Flings

Trad Irish Music
1

I had heard at one time (maybe erroneously), that it was a tradition to follow a slow air with a fling. I have heard several performances where a slow air was followed by a quicker paced tune (to pull the audience back from their introspection?), but have never run across any tunes that were referred to as “flings”. Is this an old term that had been replaced, or is it a class of tune that I’ve missed out on?

Best Regards,

dave boling

2

I don’t know how traditional it is to follow an air with a dancetune. It happens a lot, Tom Munnelly wrote somewhere about this practice gives the impression the performer seems to think the audience can’t take in a slow tune on it’s own. A practice Tom couldn’t approve of.

There is a number of flings in circulation, sometimes they are referred to as ‘highland flings’. Most wellknown I suppose are ‘Kitty got a clinking, coming from the fair’, ‘Love will you marry me’ and the like.
It seems flings are not played all that often but maybe this is because some flings are now taken as reels. The Sunny Banks could go as an example of that class as I know certain people who wouldn’t play it together with reels.

3

That’s insteresting since I hear that on alot of albums too. I love that post-Air introspection. It’s the Airs that drew me most strongly to Itrad and all Celtic music. Guess is doesn’t really jive w/the lively atmostphere of a pub, but give the audience some credit. Jigs and Reels are a foot-stompin hoot, but it’s with an Air that one can truly be moved.

My $0.02 anyway :wink:

Regards,

  • Ryan
4

As I understand it, in Scotland and Cape Breton it is the tradition to play sets of tunes in one key rather than one type of tune, tending to go from slow to fast, so you might start with an air, go on to a strathspey and finish with a reel, all in, say, D, maybe varying between minor and major. This is very common in Scottish bands (in my fairly limited experience of this kind of music), but I can’t think of a single Irish band who have played in that way.

Hope that’s of some help.

Jo.

5

Peter,

Question: I’ve learned tunes called “Flings” and tunes called “Highlands”…the difference?

PC