It surprised and disappointed me to find no reference here or anywhere else to the 20th anniversary of Seamus Ennis’ death which occurred this week.
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[ This Message was edited by: Peter Laban on 2002-10-09 09:35 ]
[ This Message was edited by: Peter Laban on 2002-10-09 09:35 ]
Shall we organise a minutes silence?
[ This Message was edited by: john on 2002-10-09 07:50 ]
Maybe it’s because he’s still so much with us.
Have you noticed how often pipers say Ennis “plays” it this way or that way, rather than “used to play” it, because we all refer so often to recordings that we still listen to? And how stories of his exploits are still told when pipers gather?
Peter Browne’s CD of the Ennis RTE recordings is a great tribute, and the sleeve notes are written with great sensitivity, dealing well with how being a “character” has both positive and negative aspects. We were talking about Ennis at the Dutch tionol less than a fortnight ago with Mick O’Brien and speculating on whether Peter would be the man to write Séamus’s biography. I don’t know much about the NPU project which Pat Mitchell is working on, but my impression is that it is more focused on detailed transcriptions of tunes. The transcriptions have their place for those who can read the black dots, but I would prefer to see more recordings of Ennis in his heyday. Does anyone know if there will be companion CDs with recordings of all the tunes to accompany the book?
Apart from the RTE CD and the double vinyl album which predates it (I think this was edited by Pat Skye(?)), most of the commercially available recordings don’t do Séamus justice, as he was not at his best when he made them: his playing is still pretty OK on “The Pure Drop”, but the engineering of the recording is not great.
An PluiméirCeolmhar
[ This Message was edited by: Roger O’Keeffe on 2002-10-09 07:56 ]
There was mention in the latest Piobaire [arrived here yesterday] of an article in the Journal of Irish Music written by a man currently writing the biography.
I had some commmunications with Pat Mitchell over the past few weeks and I do think they will be tackling the whole Ennis, not just the piping tunes.
The CD Peter Browne did is great but him passing it off as his new discoveries was received here and there with a bit of a smirk. I was given most of the early material around 1982, Breandan Breathnach was giving that stuff to people, there were some great tracks from the 40s Browne didn’t include [or find], several other recordings as good as that material are in existence and the BBC has some unbelievable piping in archieve as well so there would be material to fill more CDs, one can wonder though is it a viable project.
Peter, I know that you have Met Seamus Ennis. Did you spend a lot of time with him or do you have a favorite story about him that you might like to share here on the message board?
I’ve only been piping now for 6 months so I think I get a pass on missing this occaion ..I am aware of Ennis but have no cds…would someone be kind enough to point to the best Ennis works that is available…I must also say that I have a Willie Clancy cd that I appreciate more for historical reference but find it somtimes a bit straining to listen to (blasphamy)given the recording quality. Would we be talking similary with the Ennis works?
Mypipes,
In spite of the shortcomings which Peter points out, I think he would probably agree that the RTE recording is the best easily accessible recording of the great master. As I understand it, it was limited to what RTE themselves had in their archive, which is why the BBC or other stuff isn’t there, and this is also why I hope that there will be recordings to go with the forthcoming book(s?). But that’s some way down the road.
If you have difficulty tracking down the RTE (Irish Radio & Television), post another message and I’ll get the serial no. etc. for you (I’m writing from work).
Séamus’s piping is more immediately accessible or less of an acquired taste than Willie’s, but you have to bear in mind that Séamus was something approaching a professional musician, which Willie was not, and some people say that the whole business of recording made the latter nervous and play below his ability. I think it also has to do with situating them both in their environment - read the threads on Micho Russell to get the flavour of what I’m talking about, and if possible spend some time in Clare soaking up the atmosphere, then you might in time grow to appreciate Willie: I had heard so much raving about him that I was also disappointed the first time I heard a recording of him.
Present-day pipers probably owe a lot to Séamus through what he passed on directly and indirectly, and though some of them play faster than he did and can fit considerably more notes in than he ever tried to, he was always supremely musical.
..
I have heard a tape of Ennis and Clancy playign 'How much is that doggie in the window’but that’s probably not what you are getting at. I have some stuff of him playing with Mairtin Byrnes.
There’s one bit available of him playing with Michael Gorman , MAggie Barry and the London crowd. Not great. Have also heard soem stuff by the Ha’penny bridge quartet which had Sonny Brogan, Liam Flynn plus Ennis and Sean Keane both playing the fiddle.
There are also a few tracks on the RTE Denis Murphy CD where he plays with Murphy and Julia Clifford. Scattered bits and pieces so, if you go looking for them.
I was talking to Kitty Hayes [who is an old concertinaplayer I play with] about Ennis last week, she said casually ‘we had him play at the house a couple of times, when we had Paddy Killoran staying with us. They played all night on several occasions.’
Now that I would have liked to have heard.
edited for content
From the NPU site for anyone who hasn’t seen it.
Raidio na Gaeltachta will broadcast an interview from 1997 by Proinsias MacAonghusa with Seamus Ennis on next Friday 11th Oct, 6:30pm, and will be repeated on RnaG on Sunday 13th Oct at 9:00am.
RnaG can be heard on the web at http://www.rte.ie, its’ possible that the item may be available afterwards on archives or whatever.
It is also possible that the interview will be all, or substantially, in Irish.
For those in other time zones, subtract five hours from the times shown for RTE and you have Chiff and Fipple time.
I would like to add an opinion to the Ennis/Clancy comparisons that have been made in this thread. When - too many years ago - I first listened to the Drones and Chanters CD that starts with Ennis’ “Jenny’s Welcome to Charlie”, and also features some tracks by Willie Clancy, I was stunned because I suddenly knew where Liam O’Flynn derived his style from: Willie Clancy. Later, I read an interview with O’Flynn in which he called Clancy his “hero”. If my impression is correct, then the widely appreciated “accessability” of Liam O’Flynn’s piping is just a consequence of this admiration.