I’m currently listening to a 2002 Late Session in which Pat Mitchell is interviewed. He mentions that he and Jimmy O’Brien-Moran traced over 1,000 Seamus Ennis recordings (pipes, whistle, songs, stories) and intended publishing certain recordings as well as the transcriptions of his piping (with regulator accompaniment) in October 2003. Did this ever go ahead? I don’t recall anything being published about Seamus Ennis in 2003 and the last ‘new’ recordings of his to be released was Return from Fingal in the late 90s. Can anyone shed any light on this? What’s the status of the PM/JOBM project?
It is still ‘in progress’. When I phoned in to NPU last week, I could hear Pat chantering through some of Ennis’ chops.
It certainly is in progress (note no inverted commas here). Trouble is (among some other unforseen matters) that new informal recordings kept turnig up over the last 2 or so years and the idea was to cover at least one rendition of every tune that we have him playing on tape, record,reel to reel etc. The level of detail and bredth of material from one artist being anylised and transcribed has no precedent in Irish music.
These are not Breatnach or O’Neill type ‘snapshots’ of melody and suggestions of playing style, they are instrument specific and VERY indepth representations of a very creative and varied playing style (with explanatory notes). There will not be a ‘rush job’ under any circumstances, and a production line is simply not an option.
Presently due for release next year… unless anybody out there has ANOTHER spanner in the works to submit for treatment???
Regards,
Harry.
ps. Did I hear a rumour that somebody was working on detailed transcriptions of J Doran’s playing? I’d dearly love to see some of the bullshit sorrounding that man’s music dispelled. Somebody (a self professed “travelling style piper”) had the cloth-eared audacity to try and argue to me that JD used that bloody horendous back D tickling thing that Finbar Fury used to reasonable enough effect! The ‘roll’ effect that JD obtains on the back D is audibly not made by stopping the chanter (ie. tickling the back D hole: open, close, open, close… oh, missus). If I remeber my listening to it correctly JD’s effect was obtained by articulating the back D in a distinctly legato fashion using what appears to be a standard enough roll fingering on another note(effectivly he would open back D and (by the sound of it) vent it by opening another finger on the chanter then perform a roll fingering based around another note. This would change the tone and pitch of the ‘roll’ component ‘Back Ds’ (one of them may touch on C sarp more?) enough to give the required impression. The fingering I got to work best on most chanters I tried was the G roll fingering. (Additionally he does this with the chanter off the knee in most places IIRC. Clever man.)
So is that what Pat Mitchell described in the CD’s liner notes? Or is that some more of this BS?
I always thought Johnny was working the G# key on occasion, especially in the Blackbird, but I never slowed things down to check. I’d like to hear someone emulate the whole Doran style, the regs and all.
I don’t have anything novel of Seamus but I do have a recording of Johnny Doherty playing Colonel Bogie! I came across an LP of one of the Newport Folk Festivals from the mid 60s with Seamus. I didn’t bite and next time I checked it was gone. The titles were familiar - a bit garbled I think, and only two or three tracks. Hey, I wonder if Pat Sky was there! John Walsh told me about Seamus playing in LA, late 60s, opening for the Kentucky Colonels - or they were opening for him? Or same bill? Seamus was quite loaded, John went away quite horrified. Years later John was talking to Micky Zekely (Mr. Lark in the Morning - the shop, that is), who’d been at the same concert - and loved it! He had to get a set of pipes!
I have two concerts of Seamus from '64 in America and the reeds in the pipes aren’t happy at all. Only a couple of tunes and nothing new - Sliabh na mBan, Fairie’s hornpipe. At one of those he’s also pretty schmeckled - and a scream! Hilarious schtuff.
That’s exactly how it was explained to me. We are all looking forward to this book!
