Beyond Trad

Uilleann Pipes
1

I’d love to hear people’s opinions about the usage of UP outside of Irish Trad. What genres do you think they’d be wonderfully suited for? What kind of fusions do you think would work? I’m pretty partial to trying anything in the future, once I can play the dern things well. I’m particularlty fond of the idea of pipes in jazz and Indian music. Heavy rock and roll would sound great with pipes, if the music was written with pipes in mind.
Those are my thoughts.
Purists out there, please don’t burn me too badly.

Aaron Welsh

2

As long as the piper is being paid properly for their work I think it is great! Playing outside of the tradition means that the piper has had to learn to play the pipes very well within the tradition so it’s not as if they are corrupting the tradition by playing on a Phil Collin’s song or Riverdance or a movie score. All they are doing is trying to make a bit of a living out of something they have possibly invested more time into than anything else in their lives.

For example, look at Mick O’Brien. He plays with a “new age” type band named “Secret Garden” http://www.secretgarden.no/ based in Sweden I believe. You couldn’t possibly debate that he isn’t a traditional player although he surely makes most of his money on the pipes playing non-traditional tunes.

Patrick.

3

Personally, I think the pipes would be really well suited to Gothic, and I’m referring to the more purely gothic music, like Dead Can Dance (I’d love to hear Lisa Gerrard backed by pipes!)… and others. One can get a sense of ancient Celtic music being pushed to a darker, more magical vein within a gothic setting. Hm, does that make sense?

A lot of the later recordings by Kate Bush give me that impression, especially when she puts the Bulgarian woman singers and pipes together… very gothic, I think.

4

Hi Jeff,

I hear you. I thought this was what Brendan Perry’s brother was doing when he took up the whistle and low whistle. I could totally picture DCD using uilleann pipes… maybe Riverdane and the UP popularity put the mockers on them using them? They do like to use instruments that arn’t typically used.

Anwyay, great band and I love the stuff Liam O’Flynn and Davy Spillane did with Kate Bush too… very cool… particulary the Hounds of Love and Sensual World albums.

Slán,

Patrick.

5

Dead Can Dance…now that’s some weird yet interesting stuff!!

6

Last fall I saw this mystery piper on a Public TV fund raiser with Andrea Corr, who dueted with Josh Groban. I didn’t know who it was, but thanks to Diane Frank, who emailed me the anwser the other day, I think I finally found out who the “mystery piper” is…LOL. It’s Eric Rigler! Go to his web site for his band, Bad Haggis at www.badhaggis.com , click on Happenings and about 3/4 of the way down the page is a small paragraph saying that Eric played the uilleann pipes on Canto Alla Vita on Josh Groban’s DVD.

Mr. Rigler

As for Eric’s extracurricular work, he’s been touring with legendary Salsa singer and Hollywood actor, Ruben Blades. Ruben’s amazing new CD which features Eric on four tracks is called, MUNDO, and was released in September on Sony Records. The concerts and CD have been garnering stellar revues…Afro-Cuban SALSA PIPES!!! rubenblades.com

WE WON THE GRAMMY!
Ruben Blades’ MUNDO has won the GRAMMY for “Best World Album”!!!

The new Phil Collins CD released in November, TESTIFY, features Eric’s uilleann pipes on the song, “The Least You Can Do”.

Also available in stores is a live DVD of singing sensation Josh Groban that features Eric playing uilleann pipes and low whistle along with Andrea Corr of The Corrs on the song, “Canto Alla Vita”. This live show was recently featured on PBS television.

As for movies, look for Disney’s TREASURE PLANET out this December. You’ll hear Eric’s pipes and whistles on the James Newton Howard score. Also, THE ROAD TO PERDITION starring Tom Hanks and Paul Newman features Eric’s uilleann pipes throughout the whole opening sequence and also features his low and high whistle-playing throughout. Other movies he has recently featured in are Danny DeVito’s new film, DEATH TO SMOOCHY, starring Robin Williams, and NATIONAL SECURITY, starring Martin Lawrence.
…And for the second season in a row, hear Eric’s Irish low and high whistle-playing on the opening titles of the NBC series, “Crossing Jordan”. If you’ve been watching the show, you will not only have heard his pipes and whistles throughout the episodes, but you would’ve seen him playing in “the band” in Ken Howard’s (“Jordan’s” dad’s) bar. “Makeup!”

