Last week in Fair Isle, was the culmination of two years of dreaming and planning.  The commissioning of Alastair Stout to write a piece of music for the isle; and to premiere it here with professional musicians, then take it en masse to Lerwick for a second performance, was the vision of Betty Best. Quite an ambitious plan for the most remote inhabited island in the British Isles but the realisation of that vision turned out to be more than could have been anticipated by anyone who took part, and that includes the audiences.

In anticipation of the horn part in the music, the fog-horn spent Sunday night tuning up, so when Monday dawned blue and clear for the first plane-full of musicians there was a note of  `given days' in the air which would remain all week.  Alastair himself had now arrived, bringing with him four instrumentalists from the London based ensemble, Chroma; Andy Ross, the baritone from Yell; and Ruth Sharville, who had come especially to sing alto in the choir and to take a couple of workshops for the singing of Vivaldi's `Gloria'.  They had the day to acclimatise themselves and their instruments to the humid heat and to sort out and start rehearsing for Alastair's music and the items for the first half of the programme.  Five friendly voices from the Lerwick Choral also arrived for a week of hard singing, including Kath Hubbard from the Shetland Arts Trust who has done a lot more than sing for Classic Fair Isle, and the pianist Neil Georgeson.

Tuesday morning found all these plus the Fair Isle Choir rehearsing in the hall with Alastair - probably the first time so many Fair Isle folk were inside on such a bonny day.  This was the first opportunity to see what all the parts would be like together: the baritone voice, the choral music and the amazing sound of the four instruments - clarinet and bass clarinet played by Stuart King, the horn by Evgeny Chebykin, cello by Clare O'Connell and the violin by Emily Davis.

In the afternoon the Chroma musicians ran an inspirational children's workshop while all keen singers - choir, members, work camp and visitors - met in the Kirk with Ruth Sharville and the delights of Vivaldi.

The evening event was an open-air rock extravaganza with `Classic Ramparts' live in the Hall car park. As the full drum kit, guitars and vocals filled the air with sound the sky filled with aurora, `mirry dancers' as far as the eye could see.

Wednesday was filled by the same schedule as the day before, the rehearsal progressing - folk music for the winters night provided by Neil Thomson on guitar, Michael Welch and Neil Georgeson offstage on fiddles and Patrick Ross Smith on boran, effectively telling parts of the story - the children being yet more creative and the Vivaldi reaching a peak of competence in time for the evening's recital. With the weather still beautiful, the librettist Jonathan Lennie arrived and also our most v.i.p., Sir Peter Maxwell Davies who is patron of Classic Fair Isle and had come from Orkney to attend the premiere of Alastair's piece.

The evening's recital was in da Kirk with Neil Georgeson playing spectacular piano: Beethoven's Sonata op.53 in C "Waldstein", Impromptu in G flat by Schubert, Rhapsody in G minor by Brahms, Chopin's Nocturne no. 7 in D flat

and the final piece, the first movement from `Petrushka' by Stravinsky which filled the air with magic. Our electric piano, moved from the hail for the occasion, was pushed to the limits of mechanical ability long before the pianist - oh, for a grand piano - but this was fitting for the piece and to hear this music on an in-tune piano in Fair Isle is no small thing. Next on the programme was an equally rare and wonderful thing, a modern pibroch -'Fields of Gold' by Donald MacLeod and played by our own piper, lain Morrison. The kirk proved an ideal venue for such an intense sound, we were blown away. And finally, the fruits of the Vivaldi workshop, only an aria and chorus short of the whole work. The singers, by now including the ever-willing Chroma, Andy Ross and Alastair himself, enjoyed this tremendously. The westering sun provided a spotlight and the roomy acoustic was well filled with `gloria'ous harmony. Neil left piano for organ accompaniment, Ruth conducted and sang the `Qui Sedes'. `Laudamus te' was performed by Jill Slee Blackadder and Lise Sinclair.

Then it was onwards to the dance, where everyone had a good old Strip the Willow, among other things. Patrick had set up the hired lighting rig, what a difference that makes, it gave us a taste of things to come when our own system arrives at the end of the year. This was also an opportunity for the bairns to let us hear what they had been doing with Chroma. A spellbinding `Day in Fair Isle' with percussion and tunes, birdsong and worksound. Having the door to creative music so far open we should look forward to what these children do in the future. We were also treated to a series of Scottish tunes, played on the fiddle by Michael Welch, and the harmony singing of Frideray. There was a good impromptu band, thank you Vidlin and Aid, while Lowri slept at their feet.

Thursday was another day to rehearse. Mary Blance, co-narrator with Jonathan Lennie had now arrived and rehearsals could begin on all parts of the first movement, including the newly formed socket septet - this was the playing of sockets with spanners, which Alastair used to form the beam of the lighthouse as the isle draws nearer. Played among the instrumental sea sounds, the fog horn and the descriptive narrative, a vivid picture started to form. Chroma had quite a schedule to maintain as the first half of the programme had it's own challenges. A Purcell triptych with `Fantazia 1' which Alastair had arranged for this unusual blend of more modern instruments, `Fairest Isle' to be sung by Ruth, accompanied by Neil Georgeson and another `Fantasia', no 7, arranged for the same instrumental mixture by David Ward.

