I’ve been watching the DVD of the Chieftains concert from Belfast in the '90’s (Nancy Griffith, Roger Daltry and Jean Butler are part of the show), closely studying over and over Matt Molloy’s featured solo performance playing “Mason’s Apron”, and one part is remarkable in the B section because it does sound like he is playing two flutes at once. He alternately pops 2-3 notes at a time that sound too deep for a D flute. I now believe he is singing these popped notes an octave lower simultaneously with the flute notes, and this is what gives it this “multiple flute” sound. I tried it myself and I think I achieved a comparable result.
Am I off my rocker? Has anyone else heard of incorporating flute singing technique in ITM?
I’ve listened to that track over and over and over again.
I don’t believe he is vocalizing.
I think he’s doing this effect entirely with his embouchure, and two things in particular make it work:
–he has a very muscular embouchure and has a very wide range of tones and timbres that he call pull from a wooden flute, everything from sweet to harsh and gritty
–he has very precise technique and such intense control that he can alternate two very different timbres and volume levels at speed in real time.
And that, to me, is what makes that track so damn impressive: he’s not using some exotic gimmick to “cheat;” he’s actually doing with the flute exactly what it sounds like he is.
Seamus Egan showed me a technique for doing this. He has a way of doing what I can only describe as a double cut - it’s not a trill. It is sort of a bouncy drone that he can sustain in a tune as he plays the melody line. It’s quite amazing This is coupled with the pop to the upper octave and creates the impression that the lower note plays continuously while the upper note pops in and out, thus giving the impression of two flutes.
I have yet to master or even approximate the technique, but MM is likely doing something similar. I have the video and it both delights me and pisses me off 'cause I can’t do it.
As an aside, I do believe there are people who
employ singing while playing the flute. I recall reading
about this, though I’m afraid I can’t remember where.
It is interesting that you directed us to the that link where I found specific mention of this contemporary classical piece by George Crumb–Vox Balanae. I actually performed that piece when at the San Francisco Conservatory 20+ years ago (I look at the music now and can’t believe I attempted it; the performance went well, probably because it’s so weird and modern, most folks don’t know what’s what, though it does have some melodic passages, i.e. not completely atonal). I “electrified” my flute by removing the cork in the headjoint and put in a cork pickup.
Anyways, pardon my reminiscing, but I mention it to let you know I am familiar with the technique. Your response, though, still begs the question: if Master Malloy is not vocalizing, then what is he doing? What Cubitt or peeplj suggest?
I certainly don’t hear any vocalizing other than from the gasps of awestruck spectators.
Like James, said, Molloy has very strong embouchure and finger technique. The signature part of the performance is the cadence created from going between lower and higher notes e.g. B or Cnat broken up by the E and F above. This is achieved by a little nudge of the embouchure and an extra pulse of air for each high note. The resulting sound is thick with harmonics which have a vocal sound. Throw in some extra runs of notes and you have a solo that sounds like a duet.
Following Sean McGuire’s arrangements of the tune, Molloy follows the same pattern in different keys. You can hear Sean McGuire play it on this tribute programme on RTÉ.
Vocalizing while playing (really, it’s a kind of humming, not singing) is usually done an octave below the flute note, or a third or a fifth below. It was/is a deliberately ‘dirty’ jazz technique; I’m not really into jazz, but there was a period where noises and other odd sounds were employed while playing flute, the same way a sax is made to squeal, etc. Ian Anderson used it to good effect on Tull’s earlier albums – I think he and the rest of us got tired of it after awhile, particularly as he got more technically proficient. It causes a kind of buzzy overtone to the flute, and it’s not all that hard to do. Best on a silver flute, but it can also be done on a wooden one. I’m not sure why anyone would want to, especially playing ITM, and this surely isn’t what Matt Malloy was doing here. I think, ultimately, James is right – it’s just a finely honed embouchure attack that adds a harmonic element to the basic note.
Much easier said than done.
Gordon
Unfortunately I’m having trouble ripping the clip and slowing it down but I think the G and A rolls are in fact played as “double cut rolls” and melodic triplets. Cool.
On another tangent, flutter tonguing seems to be creeping into ITM.
For the record, I was talking in general about odd textures, or ‘impure’ noises being added to an instrument’s repetoire, not the mechanics of sax squealing, or flute humming, electronic feedback or primal screaming.
Flutter tonguing does seem to be working its way in, which is kind of a shame. Certain techniques, or - in this case - the lack of certain techniques usually found in ITM, define what something is. ITM grows and changes in time, but (IMO) adding techniques that are common in other flute styles sort of waters down the whiskey, so to speak.
learning how to do it is an easy way to increase resonance and open your throat. that’s one reason why someone would want to do it. but… it’s usefulness for irish music does not go beyond an exercise in embouchure flexibility and mouth/throat resonance.
I just found a direct reference to vocalizing in ITM from a reputable source.
Last night before dropping off, I was looking up some things in Grey Larson’s PhD tome, The Essential Guide to Irish Flute and Whistle, (yeah, I know I’m crazy…) and found the word “humming” in the index. Lo and behold, Grey states that 2 great pipes and whistle players, Seamus Ennnis and Willie Clancy, use a humming on whistle tunes he transcribed. Pg. 375 “…[Ennis] hums along with the first 3 notes, an octave lower than he plays them on the whistle so that you momentarily hear those notes in parallel octaves![sic]…This remarkable technique is similar to the ‘throat buzzing’ that Willie Clancy uses in…the transcription that follows…It is interesting to note that, as far as I know, players of newer generations have not picked up on this dramatic effect.”
So perhaps it still may be possible that Malloy does this. At least it is a technique that has some history, though it may have fell out of use for a good reason…
I haven’t gone to listen to the clip in question, but I’m pretty sure a previous poster was right - the effect is a combination of Matt Molloy’s (NOTE SPELLING PLEASE - some folks keep miss-spelling his and other names - somewhat disrespectful, I feel!) superb strong low register tone and fast passage work involving what is classically termed (I believe) “pedal point”. I.e. a certain note is repeated in between long range visits to other notes, perhaps picking out the melody, usually above, but also below the main note. Done well at speed, this produces an illusion that the main note is continuous, like a drone. Add in all the complexity of partials in Molloy’s tone and there you have it. Performance/recording environment acoustics could accentuate the effect. A similar effect can be heard, for example, in some of the faster, more complex variations in James Galway’s recording of the Briccialdi variations on Carnival of Venice, if anyone cares to check that out. At times it sounds like two flutes going!
As for flutter tonguing, I’m not a fan of it in ITM, nor for that matter of Brian Finnegan style (excessive) use of stuttery triple tonguing. Such things are fun in jazzy playing, though, and I wouldn’t say “never” to any technique - judicious use, why not? And vocalising? Most of us probably emit the occasional grunt anyway! Again, not for regular or uncontrolled application, but why not tune those grunts or extend them into a drone for a particular one-off special effect? Just don’t claim it’s “Pure Drop” trad (no-one would believe it anyway)!
I think Jem’s on the money here. I used to play the Carnival of Venice badly when I played Boehm regularly years ago. I loved the passages that could be made to sound like two flutes, and listening to the Molloy’s Mason’s Apron has subconciously always taken me back to that.
So do I revisit the Carnival of Venice, or flirt with the Mason’s Apron?
I’ve got the Conal O’Grada version - it doesn’t grab me the same way that the Briccialdi variations do. Other parts of Top of Coom however are some of my favourite flute recordings.
