Yesterday afternoon was a memorable one at the Marymount College theater in Manhattan. Three hours or so of Cathal on whistle, flute and plain old voice. He ranged from the tenderest of renderings to the most audacious unabashed shows of virtuosity. Most enchanting was the framework Cathal used to present his music - he took us, replete with accompanying stories and jokes, through his entire musical life/career, period by period, explaining from where and from whom the music came. I had forgotten what a beautifully serene and wonderful voice he has as well. I sat enthralled throughout, never getting that antsy feeling when something’s gone on too long; yet another hour would have been just fine by me…I think they ran out of tape well before Cathal ran out of material. An all-around bravura performance.
Thanks to Cathal and to Bill Ochs. It was nice seeing the several other C&Fers that made it as well.
Hopefully, I got it all on the new Edirol field recorder, but, alas that is the substance of another posting.
I certainly agree with Phil. I felt I was watching a snapshop of history. Although it was a whistle/flute workshop I would have liked even more of Cathals marvelous singing. My wife attended even though she is not into music of this type. She too thought Cathal was a wonderful performer.
Charlene and I would have been there in a minute, except we had already reserved a weekend up on Stowe VT with Tyghress and her husband. Really sorry to miss this one, although we did manage to have a terrific time anyway.
Indeed, it was a wonderful, wonderful event, kudos to Bill Ochs for organizing it and of course to Cathal for sharing so much with us. I liked the format too, it was an interesting way to do it, he has such a warm, friendly manner. I was hoping for a little more technical detail on how he plays things, but that’s ok. Really what I wanted was another three hours with him
I’d love to compare people’s impressions of it all. Some of the things that stood out for me were the variation sets he played, just magnificent. To me that was some of the most jaw-dropping virtuosity I’ve heard on any instrument. It was interesting to me that whistle seemed to be his preferred instrument for that, he didn’t seem to do as much on the flute. On the other hand, what he did with playing in different keys, modulating from one to another, etc. on flute was really beautiful. It looked to me like he was using keys, and I had just decided watching him that when I get a flute I have to get one with keys because of him, and then he mentioned that most of his flute keys weren’t working and he had to use “cross fingerings and such” ?!? I thought that degree of cross fingering was only available on small-hole baroque flutes…can any of you experienced flute people clue me in on this? Whether keys or cross, it was beautiful.
Another thing that was great about him was the way he could play different versions of tunes, either different settings or the same as played by different people. It really helped to elucidate what makes each style unique. It was cool to see him play the chinese bamboo flute (di zi) as well, I’ve often thought that irish music would sound good on it, I wish he’d been using the vibrating membrane though, it gives it a true ‘reedy’ tone, almost like UP imo. It looked like the larger one he had was two piece maybe, which I’ve never seen before. And of course, seeing him play two whistles at once was something else. I’ve also heard him play a Bb and an F at the same time, which is also a nice effect. I’ve wanted to do that for a while, I’m going to take his advice, and start with some slow, super-easy and super-simple tune, and work it up gradually. Funny how this never occured to me before. Last but not least, as a highland piper I love hearing him play and talk about pipe tunes. Lochanside has been a favorite retreat of mine for a while, it was wonderful hearing his interpretation of it. Anyway, that’s enough of me rambling on, what stood out for the rest of you?
Among the innumerable gifts that Cathal bestowed on those is attendance was his singing of a tune about the “Little Thatched Cottage, the Best Home of All”. His insights into its possible origins and observations about the very circumscribed orbit in which it had currency only added to the beauty of his singing of it. When it was over, I nearly fell out of my seat when he mentioned that “It’s a lifetime since I’ve sang that song, and I’ve never sang it on stage, do you understand, never, on any stage, even off stage do you know? Nobody knows these songs. Did anyone ever hear that song before?” This inquiry was met with silence, and I knew that the relatively small audience–60 to 80 people?–had been given something exceedingly precious. It had as much to do, I believe, with Cathal’s own cherished and reverent memories of his childhood–so many of which he shared with us in that lightness of spirit that he seems to bring into the room with him–as with the universal nostalgia we all have for our own respective origins and the longing for that time in each of our lives when we were as children.
These deep moments aside–and they are not so easily set aside for those who remember a rustic youth that seems now irretrievably gone–the event was a joy to the heart. This was, for me the second such event of this type with Cathal, and it is a certainty that more was revealed than technique, though that was not lacking either.
