Sunday Sessions: Two Cardinals

Friendship, memory, imagination ...

all of those came into the mix as Shannon Heaton created her tune Two Cardinals.

Heaton’s usual instrument is the flute. She plays other instruments as well, and is a singer, songwriter, and composer of tunes. You will often find her playing in a duo with her husband Matt, whose main instrument is the guitar.They usually draw on Irish tradition, playing original and updated traditional music.

This day, as she looked out the window her home in Massachusetts, she saw two cardinals sitting on the fence.

Birds often stopped by that yard and the fence. Robins, jays, even chickadees stopped by often.

Cardinals, however, no so often. This pair, though, stated for a long time while Shannon watched.

Then one flew away.

“Immediately,” Shannon said, “this tune took wing.”

She had been thinking of her friends, twin sisters Pastelle and Emmanuelle LeBlanc, who with Pascal Mousse had formed the trio Vishten.

Together, they brought the Acadian music of Prince Edward Island and the Magdalen Islands in Atlantic Canada to the world. They “played some of the most radiant, inspiring music we’ve known,” Shannon said. and they’d won many awards while doing so.

Pastelle LeBlanc had passed away not long before those two cardinals came to visit Shannon’s fence. The tune Two Cardinals came to her, as a remembrance, and a way to honor her friends.

In these shifting times, may this music offer you a time of reflection.

You may also wish to see

Two Cardinals is recorded on Matt and Shannon Heaton’s album Whirring Wings. I will have more to tell you of that album and the tune book for the music in future — and here as promised is that article about Whirring Wings Also, you can listen to another track from Whirring Wings, a set of three tunes, as part of this story at Wandering Educators: Music for Courage and Generosity

After Pastelle’s passing, Emmanuelle and Pascal decided to keep Vishten going. They welcomed friend and occasional collaborator Megan Bergeron to the band. Learn about Vishten’s ongoing work, in both French and English.

Another album from Matt and Shannon Heaton

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