Jay Ansill
Encyclopedia
Jay Ansill is a composer and folk musician, known primarily as a Celtic harpist and fiddler
. Ansill has released several solo albums including Origami', A Lost World (an adaptation of poems by Robert Graves
), and three privately released tributes to The Incredible String Band.
Jay Ansill has worked as a collaborator with Robin Williamson
, Tony Trischka
, Maria del Mar Bonet
, Rodney Anonymous
(of the Dead Milkmen), Marah
, and Honeychurch
.
Jay is also an accomplished practitioner of Origami
and has written two books on the subject; Mythical Beings and Lifestyle Origami. The two books were published as a single volume in 2004 as The Origami Sourcebook.
while at Cheltenham High and before long he was playing mandolin
and fiddle
at square dance
s and Irish Ceilis. While still in high school, he formed the Schuylkill Valley Nature Boys, a band that played all kinds of folk music and became well known in Philadelphia in the early 1980s for a station ID they recorded for WXPN
FM.
As his range of abilities as a musician widened, Ansill developed an interest in composition. While never formally studying music, he has closely studied several composers with whom he felt an affinity, most notably David Amram
, and has developed a unique approach to writing new music. Much of Ansill's writing centers on the Celtic harp, although recently he has been writing and arranging for strings and has written a woodwind quintet.
This music is firmly rooted in the traditional music of the United States and the British Isles, but combines elements of classical music
, jazz
and rock
. It is music that is very modern, yet it strikes directly at the ancient heart of music. The emotional power and stylistic adventurousness of Ansill's music also owes a great deal to the literature of the twentieth century, particularly the work of Laura Riding
, Robert Graves
and James Joyce
. Ansill was nominated twice as Best Folk Instrumentalist by the Philadelphia Music Foundation and in 1990 his album Origami, a collection of original compositions, was voted Best Folk Recording. He was also nominated for two Barrymore Awards in the same year for theatrical scores for productions of The Grapes of Wrath
and Charlotte's Web
at the Arden Theatre in Philadelphia
In 1994 Ansill released Mind and Body, a collection of new original music that includes settings of poems by Yeats
and Graves, as well as some music written for theater, and some music that expands the boundaries of the harp through the use of compelling rhythms and improvisation.
His CD, A Lost World, a series of settings of poems by Robert Graves (I, Claudius
, The White Goddess
). This album features an excellent performances by a variety of singers and musicians.
In 2004 Jay was awarded an Independence Foundation grant and spent two months in Majorca and Barcelona learning traditional music from the region.
In 2007, one of his settings of poetry by Robert Graves
(The Secret Land, translated into Catalan by the poet's daughter Lucia Graves
) was recorded by Maria del Mar Bonet
on her CD Terra Secreta
In 2009 Jay composed and performed music for Mabou Mines
' production of Lee Breuer
's Pataphysics Penyeach
In 2009, Anne Hills
performed four songs with the SW Michigan Symphony Orchestra, three of which featured music by Jay and all of which were orchestrated by him.
The Folk Harp Journal says that "He has created a new language for the Celtic harp."
Jay Ansill is married to the painter Claudia Balant.
Official website http://www.jayansill.com
Fiddler
A fiddler is a person who plays a fiddle or violin.Fiddler may also refer to:*Fabrangen Fiddlers, an American musical group founded in 1971*Tupolev Tu-28 "Fiddler", a fighter aircraft*Fiddler , a DC Comics villain...
. Ansill has released several solo albums including Origami', A Lost World (an adaptation of poems by Robert Graves
Robert Graves
Robert von Ranke Graves 24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985 was an English poet, translator and novelist. During his long life he produced more than 140 works...
), and three privately released tributes to The Incredible String Band.
Jay Ansill has worked as a collaborator with Robin Williamson
Robin Williamson
Robin Williamson is a Scottish multi-instrumentalist musician, singer, songwriter and storyteller, who first made his name as a founder member of The Incredible String Band.-Career:...
