Well, you think lots of things are silly exercises, Peter. You’re probably right, too. But then, so is running on a treadmill, but lots of people still do it.
One of the things I love about Scottish music (and Irish music, as well) is the emotional complexity a good player can bring out of the simplest tune. Is it sad, or hopeful, or homesick? Contemplative and peaceful? in love? Or all of the above? A good slow air expresses a longing for beauty, and provides the fulfillment for its own longing. Powerful stuff.
does anyone have a pointer where I can get a copy of that?
Exactly so, and a true challenge to combine honest emotion and quality of technique (neither of which I excell at ). Funnily enough I’d posted another thread looking for advice about learning and listening to airs but without much success (only one reply). I guess it might be another ‘silly question’ really, so full of intangibles and therefore difficult to discuss meaningfully?
I get a bit uneasy with all that ‘sad’ and ‘haunting’ air stuff, it gives me associations of maximum reverb and if at all possible the sound of the distant ocean in the background.
I remember visiting Rochford for the first time (I had known him for a few years, as a piper) and he took down the fiddle and played the Cliffs of Moher, as he said himself ‘in the darker key’ it was pure emotion. How many can do that though. Mary Bergin said Tommy Peoples’ music can make her cry but it’s not the tunes that do it, i’s what the player brings to them.
But people react differently to these things and I had a few to bring to the topic. Interest enough I just listened to a few versions of By the River of Gems and it was only the Seamus Ennis one that moved me, not any of the others.
I don’t think very intricate technique is necessarily the key to air playing, Ennis for example is quite sparse in his use of ornamentation (which is not to say it isn’t complex playing), compared to the self indulgent expressiveness of Willie Clancy playing An Buachaill Caol Dubh for example (which I love too), and I have heard examples of very simple playing that was still very moving.
I spotted your thread and I am mulling things over, especially as I am going through a spate of air-teaching. Getting to the bones, separate the important notes from the ornamentation and the correct phrasing would be the obvious starting point. Keep the voice of the singer in mind.
A lot of tunes can take all added poignance when one knows the original lyrics. Hey, it’s not Irish, but the American Civil War traditionals, “All Quiet Along the Potomac Tonight”, “The Drummer Boy of Shiloh” and “Mother, Is the Battle Over?” have been known to bring about a tear in me.
“One the one hand I think it’s a bit of a silly exercise, it’s a good musician who puts his touch of sadness on the tune, not necessarily the tune itself.”
I always found that silly exercises usually get to the deeper truths after awhile, Peter
As you rightly point out, how the musician interprets the piece is key, no?
Yet, might not some laments in the hands of a master - musician and tune together - produce something truly evocative - touching sadness and loss, the ephemeralness, as it were, of life? Do not at least some tunes carry something of that in their very construction (even if a gifted musician could make them sound as jolly a driking song?)
Now, I have no credentials to ask such a question, but I 'll ask it anyway - I’m in a spunky mood this morning.
Samuel Barber’s Adagio For Strings. It’s especially sad as used throughout “Platoon” (and most especially during the demise of Sgt. Elias – at around 5:00 in this video collage). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxVkXj26qds
In the ITM world, however, I’d have second fearfaoin’s vote for The Battle of Aughrim. Joanie’s rendition with CTL on “Threads of Time” is particularly evocative.
Late as usual, I nominate the Swedish tune Ljugaren. It is probably the saddest I’ve ever heard, especially when played on a säckpipa (Nordic bagpipe), an instrument which always makes me feel gloomy just by the sound it makes. There are a couple of recordings on the internet, check out either my band: http://www.myspace.com/hnao, with special guest star Gudrun Ebbinghaus on the säckpipa, or Ljugaren/The Miller of the Dee played by Olle Gällmo on http://user.it.uu.se/~crwth/bagpipes/swedish/music.swe.html
I agree that the musician brings out the sadness in a tune, but that there is something in the tune itself – some intervals that just ache (but in a beautiful way). Personally I find Carolan’s “Blind Mary” sadder than his “Farewell to Music.”
Neil Gow’s “Farewell to Whiskey” is sad when played as a lament, but I’ve also heard it played as a fast dance tune. I like the slow, sad version better.
Donall Og from the Chieftains 2 LP was one of the first airs to really make me cry. I think it was the combination of it being so raw-sounding (being an LP) and also so haunting.
But Brauch Na Carrige Baine is also a favorite. Never fails to make me somewhat emotional.
But then, so is running on a treadmill, but lots of people still do it.
). Funnily enough I’d posted 
