Whistling isn’t my only hobby, I also research my family history. I think I love whistling so much because the whistle gets into my Irish blood. In the past year I have spent my genealogy time on the 1/4 Irish side and this year is my time on the 3/8 French branch of my tree.
So it got me to think if there are any whistle tune books or CDs with french folk music? Everything I improvise now sounds Irish to my ears. Are there any stlyes of playing or different ornaments or websites about french music out there? Perhapse I should try something drastic and play a recorder?
Most of the French folk music I listen to from my limited collection consists of hurdy-gurdy, cornemuse(bagpipe), and accordeon. Sometimes fiddle as well. I have never heard whistle in any French folk recordings. That, by no means, does not mean it should not be done (IMHO). I have two books that I got from The Button Box in Amherst, MA. One is The Massif Central Tune Book No.2 by Mel Stevens and the other is Dansons la Morvandelle! by Mike Gilpin. For CDs, I enjoy the music of Les Brayauds, Eric Montbel, Jean Blanchard, Trio Cornemuse, Albert et Joseph Trio, Lo Jai, & Tapage .
Cheers,
David de la Barre
P.S. Be forwarned that most of the tunes in the aforementioned books are not in the key of D. Most are in C in the Morvan book and the Massif Central does have some in G but many in C and a few in keys like Eb.
[ This Message was edited by: Feadan on 2002-01-13 17:50 ]
You could try the tradfrance site. There are tunes from various regions of France. Breton tunes seem to be popular with Celtoid types. Popular instruments are accordion, bombarde and binou koz. But Kornog, a Breton group, uses fiddle and flute. And it’s only a short jump to whistle. Voila.
Hmmm…I’ve never considered Breton music to be a subset of French music. I have always thought of it as a totally different animal. Oh well. At any rate Kornog is a wonderful band. Their flute player, Jean-Michel Veillon, has some great solo recordings out there as well.
[ This Message was edited by: Feadan on 2002-01-14 16:22 ]
I second the tradfrance site. I’ve been playing some of the waltzes there for a while. They’re nice.
Many of the tunes are not in whistle friendly keys. I’ve transposed some with ABC software, but I think I’ve played more on the Boehm flute to get around that problem.
I’m new to whistling and I’m no music specialist but I’m french. So Here are my 2 cents (euro cents of course ;o) )
First, you’re more likely to find french regional folksongs, with quite different styles from a region to another. France unity was achieved very slowy and quite recently compared to the scope of its history. So each province had its own traditions (and even language) for centuries. That’s also true for tunes of course.
You may be willing to find folktunes from the province your ancestors came from.
Another consequence, I guess, is that specific ornaments, if any, should be related to regional styles in the many provinces where bagpipes and related instruments were used.
That said, there’s of course a lot of traditional songs shared by almost everyone (nursery rhymes, children songs, and so on…). You should find books about them easily on http://www.amazon.fr (keyword : chanson). I’ve myself a fine book but it’s no longer available.
Concerning the use of tinwhistle, I guess you can keep on using it. six holes fipple flutes were used everywhere in europe, including France of course (bone or wood flutes). I didn’t notice a key used more than another, so with a little bit of transposing and/or whistles of different keys, I think you should get by.
Have nice exploration of french tradition.
[ This Message was edited by: Fredo on 2002-01-14 15:24 ]
I would love to learn some tunes that would be pleasing to the French Canadians since we have so many here down here this year. I played O Canada at the jam last year and nobody seemed to know it…least of all…Gm