I’ve been listening to the piece Gol na mBan San Ár (Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin) on Source and am trying to figure out what technique Mícheál is doing in the runs (glissando?) starting around 1:04 in the recording. Is that a trill? A shake? A shiver? On the knee, off the knee? It’s subtle but lovely, and it’s driving me nuts.
I have my copy of Ceol An Phiobaire in front of me but I can’t figure out how he’s getting that nice vibrato shake/shiver/trill sound in it.
Well, having a bit of a audio recording background, I’m finding this a great puzzle. The recording is listed as being from 1901. This lends itself to two medium possibilities; wax cylinder and hard etching. Both were used, since disks didn’t really come into their own until about 15-20 years later. That being said, what condition was the source in when converted to digital; what was the degradation (and you can hear quite a bit) and was there any warping, contamination, was the medium spun up manually or mechanically, etc. All of these could cause what you are hearing to not be what was actually played.
However, the speed of the vibrato tends to leave the impression that it was either a medium problem or intentionally played, and not a play back issue.
For me, these old sound files are like playing a game of “Clue.”
Thanks Brennen, I believe it was recorded on cylinder. It’s a bit tricky to listen through the noise but I believe it’s intentional. Harry Bradley has it down in his version on his Errant Elbow blog, his recording is much clearer… I’ll try working it out from there.
Great photograph, Mr. Gumby! Not to hijack the thread but a quick question: how common is it for pipers in Ireland to tie the chanter stock the “old fashioned” way like that nowadays? I was talking to a well-known American uilleann piper a few weeks back and he said that with many flat sets that configuration provides the best sound from the chanter. I’d heard that before, maybe with regard to one of Ronan Browne’s sets (maybe the Harrington – I can’t recall exactly).
Ronan said he had the upper hand when he started to tie the head straight into the bag. The reed does send a wave back into the bag that can be obstructed by a narrow passage. A wider diameter tube like Ennis chanter had (although that was in it’s original state also tied into the bag, see photos of James Ennis with the same set) also does the trick.
Cormac at that time said he had the Egan ‘nearly going well’. What he used was going beautifully and he did a most wonderful job on Gol na mBan (the pic is of the actual playing as far as I remember).
Mr. G, thanks for the lead… I dug around on Source and found Cormac playing Gol na mBan, it’s here for anyone who’s interested. I’ll be studying this video obsessively now.
*Spoiler alert, in the video Cormac has an “old fashioned” tied in chanter stock, nothing showing but the ankle I’m afraid.
As I remember it he played it nicer than he does on the video when I heard it. And the pipes going really nicely with a beautiful harmony between drones and chanter.
It may also be worth chasing up Pat Mitchell’s recent ‘reconstructed’ version of the piece. It’s probably somewhere on the source.
