This is an interesting and yet surprising question. The tradition is a vocal one which is natural for many folk traditions. Every tune is premised on vocals and is singable. Even O’Carolan’s compositions are premised on vocality. The comments that instrument specific ornamentations are optional, in as much other instruments may still execute them or devise their own own, are agreable to me. Of course the ornamentations are the elan of the music and the way it is done will determinine the differences in the voices ( between, flutes, pipes, fiddle, different singers) but the crux of the tradition is shareable and playable by all who can immerse in her pathos.
I know that there is a predisposition to playing in D and G keys and their relative modes but a key based determinant for the music is hardly segue.
I cannot believe that a song that is rendered in different keynote becomes unauthentic unless one picks an instrument that is so low in pitch as to escape vocal parity. There we enter into world folk jazz and the like …
I don’t know about tunes being specific to certain instruments, but there seem to be tunes that “sit well” on some instruments better than others. sorry, but of course I can’t think of any examples at the moment
Definitely there are tunes I’d term “fiddle tunes” (and by default, squeezebox, banjo, mando and the like) just on the basis of their range if the standard playing of them finds one below the bell note of a whistle. Farewell to Erin comes to mind, as does Dr. Gilbert’s. Tommy Coen’s I heard first on flute, though, so when I hear fiddlers or banjoistas playing it their way (no doubt the way it was composed), it just sounds wrong, somehow. I personally feel that the flute has exalted that tune.
There’s an air, An Caisdeach Bán (or The Fair-Haired Cassidy), that to me sits best with the uilleann pipes, hands-down. I’ve tried to make a fluteworthy go of it, but somehow it’s just not nearly as satisfying. Yes, it could be done on other instruments, but…nah.
The reel, Cooley’s, is a tune that to me seems unfriendly to the pipes. But it was, after all, composed on the box as I’m told.
One of my favorite fife compositions that I have heard is a harpsichord tune called “Lesson by Lully”. It is a lovely tune and I have heard it on the harpsichord sense. The thing is that when the fifes played it it did not try to copy the harpsichord playing. Both are fairly limited instruments and have their own strengths. The fifes slurred notes in a way that the harpsichord could could not but the harpsichord played crisp and with one voice in a way that the fife group could not.
I guess that my belief is that sometimes a tune sounds like it is a certain tune because you can hear a person milking an instruments strengths, while a different instrument does not have the same strengths, it is dependent on the player to bring out those strengths rather than just trying to reproduce the strengths and weaknesses of a different instrument.
That’s funny, I first came into contact with Farewell to Erin as a GHB tune (Although I know that’s extremely recent.) The 78th Frasier recording of it beats any Irish recording of it hands down, in my ears
The point being that context an environment plays a huge role in this. I also think of the Liz Caroll tune “Lost in the Loop” as a harp tune, based on the first recording of it I heard.
There’s definitely a connection betwen mixolydian tunes and droning instruments though. . .