No, the ‘BS’ is much more easily identifiable: "Doran played with the chanter completly “open”, “he was a ‘loose’ piper”, “he invented ‘the travelling style’”, “he only played a handful of tunes”, “he was an ‘open style’ piper” etc… you know, the stuff that seperates a P Keenan fan ‘travelling piper’ from somebody who has actually tried to understand what Doran and other traveller players were/are at.
I think Pat M just mentions a C gracenote in reference to that ‘thumb ornament’ as he calls it. I recall listening to the several examples from the recording and hearing subtle variations/accentuations on same, nothing written in stone, the mood/occasion of occurence dictated the shape of it… like Ennis and The Clance.
ATB,
Harry.
I’m just trying it again on the D chanter I’m co-habiting with for the while (an early, and rather nice, Matt Kiernan reeded by one Mr. Rogge of The Continent).
“Doran Back D ‘Roll’ Effect” is best got on this by:
-
Sounding back D (remains open til step 4)
-
raising chanter + opening top 3 fingers of bottom hand + cutting first ‘gracenote’ with bottom finger of top hand.
-
‘tapping’ lower ‘gracenote’ with top 3 fingers of bottom hand.
-
returning chanter to knee and closing back D… you’d want to be fairly sure of what your next note was going to be.
The upper ‘gracenote’ of the ‘roll’ is not really a separate tone in itself but a tonal articulation of the back D (v.slight change on pitch on my chanter). The reason that the three fingers are used for the lower ‘gracenote’ is that (on any chanter I’ve tried it on) you need to cover every hole on the front of the chanter at this point to get a sufficiently contrasting pitch to create the ‘rolling’ effect. On my chanter this fingering (back D open, off the knee, front holes covered) sounds something more than a wee bit sharp of C sharp.
The Steampacket and My Love is in America are the tracks where he dishes this out if my memory serves.
ATB,
Harry.
As much as I am looking forward to the book, I am looking forward to hearing ‘new’ Ennis material as so much has been collected. Hundreds of tunes have already been written out by Pat. It should be great!
And third part of Colonel Fraser.
If only you had a chanter with a key extending above the back D! Of course many old makers put the high E key on the front of the chanter - perhaps this was part of their intention, how often do you go up into the stratosphere like that? Heavy ornamentation of the back D doesn’t seem to have become a big part of piping, Touhey would use the ghost D or a backstitch, a lot of transcriptions show simple repeated notes - like in the Concertina Reel, played in G - Willie Clancy would just play the four notes staccato. Listen to Pat Mitchell for an example of “rubbing” the back D in the same tune.
With the High E you could cut the back D and then close it for the pat. Some of the old German flutes had keys for things like an e’‘’-d’‘’ trill which can also be used for cutting a C#, opening up similiar possibilities.
It seems to me that most of the old fiddle tunes that highlight ornamenting the back D also are often chanter-unfriendly in other ways - extended range (below our bottom D) or melodic movements that are very tricky on the chanter, if possible at all.
Re: Ennis treasure.
Two gems that spring to mind came from stuff recorded, I think, by Eamon De Buitlear. He plays the Atlantic Roar as played by Johnny Doherty (he credits Doherty as the source but calls it The Atlantic Sound) and a very fine hornpipe that he got off Frank Cassidy of Teelin. The latter definately sounds like a Cassidy tune (slightly ‘odd’), but it is not remembered by the Teelin music crowd which is very interesting. I have found no other source of it. One rescued from the grave?
Regards,
Harry.
Will these currently unavailable recordings become available as well? Detailed transcriptions of recordings no-one has ever heard would only get you so far (no-one other than the owner and transcriber).
djm
Exactly. Breandan Breathnach’s books purposefully used LP material, whenever he could, so that people could hear the music and understand the transcription. It was not possible for many of his contributors - old man Potts, for instance. Mapping the tunes to the book would be great. In our digitized world, it seems possible, too. I am aware of time and budget constraints, too. So, it will be great to hear some of the newly collected recordings - there’s nothing like that 1957 Miltown Malbay recording of Ennis by Breandan!
