I for one, really like the duets between McNamara and Koehler on Brian’s recent Fort of Jewels Cd.
I was trying to imagine who else I’d like to hear doing a full Cd of double piping…
Mick O’Brien and Máire Ní Ghráda
Neil Mulligan and Dicky Deegan
Becky Taylor and Cillian Vallely
Ronan Browne and Kevin Rowsome
Who else, any great pairings?
How about a duel of the young folk, Jarlath Henderson and Mikie Smyth. Both reg pounding speeding maniacs who are two of my favorite pipers. What can I say, I love regulator playing though I’ve never seen any.
-Mike
Robbie Hannon and John McSherry. They’d need someone to fire the start pistol and then we’d have an interesting race to the finish on our hands.
Anyone playing “Dueling Banjos” on the pipes.
Dionys
I don’t know about ‘dueling’, but Gay Mckeon & his 2 sons sound wonderful on their CD “Irish Piping Tradition”.
I don’t know about ‘dueling’, but Gay Mckeon & his 2 sons sound wonderful on their CD “Irish Piping Tradition”.
(It’s SO good it had to be said twice).
Reminds me of my miss-spent youth… back in the days when Joe and I wore kilts and drank way too much I used to taunt him to learn “flight of the bumblebee” on his GHP’s…
..ok, yeah I know..kinda demented…but c’mon!
Never did learn that one, but I did learn In the Mood, Ding Dong the Witch is dead and the theme to Gilligan’s Island. 
“The Lumberjack Song” is a good one to learn. It’s surprising how many Monty Python fans there are…
Flight of the Bumblebee? You’d need some sort of fully chromatic, three octave chanter and three hands to do the bass work on the regs to play that song on any species o bagpipe. Sure would be interesting to see someone do it someday though, it sure is a crowd pleaser when i play it on piano.
I enjoy dueling pipes too, but I wonder why it seems you only hear pipe combos playing in unison- meaning the same part doubled. I love hearing harmonized pipes. That aire on one of Finbar Furey’s albums is extremely sweet (he double tracks himself).
I sometimes pick out harmonies on tunes, especially in big sessions. People seem to like it well enough, but I wonder if this kind of thing is big-time taboo in ITM circles. Very few musicians/artist do this kind of thing. Makes me wonder if it is a reel no-no.
t
Oh, and Joe. I see by your new avatar that you finally went ahead and had that human-fly transformation/fusion procedure. Is it easier to read ABC notation with compound eyes?
t
I thought he was doing something weird to that poor dog again.
No, harmonies aren’t entirely out, and they make a nice change, but most session stuff is played in unison. There were several “orchestras” including UPs in the 1920s-30s. Before that it was mainly solo piping.
djm
Tommy, yes, that’s what I was thinking, about harmonized piping. I have only heard this once, and it was only a snippet: my teacher playing harmony to a tune he recorded of himself playing. A wonderful sound.
What is the Finbar album you’re talking about?
Finbar Furey and Brendan Ring
I have a tape with Leo and Leon Rowsome playing harmonies to eachother on a few tunes, the novelty wears off very quickly. I think pipes are best heard on their own in the hands of a good player.
Abso-friggin’-lutely!!! Small chance of losing sight of the notes when they are duplicated thousands of times. Glad I dropped the ‘ching’ to have it done.
Elbogo,
check out Peter and Noel Carberry, The Pipes are Calling - lovely, unhurried piping. http://celticgrooves.homestead.com/CG_Carberry_Peter_Noel.html
Mark