So, last weekend I played for a Scottish Country Dance in Pittsburgh, PA. I recorded the gig with an Edirol R-09, which I often do. The recorder was placed behind us and the result was a pretty good monitor level representation of what I could hear. You’ll hear the dancers dancing (of course), and often they chat while we’re playing - it’s all there to hear. The flute sounds a little ‘far away’, that is, not right into a mic, but I think it works anyway.
The tunes we play here are known as ‘Miss Hamilton’s Delight’, a strathspey set, 3 times - in other words we play 3 tunes 32 bars - as a set dance. The set is repeated a second time here because in Scottish Country Dance the dancers will ask you to play the set (or part of the set) again if they like the combination of the dance and the music. This also gives the musicians a chance to play different variations on the tunes.
I’m playing a six key post mount that Hammy Hamilton made for me in 2001. Clearly, this is a different way of playing one of Hammy’s flutes than in the trad Irish style, but it is so rich and fluid to play on these tunes. I hope you like them.
Here it is:
I got to hear Chris Norman and David Greenberg last night, lovely playing in sets from Bach and Teleman to Oliver Goldsmith and Thomas Moore, to strathspeys and reels, with wonderful playing throughout. Chris was playing a Rod Cameron eight key most of the time.
Just to be clear here, I really liked the clip and the sound of the Hamilton!
In my comment above I mean that in my opinion it doesn’t sound like a Boehm flute.
I say this also because many times I’m not a big fan of a metal Boehm flute’s sound (even if sometimes it can be beautiful), while I like the sound of the Hamilton on this clip very much. That’s all
I understand the Boehm reference from Hup, as the breath vibrato that I sometimes use is a distant remnant of my experience playing silver flute.
There is a marked difference, however, in tone and response between the two. The tunes, probably being from a time earlier than the invention of the Boehm, seem to speak
very well on the wooden flute, given the ability to slide, cut, reach, etc., in a way that a is not quite possible or acceptable on the other.
When I first began playing flute with this group, about 10 years ago, the response was not very good. The presenters were not used to the sound
of the flute and were wary of hearing what they considered fiddle music on a flute - not because it wasn’t pleasing, but because they weren’t used
to the sound, and therefore thought that it wouldn’t work for dancing. I kept at it, since we all liked the combination of instruments, and now the
consensus is that the group would sound not be the same without it.
Anyway, thanks for listening. There are more QuickTime and Box.net field recording links on my website.
Because I received so many comments and hits from the Miss Hamilton’s Delight set, I thought I’d post another strathspey set from the same gig.
This one is a set called ‘Jean Martin of Aberdeen’, again a 3x32 set piece. This is the reprise that we played after the dancers called for us to play it again.
