Here’s a followup of a thread a from a while back. I ran across this looking for drone reed quills. It give a general history of pipes/pitch etc. as I’d generally understood it along with some other interesting observations about the instrument.
The history/evolution from Irish piob mohr though I just blow off as silly because they’re almost certainly related to pastoral pipes so they’re at least one generation away from Irish or Highland great pipes.
‘With his love of dense long lines it is not surprising he is drawn to classical poetry and Baudelaire. In fact, the rhythm of ‘Bagpipe Music’ seems to be that of an Irish gig, on which subject he is an expert (his book about Irish music Last Night’s Fun (1996) is regarded as a classic): )’
Ciaran Carson was born in the late forties in Belfast and was raised speaking Irish before speaking Irish in Belfast was considered cool by many people. He doesn’t play pipes but is a traditional singer and an absolute top-notch flute player.
He was traditional arts officer for the N. Ireland Arts Council through the '80s and was the one that convinced them to grant funding to Republic-based events like the Willie Clancy School. His “Irish Traditional Music” pocket guide (1988, Appletree Press), though misleading in a couple of places, is still probably one of the best introductions to Irish music out there. [The article Royce points out is excerpted from this.]
He does have a love of esoteric words and tangential asides and if you like that sort of thing, his writing will likely float your boat nicely. Glands didn’t seem to think so, but on this we can agree to disagree. No writer has romanticised black pudding and eggs fried in lard with as much panache as Carson does in “The Great Talmudic Fry Debate” section of “Last Night’s Fun.” His book “Fishing For Amber” is pretty good too and he did a very nice translation of Dante’s “Inferno” a couple of years back.
Once I was talking with Rody Gorman, an Irish poet living in Scotland , and he mentioned Carson: “He’s a great writer and a lovely musician, but he’s pretty, well, you know, screwed up in the head.”
I enjoyed “Last Nights Fun”, I thought it was a great book. about 2 and a half years ago I was in hospital for a week and I almost memorized the entire transcription or Dom Nipeiri Septo. Being from North County Dublin, I could even do the Seamus Ennis accent.
Mind you the best ever Ennis immpersonation goes to Dave Hegarty!
He’s histerical!!! All the pipers clubs stateside should be thinking of getting Dave out here for workshops. He knows ALL there is to know about reeds and he’s the funniest person I ever met AND he has a huge amount of stories about Mr. Ennis. It’ll make you think a bit differently next time you listen to him.
Anyway, read Carsons book!
Tommy
Last week the phone rang and a voice said, ‘this is a long distance call from Seamus Ennis’. JOBM does a pretty good Ennis impersonation too.
Anyway, about that first bit, Chris Langan once said to me it had always struck him that Seamus had an overall sort of Irish accent but not at all a North Co Dublin one (Chris was form Rush and seemed a bit disappointed Seamus didn’t sound as a local).
Anyway, about that first bit, Chris Langan once said to me it had always struck him that Seamus had an overall sort of Irish accent but not at all a North Co Dublin one (Chris was form Rush and seemed a bit disappointed Seamus didn’t sound as a local).
Peter,
I would agree there. Seamus was born and reared in Finglas but certainly never had a Finglas acent. BTW do you know one of the other great pipers that came from Finglas, Fergus Finnegan. Thats a Finglas accent! I always thought that Seamus Mallon of the SDLP party had a voice that reminded me of Mr. Ennis, obviousley with the northern twang.
Chris was from Rush…
What a gentleman he was too. I had a great time chatting to him at the Willie Week one year. Both my grandfathers played fiddle and lived in the North County Dublin area and Chris knew them both. We chatted about some of the older local musicians that were still alive at the time and he told me to make sure I forwarded hellos from himself when I saw them next. I did that the next time it was at the local session. It brought back a good few memories for some of the auld boys. A great time.