, Tony Trischka
Tony Trischka
Tony Trischka is an American five-string banjo player.-Biography:Tony Trischka was born in Syracuse, New York, and graduated from Syracuse University with a B.A in Fine Arts, and was inspired to play the banjo in 1963, listening to the Kingston Trio's "Charlie and The MTA". Trischka was a...
, Maria del Mar Bonet
Maria del Mar Bonet
Maria del Mar Bonet i Verdaguer is a Balearic singer from the island of Majorca.-Early life and career:She studied ceramics in the school of arts, but eventually she decided to dedicate herself to song. She arrived in Barcelona in 1967, where she began to sing with the group Els Setze Jutges...
, Rodney Anonymous
Rodney Anonymous
Rodney Linderman, also known by his stage name Rodney Anonymous , is an American musician, journalist and humorist currently based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania...
(of the Dead Milkmen), Marah
Marah
Marah may refer to:* Marah or Manroot, a kind of wild cucumber* Marah , an American country band* Marah , one of the locations which the Torah identifies as having been travelled through by the Israelites during the Exodus...
, and Honeychurch
Honeychurch
Honeychurch is a band from Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Music journals such as The Big Takeover and No Depression have described Honeychurch's music as a mix of indie rock, alt country, and slow core, with strong influences from 1960s and 1970s psychedelic and folk rock...
.
Jay is also an accomplished practitioner of Origami
Origami
is the traditional Japanese art of paper folding, which started in the 17th century AD at the latest and was popularized outside Japan in the mid-1900s. It has since then evolved into a modern art form...
and has written two books on the subject; Mythical Beings and Lifestyle Origami. The two books were published as a single volume in 2004 as The Origami Sourcebook.
Biography
Jay Ansill was born and raised in Suburban Philadelphia. He became interested in folk musicFolk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
while at Cheltenham High and before long he was playing mandolin
Mandolin
A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
and 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...
at square dance
Square dance
Square dance is a folk dance with four couples arranged in a square, with one couple on each side, beginning with Couple 1 facing away from the music and going counter-clockwise until getting to Couple 4. Couples 1 and 3 are known as the head couples, while Couples 2 and 4 are the side couples...
s and Irish Ceilis. While still in high school, he formed the Schuylkill Valley Nature Boys, a band that played all kinds of folk music and became well known in Philadelphia in the early 1980s for a station ID they recorded for WXPN
WXPN
WXPN is a non-commercial, public radio station operated by the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia that broadcasts a music radio format called adult album alternative , along with many other format shows supported all with an indie slant...
FM.
As his range of abilities as a musician widened, Ansill developed an interest in composition. While never formally studying music, he has closely studied several composers with whom he felt an affinity, most notably David Amram
David Amram
David Amram is an American composer, musician, conductor, and writer. As a classical composer and performer, his integration of jazz , ethnic and folk music has led him to work with the likes of Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, Willie Nelson, Langston...
, and has developed a unique approach to writing new music. Much of Ansill's writing centers on the Celtic harp, although recently he has been writing and arranging for strings and has written a woodwind quintet.
This music is firmly rooted in the traditional music of the United States and the British Isles, but combines elements of classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
. It is music that is very modern, yet it strikes directly at the ancient heart of music. The emotional power and stylistic adventurousness of Ansill's music also owes a great deal to the literature of the twentieth century, particularly the work of Laura Riding
Laura Riding
Laura Jackson was an American poet, critic, novelist, essayist and short story writer.- Early life :...
