I have a recording of Mary Bergin playing the Congress reel a few years ago. Aside from her wonderful playing, I am mystified about her use of an A gracenote in the 2nd part.
When the tune goes from G to E, she slips this delicate A gracenote in that is so nice and light. I’ve slowed the recording way down, and it seems as if she might be tonguing the E before the gracenote to shave a few miliseconds off of the A gracenote and give it that lift.
Anyone know what I’m talking about and have some insight into how to do it properly?
Sorry, Buff, I don’t hear anything special there, just a “triplet”, or more properly: |ez ag e/g/e dz|. It’s not even a mid-cut. Yes, that e is tongued, a normal articulation. The top note is more or less g, not a – which means she’s probably lifting the B1 finger.
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Back to the tune in question - Mary B doesn’t do 'em, but this is a great tune for C natural rolls at the section ends!
It’s not being done with the ring-finger, either L3 or R3, I suspect, but with R1 as MTGuru said - and if MB is doing it with L3, you can just as well do it with R1 if you find that easier, though an L3 cut really shouldn’t be a problem - if it is, you need to relax!
The fellow who made the recording in the first place learned the tune from Bergin and played the gracenote with the A finger. Being a highland piper in the first place, the ‘E’ gracenote is not unfamiliar to me. But, the effect on a tinwhistle is.
I never had the guts to ask him how he did it, such whistle envy had I. And I don’t find the effect mentioned in any of my whistle tutors, so I just thought someone here might know how it was done…anyway…will go to the St. Louis Tionol next weekend, so maybe can ask someone there about it.
Well, Buff, you have the answer from Jem and me, so I’m not sure what you’re hearing or not hearing. There’s no special “effect”. There’s no “gracenote”, barely audible or not. Slowing it down doesn’t change what’s there.
Here’s a detailed transcription of the B part of your clip:
Not to be contentious, cause goodness know a naked, polished piper is hardly any threat at all, but the embellishment sounds much more subtle than a triplet.
What do you say, John M., are you out there? I don’t have an address for you anymore but care to comment on the ancient, pennywhistle secret that Mary imparted that day?
Maybe I hear what you’re hearing. The “triplet” is played four times, twice in each repetition of the B part. The last three sound like normal, clean triplets. But the first one has a little scratchy, gritty, sliding, breaking sound to it. I get something a little bit like that by fingering the triplet “ede” followed by the “d,” but for the “d” in the triplet, give a very quick punch of air from the diaphragm, which causes it to break up to a sharpish “a” instead of going down to “d.” I have no idea if that’s what Mary’s doing, or if I’m even hearing it correctly.
Here’s a detailed transcription of the B part of your clip:
Not withstanding what I’m suggesting is off post, you now have to tell us just how you did that. Very quick, very impressive. I know, I know, I should be able to work it out with the available technology, but if you have time, it would be good to have a step by step lesson from you MTG.
I listened to the whole clip and I agree with your transcription as a triplet rather than a double cut. (Understanding of course that by “triplet” we don’t actually mean “triplet”.) It’s a very straight-forward version of the Congress at that.
As BoneQuint says, it’s a fairly chiffy whistle. My hearing cuts off around 14 kHz or less nowadays, and I’m willing to believe there are high frequency transients that I can’t hear, even in a 128 kbps mp3. But in this case, nothing that would affect being able to infer what is being played, at least at this level of granularity.
I dunno Keith, it’s just a matter of writing down what you hear. A few passes to get the basic tune and ornaments, a few more for the phrasing and articulation. Took around 20 minutes. I did slow the triplet down to 1/4 speed in Transcribe, and it’s still just a triplet.
I write ABC in a text editor (Vim), render it to PostScript with abcm2ps, use Ghostview to export to BMP, then clip it in my Photo Editor and save to GIF.
A few passes to get the basic tune and ornaments, a few more for the phrasing and articulation. Took around 20 minutes. I did slow the triplet down to 1/4 speed in Transcribe, and it’s still just a triplet.