When you’re sitting in a concert hall it’s hard to argue with the wall of sound a band like Lunasa produces. But when you get to put the headphones on, lay on the couch and close your eyes, it’s got to be Brian McNamara, Jerry O’Sullivan, Mick O’Brien all on their own, or with a fiddle or flute at the most. In a session, it’s great to have a strummer who keeps the beat, who will hold the line against the folks who go faster, and faster, and faster.
I agree with the earlier comment that guitar players can wreck the rhythm if they don’t have the right feel for it. But then again, there’s Planxty with sometime three rhythm string instruments backing up Liam O’Flynn. I wish more strummers had the feel of Lunny, Irvine or Moore.
The misty star gazing stuff of Spillane was made to get girls. It’s like Alasdair Fraser on the fiddle today. In fact, you can almost tell how “romantic” the music will be by how long and curly the guy’s hair is.
You do realise that it’s only a musical instrument??
Obviously, there are enough hard core pipers out there to justify a thriving industry in flat sets, but, lets face, they virtually guarantee that you’ll have to play on your own.
Occasionally, a good exhibition piece of piping, with full on drones and regulators can be really uplifting - one of the best examples of this is Paddy Keenan playing Garret Barry/Bucks of Oranmore on the Bothy Band’s album Live at the BBC. However, on the whole, I still think that uilleann pipes are much better with other instruments.
Wow! Rush. I haven’t thought about them in a long time. Good ol’ Geddy Lee - heart of a lion, voice of a chipmunk.
Would any of you who prefer the newer trendier bands/shows plus UPs consider that maybe you want to change something like ITM because you are not as familiar with it, and therefore feel a need to change it to something you’re more comfortable with? I’m not a dyed-in-the-wool hard-core purist or anything, but I accept my newness to the music and leave room to learn the tradition from whence the music and the instrument came from.
Sorry, but quoting Riverdance as a source of ITM is like saying Lawrence Welk is the height of jazz.
Had to think what ITM meant..
Irish Traditional Music, methinks (Rich shows his newbieness)
If so, why would you possibly think I intend to “want to change something like ITM because you are not as familiar with it”
You mistook my meaning my friend. I was only dialoging about what has inspired me thus far.
I would not dream of, nor am I smart enough to influence/change somethign that has survived this long.
One thing that attracted me to Uilleann pipes,early on, was the fact that I was told that there’s room for the musician to play tune(s) with a bit of your own flavor/technique thrown in: in other words, as opposed to GHB, where if you miss a D throw, or a certain ornamentation etc you’re considered as having “goofed”. up the tune.
So, hopefully I’m not being underatood as trying to reshape or remake ANYTHING. I would not have that for the world.
In fact, I own a set of GHB, and I’m “self taught”.
That is to say, when I play them, folks generally are very favorable and comment on how cool it is: but I’m quick to say that I’m not a real piper in the sense that if a trained piper were to listen & watch, he or she would probably cringe.
DJM, Not sure why you might think I was listing Riverdance Lament as a source of ITM?
I’m persuing Uilleann pipes because they are a unique instrument, producing a sound I’ve not heard before, and they have the unique ability to move the soul when played skillfully.
I know I’m waxing mushy here, with the soul talk, but hey, I didn’t invent the things!
…then why in Hell do you care, or want to learn how to play them? I’d say they (Uilleann Pipes) have got a serious grip on you, causing you to obssess, rant and rave and drool at the mouth, justify spending so much time here like the rest of us freaks arguing about largely useless topics, getting heated over ‘diddley squat’, laughing, crying, distancing yourself further away from the world of the sane and the rest of humanity just for one more friggin FIX of PIPING!!!..pant…pant…pant…
Yeah, I didn’t want to like him, either. But I DO! It’s like Santana meets Liam O’Flynn and it makes me feel like all’s well in the world. Like when Jerry O’Sullivan on ‘The Gift’ plays the blues or even Bach. Makes me smile, they’re clever guys and I love it. As well as loving ITM. Chacon a son gout, eh wot?
Two albums I’ve enjoyed recently have both used harp to accompany a single melody instrument. (The Nervous Man - concertina and Fort of Jewels - pipes).
Maybe the sympathetically played harp adds just enough rhythm and harmony to give a lift to the music, without stopping us appreciating the subtleties of a great player.
You should hear my friend Tom’s Eminor Jazz tune with him on pipes, and others on sax, piano upright bass with “Jazz whistle” Best part is that they take the same tune into a straight-ahead reel with the pipes, whistle and guitar. It’s actually a great reel too. Good CD all in all. He follows that with Sliabh na mbhan (sp?) on the next track that I’ve never heard played better.
Yes, only occasionally. I may be utterring some form of blasphamy but even Seamus Ennis and Willy Clancey can grate my nerves from time to time. That said, this doesn’t mean they were not great musicians and did not leave an important legacy after them.
Let’s agree on one thing - piping is, rightly or wrongly, considered to be out on its own. With drones and regulators to provide accompanyment, pipers have for many years been self-sufficient. Add to that the difficulty of tuning chanters to other instruments (or vice versa), and you have an instrument that has become somewhat of a loner.
However, things have changed. In recent years, advances in the development of pipes and changes in attitude towards what are considered appropriate instruments in traditional music have thrown the doors wide open to the innovators. The piper need no longer be on his own and in fact, when you consider the success of most modern pipers (last 20 years), they have gained their status as part of collaborations with other musical instruments (Paddy Keenan/Bothy Band, Liam O’Flynn/Planxty, etc).
I have my fair share of “pure piping” CDs and as instructional tools they are excellent, second only to having a class with the pipers in question. My point is that in terms of the aestethics of the instrument, it is more often in collaboration with other instruments that it reaches its high point.
PJ, define “highest point”. If you were to say that UPs in combination with other instruments reach the widest audience of people unfamiliar with ITM, I would agree with you totally. This comes from repackaging the product to meet the expectations of the lowest common denominator. But certainly this type of piping cannot be said to be the height of piping. Many of the pipers in such bands seldom play more than just the chanter, and often in an unchallenging way - hardly a “high point” as far as piping goes.
The backing used by Planxty and the Bothy Band and others has made the music readily accessible to a large number of people who do not have the inclination or time to spend learning how to appreciate the finer points of piping. (Not a bad thing in itself). Not by lifting the piping to a high point.
A top class piper will be using (as well as other things) the most delicate subtleties in their music which can become lost to a skilled listener on the addition of any other instrument.
When these players have spent a good proportion of their lives gaining those skills, why listen to them play in a setting that filters out the finer points of what they are doing?