In the late evening, when the `Good Shepherd' returned from it's Lerwick run, everyone who was able, met at the bird observatory for a talk by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies on festivals in small communities. With his experiences founding and running the St.Magnus Festival in Orkney, and his passionate insight into music, the words spoken and the snippets of music played were of great relevance... "music should come from the heart of the land and the soul of the people".......

The Day itself began again with a horn solo (Fair Isle South rather than Evgeny Chebykin): This thwarted the initial attempts of our M.P.s: Tavish Scott and Alistair Carmichael along with Malcolm Bruce M.P. who were flying in for the occasion, and to present the school with the Motorola Award for enterprise. They made it in when the skies cleared to blue once again. With boats in the Haven, including our friend the 'Swan', it was sure that we had once again been granted the weather to pull off a festival - twice in one summer!

An early start for some with a live link up to Radio Four's `Today' programme. They had about five minutes of interviews and music, giving a real flavour of the event to a very large audience.

Dress rehearsal in the afternoon and we were ready for the world premiere of `Given Days'.

The hall was lit with an ambience waiting only for the expectancy of the people there and the music they would hear. After the presentation to the schoolchildren the music began.

Clare, Emily and Evgeny from Chroma played the beautiful Divertimento a Tre by Haydn. Stuart then joined them to follow with the perfect tones of the Purcell pieces and the hall was filled with the special sound of these talented musicians. The singing of `Fairest Isle' aptly showed an old way of describing a `Fair Isle' when we were about to hear a new.

The technical and tonal glory of the horn was given full play next with the solo piece, `Sea Eagle' by Peter Maxwell Davies. Introducing and playing this to an audience containing its composer must have been quite an experience, but Evgeny pulled it off with aplomb. Finishing the first half was `Movements' Op.29 for clarinet, violin and cello by John McCabe. This blew us all away in it's passion, a very good note to wait on over the interval.

`Given Days' Sounds of Fair Isle. At last. The piece is in three movements, running through the seasons.

The Introduction, descriptive narrative, fog horn and socket-induced lighthouse beam pull the isle from the sea......... "As far as the horizon, the sea is empty............. surrounded in a deafening silence. Wailing sea sounds on strings, the depth of the sea on the bass clarinet and gradually the beginnings of sea-bird­calls as the cliffs come close. Then the place is painted in word and sound. Finally the ringing of the bell, a calling together.        .

Summer begins with a song, female voices and guitar, "Pakin up wir proil" and coming home from a trip to the sea. Autumn and Andy Ross starts the baritone solo, over the instrumentation, wandering through images of sea and land with such a heartfelt tune and text as to move the listener.

Gradually....... "hymns from the Kirk float"...... snatches of choral music punctuate.... "Why even the gate-posts are tuned"... ....until the choir sing "Dear Lord, the very land is singing' and you believe it. Winter is brought in by the offstage fiddles and the boran with the depth of a dark night in the harmonies played by Chroma. A choir song, "an iron coortin closing owes as thing" then into a chorale of ice and wind-chill when the solo voice begins to ask if there is a future, a spring.

And Spring is the answer. The text here was provided by the school bairns as impressions, listed by the librettist and turned into a vibrant, action-packed musical reality by Alastair. Note-packed bars of cadence for the instruments and rhythmic, life-filled "school birds dancing" and "tatties cats" for voices. The wail of "howling wind" beside the quiet of "dark daffodils". The smooth chords in the music, the pizzicato, the spaces between. The feelings of joy and restlessness, the restful and mundane, all woven into a melodic space of time. Two solo voices rise out of the choir, Eileen Thomson and Lise Sinclair, singing "Far Away" to an inspired piece of harmony writing with under and overtones on bass clarinet, cello and violin, ending on a piece of horn music to take your breath away - if you still have it. The choir swell back in on a harmonic "sunrise" and the piece swings through "spinning fog", "chapel friends", "knitting darts graveyard waves".

The last section has very quickly repeated notes moving through the instrumentation until the impression of wanting to move forwards is tangible in the air. The voices of calm sing "dark roses", "selkie song" before the instruments take the quick notes again, louder and louder until the clarinet leads us spinning into the future.

These are just some highlights, impressions taken by a captivated roomful of people - audience and players on the same first journey through `Given Days', written and conducted for us by Alistair Stout. From the heart of the land and the soul of the people.

Taking it to the Town Hall in Lerwick on the Sunday night, finding a similar sense of community in our wider community, some willing extra choral voices, an atmosphere of keen listeners and a vastly superior acoustic...... we were all bowled over again. So we must take it further still. Give this piece of music that is Fair Isle, this piece of Fair Isle that is music, to a wider audience. It has a wider relevance.

As for "given days", we had a whole week of them.

Lise Sinclair