In any category: tunebooks, methods, bios, or anything else.
What are your faves, and why?
About the music: Last Night’s Fun by Ciaran Carson. It’s just strung together, which makes it a bit uneven and rambling, but it’s some of the best writing about music I’ve ever seen.
Tunebooks: Trip to Sligo. The Mountain Road. Kelly Russell’s Collection: The Fiddle Music of Newfoundland & Labrador Volume I.
(Oh, why for the tunebooks? Trip to Sligo is a huge batch of great tunes, with nice little bios of the musicians they came from. The Mountain Road is a smaller book of mostly essential tunes in good solid versions, and most have a little explanation of their source. The Fiddle Music of N&L Vol 1 is all the tunes of Rufus Guinchard and Emile Benoit, and it is a great combination of strange but catchy obscure old tunes and well-written newer ones.)
Walton’s 110 Ireland’s Best Slow Airs (with CD) for the tunes themselves. Some of the little blurbs about the source or meaning of tunes are nice. I wouldn’t mind, though, if each one ran half a page.
Grey Larsen’s The Essential Tin Whistle Toolbox (with the extras) for explanation of technique.
Last Night’s Fun sounds interesting. Are there any whistle-specific narratives of good length?
I’ve not heard of these, Colomon. Where can I find them?
last night’s fun is a book I’ve had my eye out for for a while without running into.
Hmm.
Methods: I probably got the most out of Bill Och’s Whistle tutor, but I don’t suppose that it’s substantially better than some others; it’s just the one I chose.
Tunebooks: The complete country dances from playford’s Dancing Master (1651-ca1728), Jeremy Barlow, ed. Loads of loverly tunes, slightly marred from a whistler’s POV from often being in the keys of one or two flats. However, the best of the tunes are sturdy indeed, and are very amenable to being played with ITM-type embelishment.
Lore: A tie between Hammy’s Irish Fluteplayer’s Handbook (also qualifies as a method) and Packie Manus Byrne’s memoir Recollections of a Donegal Man (edited, I might add, by the Session’s Brother Steve–he may be a member here, as well, although I haven’t seen him post).
The latter contains a lot of fascinating insight into the music in the pre-revival context, as well as a view of the coming of the folk revival to a bemused member of the folk. And it’s funny.
http://www.thewhistleshop.com/catalog/tutorials/irishmusicsongbooks/irelandthesongs/irelandt.htm
It’s not really a book about the songs contained in it, but it has pretty songs, some explanations, and pretty pictures of Ireland in the old days.
I couldn’t find Trip to Sligo on either Amazon or American Book Exchange.
Anyone familiar with The Music, Songs & Instuments of Ireland, by Karen Farrington?
How about Music in Ireland: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture, by Dorothea Hast and Stanley Scott? The first review at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0195145550/qid=1098089277/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/102-6035851-5436968?v=glance&s=books looks quite positive.
I did a](http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=20744&highlight=hast%22%3Ea) bit of a write up on that one when it was launched. it’s a book aimed a students. it isn’t perfect but it gives a nice introduction to the matter, a CD with a variety of material is included.
About the music (or maybe about the world it moves in):
The Living Note: the Heatbeat of Irish Music by Christy McNamara (photos) and Peter Woods. - ISBN 0-86278-484-0 (has slightly different title for US market)
Blooming Meadows : The world of Irish Traditional Musicians by Fintan Vallely and Charlie Piggot with photographs by Nutan ISBN 1-86059-067-5
work for me.
Ceol Rinnce na hEireann can’t be beaten as a collection.
I ordered Trip to Sligo from abebooks.com, but they don’t seem to have any copies at the moment. Celtic Grooves lists it, which doesn’t necessarily mean Philippe can get it for you.
He also lists The Mountain Road, both the book and the great CD that goes with it. (I should mention that Mountain Road is a lot shorter than Trip to Sligo, and has many of the same tunes. On the other hand, it is more convenient, easier to read, has slightly better versions, and a touch of info about each tune. At a minimum, if you get either of these books, you should probably get the Mountain Road CD.)
You can order Fiddle Music of Newfoundland straight from Kelly Russell. (I would have guessed O’Brien’s music in St John’s would have had it – I think I saw copies in the store last summer – but I don’t see it listed there.)
For cape Breton music it’s worth checking out paul cranford’s website
I love Celtic Women in Music- A Celebration of Beauty and Sovereignty by Maireid Sullivan. Reading the heart and soul stories of these prominent women touched and inspired me.