Okay…nitty gritty is that I just got back from our most recent trip to Ireland, and had a wonderful time. Highlights:
Meeting Peter Laban, who despite whatever he might say is a wonderful whistler. His love for the pipes and his skill with the music is evident, and he well deserves the respect he has from the musicians and residents of the area.
Three sessions in Clare, ranging from a fairly relaxed time at one place where I even joined in on a tune or two, and hopefully didn’t do too badly, to a more exclusive session that included some of the older locals singing and dancing, and lovely music between U-pipes and concertina. When I asked Jackie Daly why the reed players always seemed to have the most fun he said that it was because he was from Slieve Luachra, (Luachra = “reeds”)
A ‘masters workshop’ at a festival in Louisburgh where Tyghre and I sat in itty bitty chairs with 15 youngsters ranging in age from 4 to about 14. Afterward, one of the older girls in class told me I did very well, and I was VERY happy to hear the comment! The whole thing was sublimely absurd.
Meeting Michael Cronnolly of M&E Flutes and playing two of his whistles, and a few flutes. He is a gracious man, and gave me some valuable pointers in playing an Irish flute, getting the ‘hard D’, and embouchure. His whistles didn’t suit me (big bore, rough sound, large lungs required… very different sound from what I’m used to) but oh, the Rudall and Rose is lovely!
Two sessions in Co. Sligo, one of which was very laid back. When pressured to play something I finally folded and played a jig that I did respectably on, but one of the older players mentioned off-handedly that it was a Clare jig…ooookay. I am now forewarned that I need to pay attention to what region I’m playing in, as well as hoping to pull it off without flubbing. Peter Horan, however, said I did well.
Playing Boys of Ballysodare in a wood in Ballysodare.
non-musically
Yeat’s Grave and the sculpture of “He Wishes For the Cloths of Heaven” A guided tour of 9 prehistoric sites including court tombs, portal tomb, stone ring, ring fort, Sheila-na-gig…
Two more round towers to my list
All in all, a great trip, even if I did catch a cold, weather was on the wetter side of mixed, and it was too short. I didn’t buy a whistle, but I did get 10 CDs and we recorded six sessions for posterity.
great to have you back. Peter mentioned he took you along to Gleesons, and I am extremely jealous. Glad you had a great trip and I hope we’ll get a chance for a chat soon (I’m buying), because you are going to have to tell me a whole lot more than this little teaser!
Tygress, you gonna make a habit of goin’ to Ireland every year now, huh? I’m jealous! (HUGS!) At least you weren’t hobbling around on a busted leg this time! Glad you had a great time!
Anna, as much as I’d like to, this won’t be an annual, at least not this elaborate a trip. But it WAS nice to be able to amble around and climb the odd hill or two! I do hope your footsie is doing as well as mine is.
Actually, the next vacation (aside from the annual slide up the coast to Maine) will probably be to Santa Fe…silver, chile peppers, art galleries. . .
If ever you find yourself in Sligo again getting twigged for playing Clare tunes, just quip back at 'em: “Yeah, you lot seemed to need some livening up.” Then give 'em a big smile.
Janice, Peter H was the only fellow I knew the name of. The session at the Roisin Dubh was very quiet (max of 6, whereas last year it got to be well over 2 dozen!). If you could tell me what Joe plays, and what he looks like I might…MIGHT be able to tell you if he was there.
Glad to hear you had a good time. Your comments on the M&E whistle mostly concur with what James has to say on his detailed page on his flute site. This is designed as a strong session whistle, so it is large bore and needs some air, although less than an Irish flute which is why I’ve happily ordered one. BUT, I don’t hear the “rough sound” on his sound clips anywhere.
I use the word “rough” almost as an opposite to “sweet and pure”, and not as a derogative. On a purity scale of Gen to Hoover, this would be on the Gen end…very complex sound. On a volume scale, Hoover to Susato, I’d put it solidly in the Susato camp. More than likely in the right hands the whistle could be lovely, but I can’t see it as anything but a sort of brassy, in-your-face kind of instrument…y’know? It feels made for someone who wants to really haul out and PLAY.
I think it was Bloomfield who talked about taking a blade and ‘roughing it up’ to get a certain sound…maybe that’s where I got the adjective from.
