Last night TG4 broadcast a 1981 documentary about Josie McDermott. I only caught the last 15 minutes or so, I had quick flick through to see if there was anything on, but what I saw was lovely. I did have a notion I had seen at least some of it before.
Worth catching on the player, if you’re into that sort of thing.
Does this sound like the one?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josie_McDermott#Documentary
McDermott was the subject of a television documentary Cérbh É? Josie McDermott on TG4, first broadcast in December 2009. In this programme, one of a series in which major figures in contemporary traditional music profile and pay homage to a master of their craft from a bygone age, flute player Paul McGrattan traced the life and legacy of McDermott and interviewed those who knew him, including Matt Molloy, Catherine McEvoy, Roger Sherlock, Michael Tubridy, Séamus O’Donnell and pupils Brenda Sweeney and Mai Harte.
No, the Cerbh É one is fairly recent. This was 1981. Hand me down (not handed dow n as I said above) See series here
Right you are. I just reread your post and spotted the date mismatch. Did you catch the title, or some other detail I could google?
Edited: Or is the title Handed Down: Josie McDermott?
What a versatile musician: whistle, alto sax, flute and accomplished lilter.
Bob
What a versatile musician: whistle, alto sax, flute and accomplished lilter.
And a decent singer to boot.
Speaking of singers, the previous programme in the series is one I hadn’t seen before. It’s about Diarmuid Ó Súilleabháin, a beautiful singer who left us too soon. I just watched it, brilliant. And if you look closely you can spot Hammy playing for dancers I believe.
And, while we are at it: tonight’s Siar an Bothar promises footage of Peig McGrath.
This is the new one? (By which I mean the 1981 one!)
Thanks. It’s excellent.
Thanks for posting this. Lovely music from a very kind person…
Wow, that was great, thank you very much Peter, for posting this! Josie is one of my favorite fluters, and now I’m a fan of his singing too. You wonder how he can keep all those tunes and finesse in his head still, or anyone for that matter. I’m baffled, as my brain seems to empty every night when I lay down to sleep! ; )
But really, what an amazing short story on his life and music, giving us a glimpse into his musical life and times past. Pretty neat! Great playing, singing and attitude; he’s one to admire, for sure for keeping the old way alive. Charming program, and I am much the better for having seen and heard it!
Thanks again Peter!
Don’t miss this one folks!
I enjoyed that too. Thanks!
After all the negative comments we post/read about old german “Nach Meyer” flutes, it was amusing to see such as famous flute player playing one quite happily, and beautifully, at the end there.
Sorry to be critical, but I saw no ‘Nach Meyer’ being played. The distinct red color of the flute denies any Germanic origins. Swazi-land was a German colony when the bulk of those instruments were made, and they were primarily made of African Blackwood, and Ebony. That flute was quite probably made from Cocus. Early in the program McDermott states he got a flute sent over from America. That could quite easily be that flute. In any case, the wood alone points toward an American made flute. I have nearly the identical flute in my hands, sold about 1880, as a ‘dealer’ branded flute from New York City. The flute I have, of the same distinctively reddish Cocus, was in all probability American Made.
Bob
The distinct red color of the flute denies any Germanic origins.
That red colored wood is lovely, but that does not deny the possibility of German origins.
Take a look at the picture below, which is of a Meyer flute that I own. This one is an original
H. F. Meyer, and is most definitely from Germany.
I have read that the wood Meyer used for his flutes was most likely Madagascar Rosewood.
That could be what Josie’s flute is made of. In any case, I know of no reason why other German
makers would not have had access to the same wood Meyer used. Admittedly, I have not seen
this wood used for the poor-quality mass-production flutes, but I was not trying to imply that
Josie’s flute was a poor quality flute.
I wondered if Josie’s flute was an original Meyer, like mine, but on close inspection I saw that
it lacks some of the finer details that distinguish the original Meyers. For example, there are no
plates under the key posts on Josie’s flute. So I concluded that it was not an original Meyer.
Josie’s flute does, however, possess many of the features that characterize Meyer system flutes,
such as the combined lower body and foot, the slanting G# key, the format of the key-work,
the style of the key cups and touches, the metal head and foot caps etc. So I would categorize
it as a Meyer system flute. I don’t think there is much doubt about that.
There’s no way to tell who actually made it from the video. It could have been an American
maker, producing a Meyer style flute, or it could have been a German maker producing a
Meyer style flute. There were many American makers that produced German style flutes,
and most had German heritage.