I keep waiting for the time when pro musicians will call up some of us unknown intermediate pipers and ask us to do a line or two on their albums! :wink:

7

I think Rigler’s the most in demand piper for non-trad music.

He played on David Arkenstone’s CD, Celtic book of Days
http://store.yahoo.com/arkensounds/celbookofday.html
Here’s a short music clip:
http://lib1.store.vip.sc5.yahoo.com/lib/arkensounds/cbd-dragonsbreath.mp3

Eric’s most mainstream stuff is probably Braveheart and Titanic soundtracks.

8

Personally, I’m hoping to one day be able to play for contra dances. That was also one of my original motivations for learning recorder, and it’s what got me to enjoy Irish music in the first place.

-David

9

Patrick, I would have never thought you’d be a DCD fan! Amazing! There’s another group called Delirium… have you heard them?

10

I, too, have often wondered if I could play for contradances. Living in western Massachusetts, there is are three to four dances a week within close driving distance.

However, being nearly exclusively interested in the Irish tradition at this point, I’d like to play for ceili dances. That seems like a way to play traditional Irish dance music for actual dances. However, I do feel that my favorite way of hearing the pipes is by themselves, unaccompanied.

Jonathan

11

In considering the application of UP beyond trad, the issue of the keying of the chanter is always present in my mind. In certain musical contexts, such as jazz, it would be necessary to have full chromatic potential on the chanter. The quick attack of the keyed notes that would be needed in the rendering of such music makes traditional key placement a bit of a problem - it’s just wouldn’t be fast enough in certain passages. I know some makers (like Brian Howard) have experimented with key-touch placement. I’ve been to Howard’s site, and agree with the general philosophy that the thumb of the lower hand is best available to utilize keys.
Mind you, these are all my amateurish opinions, and I’m very far away from considering any usage of alternate key systems. I’d like to be able to play Irish Trad well before I venture into that territory. Just sharing the bubblings in the brain.

Aaron Welsh

12

Check this out:
http://3miasto.net/~skybird/Podworny/Take.wav
I think Hans did a great job on take five.

It comes from Artur Guja’s website:
http://www.3miasto.net/~skybird/

13

Guys there’s a perfectly functional chromatic double reed instrument in popular use already - it’s called an OBOE.

If you try to make a pipe chanter conform to the 12-tone, even tempered chromatic scale, you end up sacrificing its ability to sound good against a drone. Dispense with drones? Then all you’ve got is an oboe with a bag on it. To me at this point it becomes a “why bother” sort of question.

I guess if you want to play experimental music and make a living at that, then fine, but why do that with pipes when there are more capable and flexible instruments available.

14

I’m with Pat… nice one PC!

Elbogo… yeah, I’ve been into DCD since Spleen and Ideal. Great stuff.. and have you noticed they are using more and more of their stuff in movies, especially their older stuff?

Bye for now,

PD.

15

Thanks, sorry if I sound a bit of a curmudgeon.

16

In the Eric Rigler photo I posted above, his pipes were made by Alain Froment in 1991. He talks about the unique way he mics his pipes in an interview with Wally Charm in the Irish Pipers’ Club newsletter article:

http://www.irishpipersclub.org/

17

First of all, an oboe doesn’t sound like an uilleann chanter. Second of all, when discussing chromatics (which the uilleann chanter is fully capable of), I wasn’t talking about equal temperment at all. I never said anything about dispensing with the drones, either.

I guess if you want to play experimental music and make a living at that, then fine, but why do that with pipes when there are more capable and flexible instruments available.

I never said anything about playing the music for a living. I don’t agree with limitations on pushing the boundaries of any music. I think about the uilleann pipes in other musical contexts because of the unique character they could bring to that context.