The composer had written this score that a load of whistle parts. But each phrase was in a different key. Some in E minor and D Major, but most in E Major and in Eb Major. Luckily he emailed me the music in advance so that I was able to write out transposed parts.
I had to use my Susato Low E and Low Eb for most of that stuff. One bit I could do on my home-made Generation B but most of the stuff had the range of E to D nearly two octaves higher so I had to use an E whistle for the range.
The gig highlighted the fact that I don’t have really good whistles in high E and high Eb. The Susatos worked sort of OK but the composer would have preferred the higher tone. My Generation Eb is hopelessly out of tune in the higher notes.
Oh the composer loved the sound of my MK low D, and the sound of my 30-year-old Feadog high D. I explained that I didn’t have MKs in E and Eb and furthermore I didn’t think they were even made.
Then Friday a wonderful feel-good gig to help me get over the hours of labourious screeching of high notes on those low Susatos that I had to do on Thursday.
It was playing for a Shabbat service, doing uilleann pipes and MK Low D on L’chai Dodi. The guy had written the parts in the right key and right range and got a good sound as a result. It makes a tremendous difference when the composer pays attention to the capabilities of the instruments he’s writing for. Ah, our little group humming along and the entire congregation singing, it was wonderful.
I have a question for you. I’m a big fan of transposing to easier keys. I can understand that some people, especially singers, would be annoyed if there is a major jump in the transposition so that a song goes out of their range but is there really that much of a difference with 1/2 step? Besides the fact that a composer IS the composer, what’s the chances that you would survive a recommendation to transpose the song into a more comfortable key? Would a little itty bitty key change really affect the ambience of a song?
This piece was instrumental, so there was no inherent reason for the various parts to be in the keys they were.
Composers are funny that way. With one click of the mouse they could transpose the piece to a different key, but they almost never do.
In retrospect, I could probably have played everything on the MK Low D and he could have electronically moved it to E and Eb. There have been several times over the years where composers have written uilleann parts in the wrong keys and we’ve done it that way. They don’t like doing that either.
Strangest is when the composer asks in advance what the uilleann pipes do, I tell them, and they go ahead and write the parts in the wrong key anyway. I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s a waste of breath telling them anything, because they think they know it all and they realy aren’t listening when anyone tells them anything.
They’ve taken orchestration courses in college and they know all about the transpositions and ranges of all orchestral instruments. But when they come to the uilleann pipes, something they have no experience with, they think they can ignore these issues and treat them like a synthesizer or something.
I thought you might say something like that. The only thing that surprised me was that a recording could be electronically transposed a half-step. I guess that explains how they get Brittany Spears to sing in tune on her CD’s.
Thanks. I would like that Auto-Tune program myself. My favorite line was, “All you have to do is show up with your long hair and your breasts.” I cut my hair and I have man breasts. Life is so unfair.
Yep nowadays they can move the whole thing up or down as much as they want. But the further away from the original key it is, the less like the timbre of the original instrument seems to be there.
In some mainstream music it seems to be common for the last part of the song to bump up into in new key, usually one step higher, and they’ve had to do it electronically for the uilleann pipes (a song in D Major having the last chorus in E Major etc).
Why does that surprise you? You can do it with
free software, easily… more than a half step.
Heck, Windows Media Player or Quicktime will
do it to any mp3 you have right now.
There’s probably a free AutoTune plugin for
Audacity, too.
No, I don’t think so, Antares Autotune ain’t free. There are plenty of free pitch shifting plug-ins, though nothing quite as evolved as Autotune, AFAIK. If anyone here know otherwise, please, let us know. Autotune does have its place and I would defend its occasional use. Roland V-Vocal is another good tool in a similar vein.
A program to transpose surprised me because if it’s two things that I don’t know about it’s the electronic end of music (microphones, amplifiers, and all that stuff) and computer programs beyond windows, word and a few other freebies like finale that I’ve run across.
I don’t have a need to know about these things (well, I actually have a need to know about improving the use of microphones and amplifiers) so I don’t bother learning about them.
It’s amazing how attitudes have changed concerning electronic manipulation of recorded music. I remember hearing a story about the conductor Otto Klemperer. Back in the 1960’s he was listening to a playback of the fourth movement of the Mahler 4th. The soprano missed a note and Klemperer wanted to re-record the movement. One of the engineers told him, “Don’t worry, we can fix that note.” Apparently a look of horror came over the maestro’s face and he replied, “Ach du liebe Zeit, das ist ein Schwindel!”
that’s hilarious, and so much more funny because of the spot-on truth.
I did a gig at a (name omitted so as not to offend anyone) Church and every single stinkin’ song did this, going up a step for the final refrain.
I had to have an E whistle ready for the stuff I played D whistle on etc.
The worst culprit I can think of, though, was a certain song by a very famous songwriter, where just about every chorus was in a different key. I had to use, as I recall, five or six whistles to play it.
Though before we get too uppity about the cornyness of this gimmick, we have have to recall that Irish musicians like Willie Clancy and Paddy Keenan have done the same thing. Paddy played the jig Out On The Ocean (as I recall) in two keys like that. And I’ve played the Foxhunter’s Reel back-to-back at sessions in G and A, getting the same effect.
You may call this a gimmick but as a praise/worship practitioner you’d be interested to know how modulation works in that music and why it is done with such frequency. It’s simple, people find it, well, uplifting! And that’s why many people come to church - to be lifted up.
It’s quite easy to do with harmonicas too. You just stack the second harmonica on top of the first and jump up to that harmonica when it’s time. You can ditch the first harmonica if you want.
You may call this a gimmick but as a praise/worship practitioner you’d be interested to know how modulation works in that music and why it is done with such frequency. It’s simple, people find it, well, uplifting! And that’s why many people come to church - to be lifted up.