Thanks for that, Tyghress - should be fine for noisy sessions then. Wasn’t planning on playing it to serenade my llamas - have quieter whistles for that.
Just to get the terminology straight: I “dull” a fipple blade to get a bit of a “rough” sound (and a stronger bottom end). But I “rough up” rec**der players, especially “dull” ones.
It was good to see Amy and no matter what she may say herself, she did well and would have done better even if she hadn’t been so nervous.That could have been cured if she hadn’t been too squeamish to drink from the Holy Well at Kilfarboy
She actually came to four sessions in Clare though twice to the same location but it with a very different line-up on each occasion.
The first sundaynight [and this is the session I play every week, exclusive is maybe not how I would think of it] we had Jackie Daly playing the accordeon, Eamon McGivney, fiddle, Mick who lives in Quilty [I 've known him so long now it has become embarrassing to ask his surname] and Eamonn Cotterr both on flutes plus myself squawking away in the corner on the whistle. Kitty Hayes played concertina after with myself on the pipes and later she sang, Ollie Conway was in singing mood and as usual swept the room with his version of An Bonnan Bui [the Yellow Bittern], I played the pipes again in the silly hours of the morning.
I very much enjoyed the saturday before in Friel’s where Bernadette McCarthy played the fiddle, Andrew Newland who lives in Kilmaley played a bit on the pipes, Brid Donohue flute and whistle. Again with myself tweeting away [it’s very easy to pretend you play the whistle when playing along wit hthe likes of Brid and we caught up with a load of whistle duets]. It was a quiet night [I don’t particularly like playing against the wall of sound of the drinkers].
The monday night may have been relaxed, it also featured some accordeon playing that made me want to go home, otherwise it was quite enjoyable and Tyg even had the whistle out [and contrary to what she might have said, it was a fancy one].
The last sunday of the feline visit Conor Keane played the accordeon, his wife Maura flute, Mick again and myself and Susie Cox handled the concertina, otherwise there was very much more of what went on the week before.
Plenty of tunes, and the weather was actually on the half decent side of things, considering how the forecast told us it would be.
[I had to edit this post twice and rigourously, I had cleaned my keyboard and apparently didn’t put half the keys back in the right places which made for a rather odd looking post]
Is that the Roisin Dubh in Galway Town? Probably not, you said the session were in Clare & it’s probably a common enough name. If it was, I’ve listened in on a session there too! I love Galway for session, it has a very lively nightlife and is cosier than Dublin.
Peter, you know I didn’t mean ‘exclusive’ in a bad way! But raised platform and mikes sort of point to a higher standard of playing than ‘sit around the tables and throw out a tune here or there’ the way it was at Malones. And forget the accordion…the um…ladies by the bar were a bit much to deal with.
However, ladies and gents, please be aware that there were FOUR whistles going that evening (Monday), not including me who only joined on a tune or tue. Yes, on the Burke, not the Gen. Tyghre was the one who insisted on bringing that (honest!) and after seeing Brid and Peter playing Sindts and such I didn’t feel too awkward with it. The Gen I had hadn’t been fussed with and was not nice to play in public.
I did use the Gen in my ‘masterclass’ with the kids…what a racket we made when we played ensemble! By the way, this was quite strictly a tune-giving sort of class. We got 5 tunes in all. She wrote them out in a modified ABC format, but with two there were attempts made to teach it by ear, phrase by phrase. I probably could have managed that if I was learning it one on one, but after I did my parrotting of part A it promptly disappeared from my brain.
I don’t much care for ABC format. It doesn’t show the concept of relative pitch, so I had to do mental swaps from ‘what letter is that’ to ‘am I going up or down the scale, and how far’.
Martin, the Roisin Dubh I was at was in Gurteen, Co. Sligo.
Yes, I know but not everybody does, I realise it can be a bit intimidatign though. The stage is something that goes back to the old days when Junior Crehan and the lads were playing there, they sat on stage with the mikes and it stayed that way. The soundsystem has been upgraded though, I remember lsitening to Junior playing an air wit hthe sound system picking up Russion radiotransmissions and the like.
Some quiet nights we sit down by the fire but for the dancers it’s a bit handier when we are up there.
A guided tour of 9 prehistoric sites including court tombs, portal tomb, stone ring, ring fort, Sheila-na-gig…
