David Power's cranning

Hi folks,
referring to video #3 of the Tionol w/ David Power solo concert on www.uilleann.org - does anybody know how David performs this monster cran there? Which fingers does he use for it? Any other tricks maybe?
It sounds so perfect, without any blips or squeaks often hearable when cranning…

Thanks. :slight_smile:

  • Gabriel

Hi Gabriel,

In listening to that clip once again, I didn’t hear/see any large amount of cranning - but rather a few times where the bottom D was popped off the leg a couple times in a row. Is that what you are hearing perhaps? He does it again on the Group Concert Highlight #2 at the beginning of Trip to Durrow. Have a listen there and let me know if that’s what you’re hearing.

David does frequent the board here from time to time so you may want to check with him directly. The original source is always the best place for correct info with stuff like this. :slight_smile:

His user name is leremarkable.

Say it 3 times and he’ll appear.

“leremakable, leremarkable…”

I ve been taking lessons from David and have been sworn to secrecy on the POWER cran. Notwithstanding same I will sell the ornament to the highest bidder :smiley:

Ok here it is for free but it might not be the correct cran.

In the second part of the Burkes of Oranmore,for example, this cran comes in

it is something like AGF followed by A .The timing sequence cant be explained bumpbumpbudila .I have it on dvd but need to go back and check …I’ll get back with ya later after reviewing the video. Leremarkable is quite busy on broadway these days so you’ll have to settle for second hand info here.

OOH! That’s kinda the same crann that Jimmy O’Brien Moran taught at the
SoCal tionol.

My lessons with David may not be as far advanced as Mypipes . . . so he started me with a very simple and effective cran, that fits nicely in every tune I’ve tried it in:

cut the bottom D with GFG, playing the G with just the index finger. Works great on an E cran as well. For a long cran, you can lead in with an A cut, or follow it with an A cut, or both!

I’d be interested to hear what more experienced players think of using a variety of crans, depending on the phrasing of the music. I know its supposed to be played fast enough so that it is a rythmic ornament rather than a tonal one, but I do think different crans have different tones.

ah, would those Burkes of Oranmore be Joe and Ann?

Someone once suggested to Joe Burke that he design a new accordion, to which he immediately replied, “Sure, and I could call it The Box of Oranmore!”

Incidentally, I too didn’t hear any actual D crans in that video, but there are a bunch on E in the Road to Lisdoonvarna.

just to elaborate on what vanfleet said, david taught me to get used to this cran by doing a “GFG” triplet in the second octave. by practicing this get used to the hardest part of the movement.


meir

Yes it is GFG followed by A and it is the Burkes of Oranmore according to Leremarkable himself …It makes more sense as there are no deer Bucks
and not much money Bucks …yet the Burkes came from Oranmore :smiley:
:smiley:

Ah, but there are young bucks in Oranmore, or at least there were back in the day :wink:

Doing a Google search on “burkes of oranmore” pulls up a note from Pat Sky saying that he thinks this was the original name, but it’s strictly conjecture. It’s true that the Burke family owns much land there so there may be truth to it, but who knows?

Sure, why not?

Seamus Ennis described the bucks like this:

“They were the braugh young bucks that would go hunting, shooting and fishing… and courting. It’s all sport you know?”

Great stuff :slight_smile:

Patrick.

The plot thickens: being curious I emailed Joe Burke to ask him about this, and he replied that there is a two-part version of this reel in Scotland called “The Bucks of Cranmore.”

A bit more digging online reveals that this two-part Bucks of Cranmore appears in Kerr’s Merry Melodies (Scottish tune book from the 1800s).

I assume Cranmore refers to King Malcom (son of Macbeth). One could see how it would take a simple typo or perhaps a fit of regional pride to change it to Oranmore.

Hate to burst your bubble Brad but it was Malcolm Canmore from the Gaelic Ceann MĂłr which translates to The Great Chief.

I heard no cranning either on the video.

Tee hee…it’s amazing how many sources spell it incorrectly; even the BBC has him listed as Malcom Cranmore in their online history of Scotland. At any rate, it appears there was a House of Cranmore so maybe it refers to that.

Not having seen the two-part Scottish tune, I don’t know if it included the second part of the Irish tune that has all the crans. Maybe the Irish added that later, taking the name of the tune to heart: cran more!

One more bit to stir the pot: on the McNamara family album, there’s a Leitrim version of Cregg’s Pipes played on the fiddle that has many echoes of the Bucks.