When I used the term “Nach Meyer” I meant that it was a Meyer system flute that was not an
original. This is really what the term “Nach Meyer” actually means in German.
The point, I guess, is that some Meyer system flutes can be perfectly adequate for ITM.
I think we are in agreement that Josie’s flute is not an H. F. Meyer flute. I also think we are in agreement that it is a quality instrument.
I do not think we are in agreement that there is a class of flute,sui generis, of the type “Meyer System” in the same sense there is an “Albert
System” or a “Boehm System”.
An entire music industry sprang up around the marketing claim “Nach Meyer”, whose instruments were stamped as such and were overwhelmingly of mediocre (I’m being kind) to vastly inferior quality.
Cocus wood, on the other hand was readily available, and relatively cheap, for American makers. Pin mounted flutes made in America followed two basic patterns, one after the French, and the other German style keys. The growth of the industrial capacity to mass produce ‘nickel-silver’ keys in France (maille-chorte) or Germany (‘german-silver’) meant literally bucket-loads of key sets could be imported to the States, and fueled a quite a wave of better than average flutes, until the American makers were swamped by inferior imports.
Bob
Thanks Peter. What a nice man and a great musician and singer too. Looks like Josie is playing a Rudall & Rose there in the beginning of the program with the head joint fully in. Afterwards in the next tune he has the head joint out a far bit as you usually have to do with a Rudall & Rose. On his FB page, Jon Cornia, a flute repair man in California, has a series of photos of the restoration he has done of a Rudall & Rose with a silver lip plate/sleeve that Josie played. Perhaps the one in this video?
I hope we can agree that it is at least a “German-style” flute, and that its key work is virtually identical to that used on flutes that claim to be in the style of Meyer flutes.
The term “Meyer system” is widely used to refer to German-style flutes that share the design and stylistic characteristics of Meyer flutes. You may claim that it is mis-used, in the sense that Meyer did not introduce a new system for key work, and I would agree with that. However, the term is regularly used today and it has been used in such a way for over a hundred years, and probably ever since Meyer’s flutes became famous and a target for imitation. You can see an example of this use of the term as far back as 1905 in a book on German flutes here.
This approach to categorization of flute designs is similar to the way we talk about “Rudall” and “Pratten” flutes today, when referring to flutes from modern makers. They are not actually Rudalls or Prattens, and in fact when you get down to the fine details of individual flutes you can easily argue that those categories of flute design are really not well-defined at all, and hence, they shouldn’t be taken too literally or seriously. I think this is the case with the categorization of Meyer System flutes, or Nach Meyer flutes, or flutes in the style of Meyer’s flute, or whatever term you want to use to refer to that general category. The categorization is in common use, but it really doesn’t have a very precise or useful meaning.
I think many people use the term “Nach Meyer” to refer broadly to this category. That is the sense in which I was using the term, and that is the sense in which I see the term used frequently in this forum. However, I am not arguing that this category is well-defined from the point of view of predicting the playing characteristics of a flute. In fact that was really the whole point of my post. There is great variation among flutes that are usually categorized that way, and some can be used to very good effect in ITM.
Perhaps the apparent disagreement here is simply that you use the term “Nach Meyer” more narrowly/specifically than I do?
I had the opportunity to restore Josie McDermott’s flute back in 2012, the flute was a R&R that had seen better days… When the flute was finished an arrangement was set up where an elderly gentleman in a tweed suit came to pick it up on Sunday morning, he had to be at least 90, I asked him how long he had been in the states, he said “65 years”, he still had connections with the old country.
Turned out nice, once I killed the mold living in it, and put it back together…
More photos on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/cochranflutes/media_set?set=a.4500425160856.2169996.1597255292&type=3
Josie McDermott’s flute
Not one of the flutes played in the documentary at hand though , is it? The one he uses when playing Una Bhan doesn’t (seem to) have the lip plate and the other one, discussed above, is obviously a completely different instrument.
I’m not an expert observer of flutes at a distance. What confidence do we have that in the doc he’s playing the same flute throughout? I know that colour can vary with lighting, but the apparrent redness of McDermott’s stick varies a good deal throughout.
BTW, I love the smirk on the face of the young lad playing the snare drum in the ceili band footage (at about 2:35). I wonder if he stuck with music?
I know that colour can vary with lighting, but the apparrent redness of McDermott’s stick varies a good deal throughout.
But look at the keywork and the head: metal stopper in the red flute, wooden one on the other(s). At least two flutes in that footage (well, just to most likely). But no lip plate on either of them.