, Robert Graves
Robert Graves
Robert von Ranke Graves 24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985 was an English poet, translator and novelist. During his long life he produced more than 140 works...
and James Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
. Ansill was nominated twice as Best Folk Instrumentalist by the Philadelphia Music Foundation and in 1990 his album Origami, a collection of original compositions, was voted Best Folk Recording. He was also nominated for two Barrymore Awards in the same year for theatrical scores for productions of The Grapes of Wrath
The Grapes of Wrath
The Grapes of Wrath is a novel published in 1939 and written by John Steinbeck, who was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1940 and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962....
and Charlotte's Web
Charlotte's Web
Charlotte's Web is an award-winning children's novel by acclaimed American author E. B. White, about a pig named Wilbur who is saved from being slaughtered by an intelligent spider named Charlotte. The book was first published in 1952, with illustrations by Garth Williams.The novel tells the story...
at the Arden Theatre in Philadelphia
In 1994 Ansill released Mind and Body, a collection of new original music that includes settings of poems by Yeats
Yeats
W. B. Yeats was an Irish poet and playwright.Yeats may also refer to:* Yeats ,* Yeats , an impact crater on Mercury* Yeats , an Irish thoroughbred racehorse-See also:...
and Graves, as well as some music written for theater, and some music that expands the boundaries of the harp through the use of compelling rhythms and improvisation.
His CD, A Lost World, a series of settings of poems by Robert Graves (I, Claudius
I, Claudius
I, Claudius is a novel by English writer Robert Graves, written in the form of an autobiography of the Roman Emperor Claudius. As such, it includes history of the Julio-Claudian Dynasty and Roman Empire, from Julius Caesar's assassination in 44 BC to Caligula's assassination in AD 41...
, The White Goddess
The White Goddess
The White Goddess: a Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth is a book-length essay on the nature of poetic myth-making by author and poet Robert Graves. First published in 1948, based on earlier articles published in Wales magazine, corrected, revised and enlarged editions appeared in 1948, 1952 and 1961...
). This album features an excellent performances by a variety of singers and musicians.
In 2004 Jay was awarded an Independence Foundation grant and spent two months in Majorca and Barcelona learning traditional music from the region.
In 2007, one of his settings of poetry by Robert Graves
Robert Graves
Robert von Ranke Graves 24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985 was an English poet, translator and novelist. During his long life he produced more than 140 works...
(The Secret Land, translated into Catalan by the poet's daughter Lucia Graves
Lucia Graves
Lucia Graves is a writer and translator.Born in Devon, England she is the daughter of Robert Graves, and is herself a translator working in English and Spanish/Catalan. Her translations include the worldwide bestsellers The Shadow of the Wind and The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, and The...
) was recorded by Maria del Mar Bonet
Maria del Mar Bonet
Maria del Mar Bonet i Verdaguer is a Balearic singer from the island of Majorca.-Early life and career:She studied ceramics in the school of arts, but eventually she decided to dedicate herself to song. She arrived in Barcelona in 1967, where she began to sing with the group Els Setze Jutges...
on her CD Terra Secreta
In 2009 Jay composed and performed music for Mabou Mines
Mabou Mines
Mabou Mines is an avant-garde theatre company founded in 1970 and based in New York City.-History:Mabou Mines is a collaborative, avant-garde theater company based in New York City...
' production of Lee Breuer
Lee Breuer
Lee Breuer is an American academic, educator, film maker, poet, lyricist, writer and stage director.-Work with Mabou Mines:Lee Breuer is a founding artistic director of Mabou Mines Theater Company in New York City, which he began in 1970 with colleagues Philip Glass, Ruth Maleczech, JoAnne...
's Pataphysics Penyeach
In 2009, Anne Hills
Anne Hills
Anne Hills is an American folk singer-songwriter.Hills was born in October, 1953, to a family of missionaries in India and grew up in Michigan. She studied at Interlochen, where she played in a band with Chris Brubeck and Peter Erskine. In 1976, she moved to Chicago and was a co-founder of the...
performed four songs with the SW Michigan Symphony Orchestra, three of which featured music by Jay and all of which were orchestrated by him.
The Folk Harp Journal says that "He has created a new language for the Celtic harp."
Jay Ansill is married to the painter Claudia Balant.
Further Reading/External Links
Philadelphia Citypaper Feature http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2005-10-20/music.shtmlOfficial website http://www.jayansill.com