The thread on pipes in Harry Potter DH1 got me thinking… I saw the new Sherlock Holmes movie last night and there are highland pipes in a wedding scene. The piping is horrific. Rank beginners (that will probably never progress beyong their current playing ability) that can’t even tune their pipes, and yet they are happy to hire themselves out for a movie soundtrack as if the quality of their playing were somehow acceptable.
So…to arrive at the point: It seems that in general such offenses occur less in the Uilleann piping community and that the quality of Uilleann piping in movie sountracks is much higher than highland piping. I’ve played highland pipes for 40 years and it seems to me that Uilleann pipers have a much more realistic idea of their playing ability than the vast majority of highland pipers. Uilleann pipers seem to be a little more humble about their playing ability than highland pipers. I wonder why that might be…any ideas?
On one hand I’m elated that they even THOUGHT to include pipes, AND/OR Im glad they are using live actual (hopefully union and domestic) musicians (if this is indeed the case)
OTOH, I’ll take your word for it that the score’s an appalling embarasment to us pipers; having somone go out there and sound lousy, forever, on film. and get paid; (if this is so).
on ANOTHER hand, maybe is Sherlock 2 just sequenced samples a la “How to Train Your Dragon”???
on YET another hand, could the pipers (live, if the case) simply be following orders from the head honcho despite cries of "we need time to tune up "???Thats FULL benefit of the doubt.
NOW over to the next theme; ease of availability and instant recognition for GHB may be a double edged sword: lets face it there s often a lot of testosterone involved in making the choice to play the GHB, and all too many gimmicks & sales pitches, eager to provide tartan assistance for a small fee, and lead those with more chutzpah than talent astray from their true calling as shelf stockers, manual labor, private security, etc.
The Uilleann pipe is harder to obtain, more difficult to locate a live and in person player, demands more vigilance in maintenance, has a characteristic sound that can be subtil and hard to describe, has several approaches to technique, offers little return for beginners that are less than completely obsessed, and is somewhat less resistant to the elements.
all of this to say the least, imo.
One really has to want to play uilleann, to play uilleann. The GHB practice chanter dangles the carrot of bagpiping in front of learner, rather than weeding out the casually interested, spurs them on to the full horror of playing the highland pipe badly.
so
If I can stay on my soapbox for yet another moment: the GHB PC is the root of all evil, imo. When I taught , I started them on the GHB & then went & fixed their probs on the PC. By completely diminishing the importance of the pc the ‘transition’ to full GHB was eliminated.
Starting them on the big pipes also gets them thinking about tuning & intonation immediately: somethign the pc offers little of. otoh they make lovely dog toys, lamps, and paint stirrers.
I took my son to see that movie the day before yesterday. Have you considered that the piping may have been intentional bad? Recall, the scene where they appeared and started to play was when Sherlock Holmes brought a terribly hungover Dr. Watson to his wedding? I thought the ensuing cacophony was meant to put the viewer/listener into his position and convey the horrible feeling he was experiencing at that time.
Have you considered that the piping may have been intentional bad?
Your point and question is valid, and the music matched the effect…but how did they hire the pipers for that? Did they interview them telling them they were looking for terrible players that sound like crap? If they hired a quality player and asked for bad playing, I would think the quality player would push his pipes (both drones and chnater) out of tune, and play well off the beat and tempo, but still finger cleanly. The pipers in this movie are dragging their fingers across the holes in a way that sounds like many of the worst players you hear in massed bands.
I can hear it now…
“Gentlemen, time IS money…you have the chart; we need to get this in the can.. now, your;e CLEAR on what the composer is looking for here, yes?..”
o showbiz…
I haven’t seen the film myself but I have in the past had enquiries made about performing on GHB’s for various projects.
It has been my experience that many of the people in charge of the music for these kind of things have no idea of the difference between good or bad piping or that there is a difference between the different pipes, regarding warming up and tuning the instrument that quite often isn’t considered and poor piper has to ‘go with it’ or find other employment.
Here are three situations that I have encountered, there are more but this gives an idea.
Q. How much to come to London and play very badly for a recording to be used in a production?
Ans. Err, no I don’t think so.
While performing for a show with several other pipers who I hadn’t met before we were suddenly herded down stairs
to perform our “pieces” for a recording. No tune up, warm up and no amount of protesting could change the situation.
Q. Can we borrow your pipes to use in a production about the Irish Rebellion, one of our actors will stagger on stage
attempting to play your pipes very badly.
Ans. You can have this spare set providing you leave a £3000 deposit, non returnable if there is any damage to the
pipes.
I can think of other situations I’ve witnessed even participated in and not necessarily connected with pipes.
I found the music in below deck scene in Titanic to be pretty bad, not to mention completely anachronistic. Mandolin with pipes (in the background?!) playing John Ryan’s polka at 80 beats per minute with “punches” at the beginning of each phrase like someone playing Irish music for the very first time. “Hey look! I can hear hear quarter notes!”.
My question: How can you spend umpteen millions of dollars on a production and get these things so wrong? It was a key scene and the music wasn’t background. It can’t be that hard to do right. One phone call to any long-standing Irish cultural organization and they’d probably be headed in the right direction.
Then there’s the infamous scene in Braveheart where you see a Highland piper silhouetted against the bonfire, but the sound you hear is the uilleann pipes…
I played a funeral scene for a cop show years ago. Recorded the pipes and went away happy. When the show aired my cut-off was replaced with dubbed in trailing drones. I did the show again a year later and went home again happy with the recording. They called to ask me to come in and re-record some things because they hadn’t gotten the, “Starting up and winding down sounds for some reason.” I went in and set them straight.
I played a funeral scene for a cop show years ago. Recorded the pipes and went away happy. When the show aired my cut-off was replaced with dubbed in trailing drones. I did the show again a year later and went home again happy with the recording. They called to ask me to come in and re-record some things because they hadn’t gotten the, “Starting up and winding down sounds for some reason.” I went in and set them straight.
Aaron Shaw and Eric Rigler are two of the handful of pro highland pipers who do LA Studio gigs. Panceltic is also an excellent piper (both highland and uilleann) and multi-instrumentalist doing studio work here, but for every one like them there are 50 hackers that have no idea how to get a good sound that are anxious and willing joing the musicians union so they can be ‘in the movies’ or whatever soundtrack is being done.
switch it round…
One dosent get the gig JUST because theyre union;
Although the big houses prefer to, (or are in agreement to) hire only union members.
AFM membership is no guarantee of studio work, is what Im pointing out.
In my day job as an advertising writer I’ve produced music and worked with session musicians in the big markets and yes, sometimes there are gigs where you don’t want good; i.e., sometimes wrong is totally right (consider Charles Ives). It’s all about a mood; the music plays a role in supporting the scene. I haven’t seen the movie yet either, but the direction “can you play that like it’s part of a hellish hungover nightmare?” sounds about like something the composer/arranger might say (at the behest of the producer and director, of course )
Studio time is too expensive to hire musicians who don’t know what they’re doing, especially in the big leagues. The real pros are the “go to” players because because they can play anything, including very badly, if required.
But … there’s still no accounting for taste. However, whatever that producer was after certainly worked for a lot of people. And worked out well for those musicians, too!
FWIW, mandolins have been around for a long, long time. Stranger things have happened …
I maintain that the ‘real thing’ would have worked 100 times better for all concerned, or do we not all agree that there is a qualitative difference between real traditional musicians and hacks?
The mandolin wasn’t what was anachronistic, although it would have been relatively unusual in the playing of Kerry music, it was the take on the polka that didn’t fit the period. The dancing didn’t fit the music either, but I won’t even go into that…
