I have been playing around with the style of crann that was very diagnostic of Séamus Ennis’ playing. It is fun, and adds an interesting shift to my playing.
Where did this crann originate? Some have said it was James Ennis’ Highland piping influence on his son’s musical approach to this ornament.
I have found that no matter how influential Séamus’ playing is on many pipers, few of them seem to use this type of crann. Is it just too Séamus Ennis for most people? Is it just not considered legitimate by the majority of uilleann pipers?
Hmm…I’m trying to remember–was the Ennis cran the one that went GDF#DGDAD? The idea that this may have come from highland piping technique is interesting, but I honestly can’t think of any highland piping ornamentation that’s very similar to that. Mind you, some contemporary highland pipers have taken to playing crans on highland pipes when doing Irish tunes…
I’ve heard a few other pipers do the Ennis cran, I think. I like it, but on some chanters, starting off cutting with the G rather than the A seems to make the hard D a bit more recalcitrant.
I’m not sure which cran you are referring to. The one mentioned above in Mick O’Brien’s playing seems dictated more by the length of time it is slotted into. Do you have an Ennis recording you could refer to specifically that best represents what you mean?
Listen to Seamus play the Salamanca, then Robbie Hannon, who imitates him perfectly. That one sticks out in my mind. I heard Tim Britton describe it once as being a bit more “open.” A very subtle timing thing that’s probably impossible to describe in print. Touhey/Willie/etc. I always say played crans more like jackhammers - tighter, more percussive.
I thought Mick played crans GFG.
Touhey/Willie/etc. I always say played crans more like jackhammers - tighter, more percussive.
I agree, they played very tight crans.
Ennis’ crans were a little loose. Rowsomes crans were bang on tight too. Listen to his recording of the Boys of the Lough. Lovely crisp crans.
I thought Mick played crans GFG.
He can switch at will. He thought us the Ennis thing just as an example. I do the FGA as does most of Micks students, John O’Brien, Ivan Goff, Brian McAodh, Eamonn Galldubh, well they we the lads in the class when I was there.
No doubt he has thought many more after that.
Mick will always give students different examples as options, as I do when I teach. It’s up to the students to go from there.
A normal cran sounds like this, first dum is A last dum is A:
dum ditty dum
A reverse, or Ennis cranns sounds like this, first dtty is G, last dum is A :
Ditty dum dum
The best example of the Ennis crann is Willie Clancy playing “O’Farrell’s Welcome to Limerick”. Done right the reverse cran sounds like a machine gun. The normal cran is much softer.
A good tune to practice is Sean Buidh – Yellow John ( pardon my Irish)
The best example of the Ennis crann is Willie Clancy playing “O’Farrell’s Welcome to Limerick”.
So Willie Clancy could peform Ennis crans better than Ennis…
As I see it, the Ennis cran is just what Seamus did. Once another person does it, it’s no longer Ennis’s. It’s just combos of D_FDGDA_D or D_FDGDAD or more etc..
or as Brian Dunning said once, “just wiggle your fingers as fast as you can.”
Soon enough it’ll be Ennis’ version of Clancys’ Doran version of Rowsomes’ Markey’s version of Reillys seting of “D”.
Don’t be worrying of exact versions of tunes. Just have fun playing them!!!
It’s quite plausible that Seamus picked this up from the Highland pipes. There, there’s a movement called a ‘grip’ which consists of a short seven-finger note (G on the highland chanter, D on the uilleann) split with a three-finger gracenote. In Highland notation, a grip from the two-finger note back to itself is e {GDG} e. In uilleann notation it’s A {DGD} A.
That’s as simple an ‘Ennis cran’ as you can get and i recall hearing him play it once or twice. More often he puts in an extra gracenote making it A {DEDFD} A or whatever. (By the way, Highland pipers also have an extended grip, the ‘darodo’, played for example e {GCGBG} B.)
Another way you can get to this cran is simply to extend the A in a cran from a gracenote into a note, so that A {DFDEDAD} A becomes A {DFDED} ADA,
