I’ve been reading this site a lot, but I can’t figure out what “pure drop” or “chiff” is. Google doesn’t seem to help.
Thanks
I wondered about them also. Judging purely by context, I’m considering “pure drop” to mean “very traditional, or minimally affected by commercial aspects of music”. Chiff is an aspect of the sound many whistles make, a bit rough around the edges, which gives some of that rustic sound associated with traditional whistle playing. The cheaper whistles may tend to have more chiff, and higher-end one may be more often described as “pure”. I’m sure folks will be able to expand on this or correct me where I might be off-base, but that may help.
Cynically speaking, I’d say “pure drop” is mostly about being traditionaler than thou. For the most part, it’s about people who aren’t traditional trying to one-up each other with how traditional they / what they listen to are.
That is to say, non-cynically, “pure drop” means “very traditional”. But in practice, a lot of the stuff played by the very best of the older traditional players contains a bunch of elements that would never be considered “pure drop” (as it is commonly used) if played by younger players.
For instance, if I said I were going to record “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling” on flute, backed by guitar, organ, and snare drum, there’s not a person alive who would call that “pure drop”. But everything I listed there is present on one Peter Horan recording or another. Well, okay, I don’t think he’s ever commerically released “Irish Eyes”, but I’ve got two different private recordings of him playing it. (For those that don’t know, Mr Horan is an 80-year-old flute and fiddle player from a small town in Sligo, one of the greats of his generation.)
Colomon, I know exactly what you mean, and I run into that among players of oldtime southern mountain music in this area. There are purists who seem to have an idea that there is one right way to play the music, and that it was inscribed on tablets that were carried down from the highest peak of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
In my less cynical moments, though, I am thankful for those who maintain strong ties to the styles of music that developed here in the days prior to recording technology. It’s not that the music was growing and changing any less back then. It’s more that it involved specific regionally-based styles that I have always found fascinating to explore. The same can be said about blues, certain forms of jazz, Klezmer and any other forms of folk music. “Pure drop” doesn’t really exist, because music is no more static than any other form of language, but it does stand for something that has value, namely dedication to the integrity of the sources.
(Hey, that comment about the tablets isn’t going to open up that whole other thing again is it…? 
)
“Pure Drop” has become a pretty loaded term, and I think it gets a pretty broad spectrum of definition. What Colomon had to say about Peter Horan is a good point and a telling one. Piano backup, for example, is not loved by all, and yet it goes back many years.
For me, Pure Drop starts with the roots; solo melodic playing, or maybe a melodic duo, nothing more; still, it can go from there, too. But as of the writing of this post I still draw the line at synthesisers, didgeridoos, reverb, and choirs as being within the Pure Drop paradigm, whatever that is.
When you think of how céilí bands in the States in the 1950s were often set up (complete with saxophones and brass, for example), the question of Pure Drop becomes rather muddled if you use the word “traditional” to define it.
Perhaps a brief perusal of the Main Website or at the least the FAQ page.
Please note that the main website is accessible from the top of every page on this board. 
I believe that you will find that many saxophones are brass! 
Muddled, yourself!
Sorry 
I seem to be in one of those moods…
Yes, I’ve always wondered how saxophones get lumped in with the woodwinds, myself. The reed? That’s cane, though. I suppose you could say cane is sort of woodish.
Yep…the method of producing the sound.
Adolf was a bit wonky, tryin’ to replace the string section with the sax.
Jazz wouldn’t be the same without it.
Eddie Harris kept putting brass mouth pieces on his sax…
“Chiff” refers to a lint-like material which is used by marmosets to line their nests. If is primarily made of any available lint, and down, which marmosets steal from the burrows of the PhilO, a friendly, large creature with a whistling cry. Since adolescent PhilOs prefer dark, tubular spaces for their nests, they often stuffed unattended woodwind instruments with the fuzz, which added a bit of airiness to the tone when initially played. Thus, instruments which had complex or airy overtones when initially blown are said to have chiff.
Dave
Are they any relation to this guy?
Why, yes, Dow! You’ve caught a photo of the rare striped PhilO. These creatures are quite persistent in their gathering of chiff, and the stripes allow them to hide in piles of clarinets without being detected. There was something else about them, something about stinkin’ badges or something, but I forget what it is…
heh heh
Dave