Met a fiddler/guitarist at a session on Saturday night. Her main interest was American/Old Time musice, I gather, but she did have a considerable interest in Irish music as well. She was surprised, even flabbergasted, to find that I did not know who Martin Burns was, that I hadn’t even heard of him. She said little more about him than that he was a contemporary of Michael Coleman and that his playing would absolutely blow me away, bawl me over, knock my socks off, and would be the best thing I’d ever encounter.
My friends, could it be true?
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2 Bloomfield 3:17
[ This Message was edited by: Bloomfield on 2002-06-26 13:51 ]
If your informant thinks that Martin Byrnes was a contemporary of Coleman, she knows less than she makes out. He was born in 1927.
A very sweet fiddler though. You’d love his natural thirds! His recording of The Blackbird is what totally hooked me on Irish fiddling more than a quarter-century ago.
He made one recording for Leader records - bless Bill Leader - in about 1967. It’s now out again on CD and can be had through Custy’s. (Are you listening Steve Power?) Otherwise I’d offer to make a tape for you. He’s not in the Casey or Coleman class but as I say, a lovely sweet fiddler that deserves to be heard much more widely. The Leader recording is … ahem… “enhanced” by the piano playing of the stalwart Reg Hall. I’ve only heard one other cut of his playing, on Dolores Keane’s Claddagh recording “There was a maid” or some such title, on which he played Christmas Eve unaccompanied. Relish the uneven temperament, lovely.
He lived in London for years but was lured back to Ireland by Garech da Brun the Guinness heir who appointed Byrnes as his court fiddler, or something like that, which, I surmise, probably hastened his death through what O’Neill referred to as “over-conviviality”.
He used to play quite a lot with both Seamus Ennis and Willie Clany [I think he was in one of Ennis’ famous car crashes with him], hang out with Sean ac Donncha when the latter was living in Ahascragh [Byrnes was an East Galwayman from Ballinasloe]. I have some lovely tapes of himself with Ennis, with Sean Ac D. and one recorded when he in the company of 'ac Donncha and Seamus MacMathuna visited Kilmaley whistleplayer and singer Micky Hanrahan in 1964 or thereabouts. Lovely songs and tunes and plenty of banter on that one [Hanrahan was quite a lovely whistleplayer by the way, from the corner of the world from which Peadar O Louhglin, Paddy Murphy and all of those came]. Byrnes always played a particular somewhat strange waltz, his favourite tune when intoxicated. Jacky Daly still plays that regularly.
And I would have thought you’d have the Dolores Keane one Bloomfield, tut tut.
He had some tracks on ‘Paddy in the Smoke’. Including a lovely version of Maudabawn Chapel
[ This Message was edited by: Peter Laban on 2002-06-26 04:50 ]
Peter: A Dolores Keanes recording and I don’t have it? Horrible. I will fix that. Although I must say I am proud not to own her latest (if it is her latest) recording, the one where she is sitting on a cragie hill in a red and black cape wearing doubious make-up. It is really a shame, and makes you realize that everything good and beautiful must wither and pass.
As I went a-walking one morning in May
To view yon fair valley and mountains so gay
I was thinking on those flowers all doomed to decay
As they bloom around ye bonnie, bonnie Sliabh Gallion Braes.
brownja: The signature refers to Paul McGaobhan’s second letter to Bloomfield, chapter 3 verse 17, written on the occasion of missing the 11:15 Express from Oranmore. Once I have driven the point home sufficiently, I’ll change the sig again.
On 2002-06-26 13:22, Bloomfield wrote:
BTW, the air, the hornpipe, or the reel?
The set dance, actually!
Peter, I forgot about Paddy in the Smoke. I think I’m right in saying that Kevin Burke’s settings of both Maudabawn Chapel and Farewell to Ireland are modelled on those of Martin Byrnes.
On 2002-06-26 13:54, Bloomfield wrote:
Is there a difference, musically? (that’s a real question.)
Most set dances (or “long dances”) are characterized by longer-than-usual second parts: some have 16 bars rather than the usual 8, quite a few have 12, and some 20. The Blackbird appears to have the surprising number of 15 bars in the second part, as far as I can tell! (In O’Neill’s there are 30, but the tune is written in 2/4).
I’ve know of two hornpipes called the Blackbird - Breathnach Vol I no. 207 (lovely tune - not related to the set dance) and a minor-key thing going chromatic around the edges, recorded on Eavesdropper by Jackie Daly and Kevin him-again Burke.
He had some tracks on ‘Paddy in the Smoke’. Including a lovely version of Maudabawn Chapel
Thanks, Peter. I’m listening to the CD for the 4th time since you mentioned it. I love these discussions that bring up really unique musicians that have influenced the tradition.
Speaking of which, the Breathnach books Ceol Rince na hÉireann v 1-?. How essential are these for an outsider making an earnest study of Irish traditional dance music? I have been resisting buying any new tune books as I am doing more by ear and have tune books I have not even scratched.
To me the Breathnach collection has always been of great value, especially parts one and three [and two to an extend but at first that was somewhat confusing because he wrote the complete ornamentation for that one]. Vol 1 is really a textbook collection and virtually all tunes in it are standard repertoire. On another level it is intesting to compare settings from one musician or one instrument to another and get some insight in stylistic differences.
