…who would you say is the piper [dead or alive] who has influenced you [and your music] most?
I have a long list of pipers that I can think of, from whom I have taken something or learned something…
…but the single most influential piper is just a mate…he’s good but not great as a player, but he has provided more useful advice, hands-on practical help and positive feedback/ encouragement than I’ve ever had in a class [and I’m not knocking classes here].
His experience, and his accounts of blind alleys, times of disaster, and total ****-ups as well as the good times to be had, have helped steer me to where I am now…[not necessarily a position that you’d envy, but Hey! I’m gettin’ there!!!]
So thanks and praise to R O’C. You’re a star.
Ok…who’s yours and why?
Only one allowed…so this thread may discriminate against the Indecisive.
Davey Spillane, of course! But, strangely enough, from listening to Kate Bush, and that strange sounding instrument that popped up in some of her songs.
Johnny Doran. His recordings on the Bunch of Keys tape, and also from all the stories about him he was obviously a stand-up guy, and a very interesting person. I’d have liked to have met him, and heard him play live. For sheer musicality, imagination & excitement Johnny Doran had, and has no equal
Has to be my grandfathers Willie Adamson Moate Westmeath agus Alfie Hackett Newtownstewart Tyrone.Both pipers but Willie was so immersed in the music that even today a tune will catch my pleasure and then I find out through old recordings that it would be a tune he played with his band the famous Moate Ceilidhe Band formed in the 20’s.So thank you guys you gave me the music afore I was born!
Al Purcell, no question. I learned a lot of music just hanging out with him in his basement playing tunes. He was a terrific player of airs and I learned several great ones from him.
Leo Rowsome is important to me because he was Al’s pipes teacher, back in Dublin in the 1940s.
Johnny Doran was a special kind of musician, no question about it. The Bunch of Keys is a treasure.
Patsy Touhey’s recording of “The Steampacket” is mighty.
I love Seamus Ennis’s earlier recordings, esp. the tunes that appear on “Return from Fingal” and “40 Years of Irish Piping”. His “Gentle Philip Fahey” is amazing and I feel that his version of “The Fox Chase” is the most artful of any that I’ve heard.
Living players? I like Ronan Browne, Mick O’Brien, Jimmy O’Brien Moran, and of course Liam O’Flynn.
I have some personal (audio cassette) recordings. I have a compilation CD he appears on but I can’t recall its title-he plays “Fath mo buartha” and “The Dear Irish Boy” on it. If you go to some of the tionols (especially the Ann Arbor, MI tionol that bears his name), though, it’s easy to meet people who have recordings of Al.
For me one of the greatest and most influential pipers, apart from the Dorans was Willie Clancy. His playing of the Old Bush has a timeless quality to it. Almost other worldly.
Living Pipers: Ronan Browne is pretty damn fine piper as are many others.
I once heard a recording of some bloke:Seamus Meehan or something like . His style of playing was so tight I’m sure he resented the fact that his chanter had any holes in it at all! He was playing a jig called Maud Gawns (not too sure of the spelling)It was “different”.
"I once heard a recording of some bloke:Seamus Meehan or something like . His style of playing was so tight I’m sure he resented the fact that his chanter had any holes in it at all! He was playing a jig called Maud Gawns (not too sure of the spelling)It was “different”. "
Seamus Meehan lived next door to Matt Kiernan in Cabra and was a pupil of Andy Conroy. Maud Gonne was a famed beauty in Ireland at the start of the 20th Century and she was friends with W.B. Yeats, Lady Gregory etc. She was heavily involved in the 1916 rising and married Sean McBride.
(see No Second Troy by W.B. Yeats)
Seamus Meehan was recorded by CCE as an All Ireland winner and played Andy’s tune Maud Gonne on the recording.
When Andy agreed to teach me he brought me out to Matt Kiernan’s house in Cabra, got Seamus to come in and taught me through Seamus. A type of proxy teaching.
Andy was very proud of being able to play a noctuplet (a triplet except with nine notes instead of three). Definitely very ‘different’.
cheers
John
Andy was very proud of being able to play a noctuplet (a triplet except with nine notes instead of three).
John…referring to triplets, are you talking a triplet using the same note, or a run of three up or down the scale? Do you recall which note (or notes) were included in the noctuplet? Would this ornament be used on jigs mostly or maybe HPs also. I’m trying to imagine time for 9 quickies in a reel!
on patrick d’arcy’s page there is a recording of the wicklow tionol from a few years ago
on leo rickard’s segment he plays corney is coming and at the very end he plays about 4 g-f-e triplets back to back - i think this might be the sort of thing people are referring to here
Never heard of a “dodectuplet” (must be alien) but “dodecamaniac” might appropriately describe a person with 12 different faces attempting to leave one note off of a decatuplet, in an attempt to produce 9 fluttering notes while playing the nose flute…
The g, f#, e, d, C#, d, C#, B, A, G, F#, E, D dodeccatuplet can be very affective as a last pass in hornpipes… maybe that’s a few too many for a dodeccatuplet… what’s the equivelant of a 13 noter? Beware… 13 is unlucky for some
P.S. Paddy of the Chieftains. First uilleann piper I heard, still one of my favorites to listen to and still alot of the yardstick(okay he’s taller than that ;P) by which I measure music technique, chanter tone and expression.
Marc
Beware… 13 is unlucky for some