DJM wrote: "Will these currently unavailable recordings become available as well’?
Not unless the owners of the recordings choose to publish them. There are many other publishing issues as well, not least that the man was in various states of deterioration in many of the recordings.
This type of analysis is for people who benefit from this sort of analysis, it probably won’t make the fly-on-the-wall recordings any easier to come by same way the Clancy book didn’t, or the CRE books didn’t make Breathnach’s field recordings easier to come by etc.
The resulting work is not a pipes tutor, it is an explaination of playing style that seeks to explain what many (if not all) people simply would not hear while listening to the performance in real time.
If any one of us took the time to understand even one of Ennis’ available commercial recordings in this detail we wouldn’t need to hear everything he recorded to more or less completely understand his playing approach. I know people with tapes, LPs and CDs of music from wall to wall who still torture their poor, long suffering instruments. “Ears aren’t granted, they are won”.
Regards,
Harry.
Spontaneous recordings are great to hear as well as the LP/radio/television recordings of Seamus. With Willie Clancy, many of the recordings that went into the Clancy book are circulating. So, while I would not expect an ‘official’ release of such materials, I am hoping that we all get to hear them through back channels.
That makes it a piping tutor in my books. I greatly appreciate that someone with educated ears is going to explain how to do what I hear but don’t know how to execute. But more important to me is that someone is going to point out what I don’t recognize or understand. I am very much looking forward to seeing this collection published.
I only mention the source recordings because I will never know if I am understanding the printed material correctly without hearing the source. As Jim says, we can only hope that some of this additional material will make its way to us through “unofficial” channels.
djm
Nice LP of Seamus Ennis on eBAY:
http://cgi.ebay.com/SEAMUS-ENNIS-Wandering-Minstrel-UILLEANN-PIPES_W0QQitemZ4803155843QQcategoryZ306QQssPageNameZWD1VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
I think I know that Frank Cassidy tune, maybe you could play it in G, a good few arpeggios…a tricky tune on the chanter if that’s the one. Seamus also recorded Frank’s air Cronan na Mather, which has a G# in it.
I’ve heard tapes of Seamus playing Connacht Heifers, Top of the Cork Road, Drowsie Maggie, Star of Munster, Will You Come Down to Limerick, Rakish Paddy, Trim the Velvet. Lots more like that! It’s very interesting to hear a new tune from a good musician.
I’m always listening to Seamus, he’s my fave but I’m happy to just knock out some tunes and try and make it come out “piperly” as they used to say. With Seamus/Reck/Willie I think if you just try and get a good rhythm to it, and decorate most every note in some way, you’ll have a nice sound going with enough practice. It won’t sound like they’ve been Reanimated but why not hoe your own row?
Don’t forget the “mistakes.” Lots of juicy “mistakes” in their music!
I just ran off my tape of Seamus Ennis from Willie Week 1981 -outdoors pre-lunch - Danny Boy!
Its the same situation here as with Willie. We have most of the stuff, we suspect some more exists, it is all there if we go looking for it. There is nothing that was difficult to obtain. More will probably surface.
I suppose the Clancy book made people aware of some such recordings. I’m not sure that it made them any more available to a group of more than ,say, 20 or so people though (if even that). These sort of recordings seem to have a life of their own outside books or anything else for that matter.
Its sad to see, as I have in the past, people using such recordings as currency or to generate currency (which is why I am generally loathe to run copies off willy nilly). It may or may not be true that the men themselves wouldn’t mind the material being freely circulated, but from such artists that the recording process has failed in the past (both Clance and Ennis have had some ‘uncomfortable’ recording sessions published as we know), with choice and discernment I would be inclined to keep much of their material among the few who can really appreciate it.
Almost all of the recordings of Ennis, and a fair few of Clancy, will be available for listening to in the NPU archive.
Regards,
Harry.
Different one by the sounds of it.
Regards,
Harry.