Song Profile: The Red Kite
Mike Fitzmaurice

"The Red Kite" is one of Colcannon's signature pieces. Written by the band's bass player, Mike Fitzmaurice, the piece was originally included on Colcannon's album, Athens Hotel. This smaller jig was expanded by Mike later into a full-scale concertante.
      Composers throughout the ages have been fascinated with folk melodies, and many of them (Mendelssohn, Bartok, Copland, Dvorak, et al.) have written pieces that are based on traditional folk tunes. With "The Red Kite," this process has worked somewhat in reverse. Mike has been writing tunes in the traditional style for quite some time, but his involvement in classical music and orchestral playing led him to experiment with using the same material in the more extended and developed format of classical concert music.
      "The Red Kite" is essentially a concertante in three movements, with the solo parts written for the members of Colcannon. The piece opens with an introduction which gives a hint of the upcoming thematic material. The first movement is based on the jig "The Red Kite," from which the piece as a whole taks its name. The second movemenet (subtitled "The Tree in Flower") is in the style of an air or lament. The third movement begins with a slow introduction, and then segues into a lively reel. Both the first and third movement depart from traditional concerto writing in that they feature open improvised solo sections, rather than a cadenza for the soloist.
      This longer version of "The Red Kite" is usually played by Colcannon during live performances. The smaller jig, encoded in mp3 format, is available for download, as is the sheet music:

The Red Kite jig (2 minutes, 54 seconds) from Athens Hotel. MP3 format, approximately 2.7 Mb. (We have re-encoded the piece because some people weren't able to play it using some older versions of WinAmp and MusicMatch. It should work now.)

Sheet music one page only, 39 kilobyte GIF image.

Please see the Credits Page for copyright information concerning this music.