The walk reaches a mysterious dolmen among the trees. The group then learns songs drawn from the lore of those creatures, and finishes by building together a house worthy of them. The ground is uneven and unsuited to anyone who finds walking hard, so sturdy shoes and rain gear are part of the kit.
Breton tales read at the Ti ar Bleizig crèche
Two hours of tales told in Breton, read aloud at the Multi-Accueil Ti ar Bleizig in Saint-Thégonnec Loc-Éguiner. The reading is done by volunteers from the commune, which built the crèche’s pedagogical project with it to carry Breton forward. The house was the first structure to reach level 1 of the Ya d’ar brezhoneg Petite enfance charter, and it runs weekly Breton sessions with the association KLT. Entry is free.
Kalon Eusa, contes et légendes d’Ouessant
Kalon Eusa guides the oral heritage of Ouessant on two separate routes. The Armor walk leaves Lampaul at nightfall and turns to the sea, where the island’s magical characters surface, sometimes benevolent and often malevolent. The Argoat walk goes inland to the marshes, springs and fountains, and to groves of willows, alders and chestnut trees where a small magical people shelters. Armor names the sea-facing country and Argoat the interior.
« Transmission(s), regards croisés » à Redon
The Groupement Culturel Breton opens its photographic archive at the Centre social Confluence, on Rue Guy Pabois in Redon. The series holds scenes of transmission: a geste, an air, a pas de danse, a story. Some travel de bouche à oreille, others de main à main, and together they shape a collective memory. The show hangs alongside the Bogue d’Or, the town’s gathering of chant, conte, musique and danse de tradition populaire, and entry is free.
Le Temps des Fileuses: Breton tales and archive film
Compagnie Marmouzic brings a told, musical and filmed passage through rural Brittany as it was in the decades either side of the war. Catherine Le Flochmoan tells three humorous Breton stories on stage, set against four films drawn from regional archive and documentary reels. Jérôme accompanies her on accordion. The spinners the title names stand for a round of farm work that has gone, and the piece tours under the Culture en Partage banner.
Contes et histoires du pays at the Ferme d’Antan
Angélique leads her listeners from one end of the Écomusée de la Ferme d’antan to the other, telling the contes et légendes du pays. The figures she summons are the korrigans, the lavandières de la nuit and the croquemitaine. The telling moves on foot through the farm village at Le Saint Esprit des Bois, in Plédéliac. It is one evening of the fifth Minutes Bleues, the Côtes-d’Armor festival staged in the blue light of dawn and dusk.