Having followed the new pics thread, I thought post a pic of callanish on the Isle of Lewis, on a very grey misty saturday morning last year (about 6am) I walked in to the circle and sat playing a couple of airs, when I started playing on the low d the hairs stood up on the back of my neck - an amazing place.
so anywhere better? so I can start planning!!
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rbm, in the wilds of the English Lake District, where the fells stand proud, the lakes be clear and the sea be in the celler!
[ This Message was edited by: rbm on 2003-01-17 05:44 ]
Not sure it beats your circle, but this summer I’m planning to walk the Ridgeway, this time east to west, finishing at the Avebury Stone Circle, so big there’s a village inside. And like all these old places, there’s a definite feel to the place when you can get away from the ice cream crowd.
Seems like a nice place to finish the walk, and I’ll have had 60ish miles of walking beforehand in which to practise.
Ah, Avebury that seems like a distant dream, I guess I’d have been maybe 6 or 7 when I last stood amongst those stones, back in the good old days when you could still picnic amongst the stones at stone henge!! - yep half a lifetime ago.
At Avebury you can still walk amongst and touch the stones, even though a couple of years back some vandals painted some, and the treatment to remove it killed the centuries old lichen.
It was a tradition in my family to visit the stones annually & walk the circle widdershins. I’ve missed a couple of years recently, so maybe this year I can do a couple of extra laps.
I like huge cathedrals - always think about playing music there when I visit one. Unfortunately there are little chances that I will ever have an opportunity to play a concert in such a place.
rbm - your pic is great. I’ve been in the Highlands a few years ago, but didn’t get to those islands. It’s a pity! Hope I will be there one day.
My favorite place to play is on top of a mountain somewhere in the Adirondacks.. Giant Mt. is my favorite. I find mountaintops to be VERY spiritual places. Trouble is, it is usually too windy to play up there. When the day is right, I feel like I’m playing for all of creation.
For sound, the neatest place I’ve found is in Saratoga State Park. There are brick colonades connecting some of the old spa buildings one to another. They have concrete/stone floors and arched ceilings. Although playing outdoor often sounds pretty dull, these spots have an amazing reverb quality. If you travel to Saratoga, be sure to pack a whistle and check it out.
Claudine,
I like the idea of playing a jig in the middle of a cathedral, but some how I don’t think they would be impressed
and you’d be sent yam double quick!
“yam” cumberland dilect from “gioin’yam” to go home.
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rbm, in the wilds of the English Lake District, where the fells stand proud, the lakes be clear and the sea be in the celler!
[ This Message was edited by: rbm on 2003-01-17 09:40 ]
Thanks for sharing the pic rbm. Lewis is my maternal grandmother’s birthplace. I’d love to play in that circle sometime. In the meantime, I have to settle for mountaintops and streams in rainforests. (Well beside the streams actually.) But who’s complaining; I can find both within five minutes drive of where I live.
I´ve played on the streets of London, it was a great experience. I picked up my Copeland Low D and High D direct from the hands of Michael and Jim when I met them at the Tower of London in June last summer.
We sat there among the guided tourist groups in the sun and talked about music and instruments, taking some photos and played these wonderful whistles. People stopped to listen when Michael played the Low D and Jim the high D, one of the guides in funny looking clothes kindly asked us to stopp “the show” because we wher stealing about 100% of the attention… he he!
Michael also played a prototype Low C and his old blackwood flute. Michael and Jim, two very nice gentlemen.
I did not check in to a hotell that last night in London, instead I mingled at restaurants and pubs until 4 a´clock in the morning. In the morning I had plans to meet up with a bunch of Swedish girls to watch the World Championsship in Soccer, Sweden was playing 8 in the morning or so. Never met them though. I became to tired and started walking towards Heathrow.
Anyway, I walked west from central London and stopped at different places in the middle of the night to play the whistles, mostly in love with the Low D. I found very interesting acoustics on my walk and found myself standing outside a big fancy hotell with some nice architecture (spelling?) in the front. A gentleman who worked there came out to do something, and I excused myself and told him I was going to leave…
..he said NO, please go on it´s beatiful…
That´s my first 24 hours of playing a Low D and also in public, and here comes a man telling me it was great. That was a very nice and encourraging experience.
Also played some out on Heathrow later that day, that was also some nice acoustics. I jump in to every exciting building I can to check out the sound/acoustics. If I have no instrument with me, I whistle or sing to get a feeling for the sound.
Would love to sit in the middle of those stones and play something slow..
/Peter
[ This Message was edited by: Pan on 2003-01-17 11:34 ]
I have always been fascinated by ancient sites. Unfortunately, I have never been able to see them personally. Try this url for pictures of stone circles, dolmens etc. http://www.stonepages.com/home.html
Angelo
I guess this would be under the “strange place” heading. I used to work for the city of Blaine WA. A little coastal town next to the Canadian border. In our watershed we had a 3 million gal water tank buried underground. Once a year we would drain it for cleaning. So one night I took my whistles down into this dark dank hole and started playing. According to my watch there was a 46 secound echo in there and it was unreal. You could harmonise with yourself. You could play a note and here it over and over again for 46 secounds. Realy cool.
AngeloMeola, this ones for you collection, its Swinside circle which is about a mile from my house and another great whistle place.
edited for failed link 4 times !!
R.
rbm, in the wilds of the English Lake District, where the fells stand proud, the lakes be clear and the sea be in the celler!
[ This Message was edited by: rbm on 2003-01-18 04:53 ]
On 2003-01-17 07:11, claudine wrote:
I like huge cathedrals - always think about playing music there when I visit one.
I did play a concert in a cathedral once but I’m not sure if Anglican cathedrals in London Ontario count. Probably not. The rector there (now a bishop) always called me Tom and when I corrected him said that Thomas and Stephen were both names in the Bible so he was justifiably confused. As far as going out a playing in the midst of natural surroundings goes, I could go someplace like this.
