Having seen Solas in concert four or five times I’ve never seen Seamus Egan play a small whistle. Seamus Egan, as many know, is a virtuoso on several instruments one of which I thought was the whistle. He plays the low whistle and flute (although last concert he played the flute on only four or five tunes due to some tendonitis I understand) along with the stinged instruments, but no small whistles. Does anyone know why? I thought I read he was once all Ireland champ on a number of instruments including the whistle.
Yes he does. I don’t know how much on more recent recordings, but on “When juniper sleeps” he is listed as playing tinwhistle and low whislte on various tracks.
A few years back Solas was playing at the national folk festival in East Lansing, Michigan. On one of the days the organizers had four musicians that played wind instruments from different bands together in a “workshop” where they demonstrated different instruments. I was lucky enough to be in the first row watching him play tinwhistle as well as flute. He was quite impressive as were the other musicians. I remember one of the other guys played a “shepard’s pipe” - nothing more than a piece of copper tubing. He blew across one end and covered and released the other with a finger - hard to discribe how much sound he was able to get out of it. I wish I could remember who this was.
He plays low whistle with the right hand on top, pennywhistle with the left on top. One thing that blows my mind is that he’ll play the same tune on flute or low whistle, with the hands reversed.
I think he was playing a red-topped Bb Generation when they appeared on The Sessions show, or whatever that PBS show was called, or else he plays it in the Solas DVD. I have a vision of him sitting on the left side of the stage, fingers flying over that whistle.
I did a little searching and verified Seamus was indeed an all Ireland champ on tin whistle. I’m still curious why I’ve never see him play it with Solas though I’ve seen them several times in concert. (He does play low whistle with them). Why wouldn’t he, when he’s one of the best in the world? One hunch is that the guy is so musically brilliant that he just keeps wanting to challenge himself and expand his skills in new directions. The whistle may not be much of a challenge to him at this point. Any thoughts?
Seamus won all-Ireland titles on whistle, flute, tenor banjo and mandolin.
He played a lot of guitar, very brillaintly I might add the last time I saw Solas. He’s also play’s uilleann pipes as well as whistle, flute and bodhran, but no strings, on the “Greenfields of America-Live in Concert” CD with Eileen Iver’s and Jimmy Keane among others. He play’s lovely well “humored” slow air on Bb whistle for about 1 minute that is worth the price of the disc alone…that is if you want a lesson in slow airs on whistle.
The tin whistle is not considered a ‘major’ instrument, not really on par with the flutes, fiddles, and pipes. The whistle in concert is a diversion. Pipers have always played whistle as a user-friendly means of learning a tune or just not getting the whole yoke out. It is easy to run through music books with a whistle in hand. Tons of people play the whistle and usually it’s on the way to an instrument with a bigger sound or to not playing at all. In the past, older people, when they lost their teeth and the embouchure for flute playing, would ‘fall back’ to the whistle with its fipple and lower air requirements.
Although I do not wish to get into a big whistle vs flute or pipes type of debate, I would think that many whistlers would take umbrage to the statement that the tin whistle is not a ‘major’ instument. I don’t think the likes of Cathal McConnell or Paddy Moloney consider it a novelty when they play - sometimes it is just the right sound for the particular piece or arrangement they are playing. My thought on why Seamus Egan doesn’t play it much on stage is that it just isn’t the sound he is looking for with his band. I guess this could be settled if Dale manages to get an interview with Seamus.
I acctually play more whistle in my band than flute. It’s a bit sad for me acctually, but the fact is that the whistle just sounds better in that setting, at least in the pieces where everyone is playing. No other instrument in the group plays as high as the whistle, so the whistle lends a tonal varriety, the flute just tends to blend in with all the rest and the music gets a bit more blurry. Don’t know exactly how to put it, but I’m sure you understand.
I enjoy playing the flute more than the whistle though, so I often do arrangements of eighter slow tunes or fast tunes where there is just maybe a guitar a bass and a flute. That works fine. But for the more powerful instrumental sets, the whistle is a lot better.
Henke has a good point. The whistle voice does cut through even in a larger combination of instruments. That high register is very energizing on the jigs, reels and hornpipes and adds quite a soaring emotional lift when added to an air. I’m probably preaching to the choir here however.
Lisdoonvarna
I’d have to agree… the whistle has certainly come into its own as a concert instrument. My whole show is about putting the whistle out front and giving it a very strong, leading presence, including a healthy dose of improvisation (another thing that’s not quite common in the genre). And I still have my teeth.
I think you’d better listen to some of the contemporary ITM bands out there. Everyone improvises.
Unless you mean total improvisation without any basic mellody line at all. I have done a bit of that, but mostly in slow tunes where we have put a flute solo.
