OK, I admit that I’m not skilled in the area of ornamentation. I have stubby fingers that don’t lend themselves to it. So maybe this is all sour grapes, BUT…
I have this nagging suspicion that ornamentation has (fairly) recently taken on new significance that didn’t exist even 30 or 40 years ago. (That’s when I was listening to ITM in pubs as a teen.)
At that time I would hear fairly regular “twirps” and chirps and such…cuts, taps, rolls, whatever. That was part of what made it Irish music. But when I listen to some of the tunes that folks play or post on-line these days, it’s often a continuous flurry of grace notes. It’s somewhat different from what those old geezers used to play at Mark’s Bar in Dundalk in the 70’s.
Listen to the Chieftains play Morning Dew. Hardly a chirp (in the opening section, anyway). That was recorded in 1973. Any band playing it today would add about 150% more notes. Would it be better? Not necessarily.
I think what has happened to ITM is the same thing that has happened to other skills in our age. For example, at one time an Olympian was applauded for doing the splits on the narrow beam. Now a back-flip is routine. Same thing has happened to guitar playing. Today there are teenagers playing guitar in garages at skill levels that would have made them candidates for stardom two generations ago.
All that to say…If you can’t ornament like the experts, don’t worry 'bout it! Here’s a message to those who feel inferior because they can’t master some ornament. First learn to play the tune, then learn to play it with some swing, or whatever it’s called. Add an occasional chirp for effect and enjoy the music. Yes, that’s the message…be happy in the music…don’t worry 'bout those nasty old crans.
Aaaah!! I feel better now. Thanks for listening.
There now, you got it out. Coming from a GHB background, I have contended with the “chirps” for some time as have my ancestors for some few centuries.
I got my first whistle in 1973, when Chieftains Five was released. As one can imagine, the Chieftains have improved with their chirps over the decades.
Back in the day there was a scarcity of good players and albums to play. I would dare say you could dig up some old tunes (ITM) that are loaded with chirps just as with Coel Mor and the GHB.
heh thanks! I’ve noticed that too, listneing to the clancy brothers, its mostly just the basic tune, and as much as I like listening to the music with some cuts, rolls, taps, I dont like it when it has too much, you lose the meaning of the piece.
I have to say I agree with Whitmores75087, although I have no idea what it was like in the 70s. I prefer a little less ornamentation and sometimes the level you hear from some of the recommended great players does seem like an olympic sport more than a tune to my ear.
I feel it’s all about taste and personality. For example some modern players such as Brian Finnegan or Mike McGoldrick can sometimes put in hundreds of ornaments and “chirps”, but they do it with “taste” and then they have very distinct style of playing. In these cases I don’t have problems with too many ornaments. However there are lots of technically able players who just IMO don’t have really their own style, and in these cases no matter how many difficult “chirps” they put in, it just doesn’t have the same effect. Then it is actually sometimes more original if one plays the tune without too many ornaments and perhaps just make few “chirps” with thought.
Then I have to say that my all time favourite player is Sean Potts of The Chieftains, just enough tonguing, ornaments and proper pace.
I think that we, of the modern era, have gotten to the point in our quest for the ultimate in everything that we’ve (in many cases) have lost the ability to enjoy the pure and simple. Everything is described in supurlatives; everythingthing is “awesome” and “the absolute best”. If one piece of candy is good, two just has to be better; if one “chirp” is good, if we put in three so it will be “awesome”. Musicaly, volume seems to have replaced skill - boom it out loud enough and you’re a star, regardless of the quality. I vote we return to appauding skill, not ornamentation, virtuosity not ostentation. Just my humble opinion - others’ mileage may vary!
The whole thought process started for me when a gal joined our band temporarily. She’s a classical flute player / flautist. Instead of little blips, the ornaments were given just as much air time as the tune. It was striking. Not necessarily terrible, just very different. Then recently I listened to tunes people had posted on a learning web site and was struck by the time and effort put into getting ornaments right. I felt kinda sorry for those struggling to play a double-upside-down-transverse-cran, and feeling bad about their performance. It reminded me of a sad letter to the editor in a bible-oriented magazine. The guy felt un-saved and condemned because he couldn’t beat the “sin” of smoking.
On The Minstrel from Clare, by Willie Clancy, you’ll hear a lot of ornaments in some stuff, so it’s not an entirely new invention. It does seem that technical precision has become more important, sometimes at the cost of musicality. ITM in some circles seems more like a competitive sport also. And if you produce a cd, if it isn’t technically perfect, it will be negatively commented upon.
As modern day listeners, we’re conditioned to these expectations, just as the fashion industry conditions us to the anorexic ideal. It takes a little independence to hear the music separate from the technical presentation, and it takes a lot more independence to think about playing for the music that way.
I think the real art comes from knowing where and where not to put extra stuff, considering how it effects the entire tune rather than how that split second bit comes off.
Tony
You beat me to it about Willie Clancy. Piping aside, his whistle-playing is as bubbly, lushly ornamented, and sweet as any you could ask for from the present-day players, and for my money, his greatness lies in his ornamentation not obscuring the tune itself: you still know what he’s playing. A whistler couldn’t ask for a better example when it comes to high ornamentation. I only wish someone had recorded his flute playing.
Unfortunately some people end up hiding the tune under the extras; it’s what I call “overburdened”. Not to my taste at all.
That said, there’s nothing wrong with a simpler approach (and better simple than overburdened, IMHO), but I’d think at least some cuts, taps, and rolls would be called for when it comes to the ITM approach. Micho Russell was a comparatively simple-style player, but a master nevertheless.
Edited to add some thoughts about Willie Clancy's whistle playing: _The Minstrel from Clare_ was recorded, I believe, in 1967, and Willie was an old man by then. I can't believe his ornamentation came to him out of nothing. It doesn't sound experimental or haphazard; on the contrary, it's quite exact and purposeful. There must have already been a solid, learnable tradition of it somewhere, somehow.
My thinking is that ornaments are not extras but essential. I like to cook. I know that if I go overboard with spices I will ruin the dish. If I don’t use any spice, the dish is dog food.
It’s about quality. I guess I am in the less is more school. Best.
I’ll stand by that. At a youthful 52, I’ll be damned if I’m going to call myself old just yet! Thanks for the info, Peter.
Evidently the writer of the source I mistakenly relied on for such vague ideas was a mere sproutlet with the perspective that sometimes tends to accompany the condition.
that would be nice to hear, I think i have yet to hear him play the whistle, when not just playing along with a song, at least I think its him, then again is willie clancy from teh clancy brothers? this is the same clancy…right…right???
Was he only that?
