I don’t gonna mention anything about her amazing book (there’s a lot of topics about it), but how about her music?. I like very much her piping, the triplets and thight playing are quite clear, very useful to learn by ear.
I’ve read an article that saids she was only sixteen years old when she wrote and recorded this tutorial.
So, has she some cd recorded as a piper? Do you have some info about her? (I’ve looking to find something about her sailing the net, but I don’t have found anything) Who’s miss Clarke, the piper? :roll:
Apparently Heather was just fourteen when she wrote the tutorial, and sixteen when she recorded the CD! As far as I know she intended to publish two volumes, the first for the practice set which we know,and a second for drones and regs. Unfortunately her work meant this was shelved.
I have to admit being quite astonished at how young she was when I met her about 8 years ago, though it hadn’t dawned on me that the first limited edition of her tutorial had first gone to press in 1986.
I think Heather is working in Cork these days. I met her in UCD Canoe Club back in 1987 or 1988 when she was maybe 18 or 19. I was a novice piper and asked her to play a tune on my practice set on a canoeing trip to Limerick in the West of Ireland: I had never heard a master player “in the flesh” (and yet fully clothed ) at that stage, and I was amazed at the music she produced. She was also a grade 8 pianist at that stage, and after much harassing, she finally agreed to play a piece on the piano in a pub in Limerick. The entire pub stopped watching The Late Late Show ( ), sat listening in awe, and gave her a standing ovation!
She became an excellent paddler and topped her class in Medicine, which was handy because she put my ankle in a cast when I broke it in 1998!
Heather Clarke doesn’t exist.
At varioius times in human history, such as during a national crisis, people have invented heroic women who would come and save them. See also: Roisin Dubh, Cathleen ni Houlihan etc.
Heather Clarke, the nineteen-year-old virtuoso piper with the flowing dark hair is one of these mythical woman. While many people claim to have been helped in their piping by her, nobody has actually seen her.
She is also believed to have powers to cure acne and restore hair loss.
Alas, only a myth.
) at that stage, and I was amazed at the music she produced. She was also a grade 8 pianist at that stage, and after much harassing, she finally agreed to play a piece on the piano in a pub in Limerick. The entire pub stopped watching The Late Late Show ( 
), sat listening in awe, and gave her a standing ovation!
