Sir James is a master of the closed-chanter staccato style
In a way he knows classical. I don’t mind hearing him play Schubert or Fauré but boy, his playing of Bach and Mozart is just as styleless as his ITM treatment.
I wonder how Mr. Galway would rate OUR playing. From what I have seen of him on TV he would probably encourage us - I think the man is an inspiration and he seems to be very nice guy too. I think it’s a bit narrowminded to state that he can’t play ITM or whatever… He plays it his style - and people love it. What’s wrong with that? Music would be boring if it sounded the same everytime you heard a piece. From one of his album covers (Quantz concertos) he quotes Quantz himself: “… the essential thing in music … is to move and to please.” That was true then and it’s true today.
Thanks for the clip - I enjoyed watching it!
Well said! I will add that this piece was written for Galway by Henry Mancini, himself a fluteplayer as well as a fine composer of such hits as Moon River and the Pink Panther. it is meant to be an homage to ITM not a duplication.
Well, he’s a superb classical musician who plays
the whistle like it’s a classical instrument.
That’s interesting, but not what the whistle does best.
What else is there to say?
Despite all the controversy, thank you for posting the link, David Quinn.
I certainly enjoyed the embouchure masterclass, and some of the others. I’ll take what’s useful to me and leave the rest.
P
Yes, he plays it “his style”. His style is not ITM. ITM is more than just a repertoire. Unfortunately for Mr. Galway, you can’t just pick and choose which elements of a traditional art form to use. In an effort to market himself to a wider audience, he seems to think just playing the tunes is sufficient, when in reality 90% is the style. And it’s not just ITM, he “dabbles” in other genres that he doesn’t understand, either.
If Galway and Mancini knew anything about ITM, they would’ve known that such a bastardization of a centuries-old art form would only be considered an insult and a joke by many of its exponents, not an homage. Truly paying homage to ITM would be learning how to play it.
Mistake. See below.
Note that you haven’t directly responded to any of my arguments, just made an irrelevant personal attack. Care to comment on something I actually said?
Yes, we sure do better without ad hominems.
Back to the subject–the way I see it, it’s enough just not to
like something musical. I don’t much feel a need or a reason
to moralize, as in: ‘He shouldn’t play it that way. Bad fellow!’
People sometimes feel they are keepers of the sacred flame
and they get upset when somebody plays the music another
way, or commercializes it or whatever. I figure let them play
it as they wish. I don’t like the way they play it, maybe, but the flame will survive if it’s really sacred.
Ultimately this is one of the ways things grow and change.
Most ‘fusions’ of style don’t work, many are motivated
by commerical interests, but we’re better off with this sort
of thing than without it.
I can’t tell you how many times in my life I’ve seen new music
attacked this way. I remember the audience booing Dylan
at a Chicago concert a long time ago–he’d sold out for commerical
reasons, was destroying folk music, and so on.
One can love the pure stuff, and for the right reasons,
without being a purist. Let the flowers bloom–no way
it can happen without some weeds too.
He’s a master of the flute. It is anyone’s right to their own opinion of what he does in relation to what they like, but, IMHO, rather arrogant to attempt to denigrate him because he doesn’t fulfill their personal ideals.
If everyone had to play ‘just so’, then ther would be no reason to own more than one album. … though, we would likely never have had any, because music would have stayed static, and absolutely regional. Luckily, each person gets to have their own focus, motivation, talent, style and choice of repetoire.
If your drive is to focus solely on one aspect, i.e.- Irish Traditional Music, you will still have to decide on which style of it you wish to learn and carry forward… go for it.
There are widely varying degrees of any aspect of music you choose to put your microscope to. However, you can get too picky, and far too judgemental, especially when telling other people what they should listen or aspire to.
Loving Irish Traditional Music doesn’t mean you can’t love any other.
As for the ‘misrepresentation of traditional music’… hogwash.
Some stay with the masters and learn that style, others go out into the world and display it, while still others incorporate bits of it in their own playing and introduce it to the masses. Those masses sometimes just enjoy listening, while some will emulate it the way they heard it first, and an eager few, will travel back down the threads of the music to find the roots and learn it that way. All are viable.
With pleasure. First of all, it would be best that you don’t accuse masters like Galway and Mancini, two men with no betters and few equals, of insulting anyone, or being some kind of joke.
Secondly, by your standard we should not have the Vaughn-Williams or Holst English folksong suites that are standards of the classical repertoire. Do you have a problem with Da Dannan doing Handel’s The Entrance of the Queen of Sheba or the Beatles’ Hey Jude? How about Jethro Tull doing the Bach Bouree - a tune that established the band? Stevie Wonder did For Once In My Life his own way, although it was popularized by Tony Bennett in a very different style. Must have seemed like an insulting joke to Tony inasmuch as he had Stevie record the tune as a duet by him last year. I could give you countless examples of how one musical form tips its hat to another in its own style. When Mancini wrote the piece, he knew that he should play to Galway’s strengths, just as Paddy Maloney did when the Chieftains recorded an album with Galway. This is called musical callaboration, not “bastardization,” as you called it.
It is likely, if not probable, that you will never, never be in the league of those you have denigrated. I think it would be best that you open your mind and educate yourself before making so free with opinions that can never mean as much to others as they obviously do to you.
I agree with the thrust of this, but why so personal?
Your correspondant was careful enough not to accuse
Galway of being a joke or insulting anybody–said only
that his performances are considered a joke and insulting
by many who play ITM. That’s true, in fact, though you
and I disagree with them.
The board is here to let people say what they think,
as long as they’re civil with each other. The quality of our discussion depends
on civility. Appeal to you to keep to the substance.
Someone said about Bastardizing Traditional music ffs the Bozuki was only introduced in the 1950/60s its a greek instrument someone said to me in an earlier post if you want to Listen to ITM players listen to matt molloy.
So i did and he was playing along with Donal Lunny playing a greek bozuki that was only introduced this century to Itm is this Bastardizing IT music?
I cant believe all the people on hear with a Dislike for James Galway and better still all those master msuicians on here so qualified to pick holes in his playing and style yous guys must be sh1te HOT!
I’m not sure whats the big debate about this. The clip just shows a concerto featuring a tinwhistle. Isn’t that what it is? Why are we even talking about Irish trad music or whether James Galway can play ITM?
Jim, I read all your posts, and you are a person to be taken seriously, IMO, so I give your words a lot of weight; your point about civil discourse is well-taken.
In response, I believe you are giving the poster far too much credit in asserting that he is slamming the performance, not the performer. I doubt that many, if any, inferred that. If this thread had not become so long, and most of the pertinent points made, I would have responded differently. However, at some point it seems reasonable to call mindless slamming of universally acclaimed artists for what it is. There was no reasonable argument presented, simply the assertion that what Galway did was without merit, and indeed, an insult to the holy world of ITM. Whether responding in kind was the best course can be debated, but I can honestly say I do not feel moved to retract anything I said. To the poster’s credit, rather than engaging in a shouting match, he asked me to elaborate, which I did. I just hope he and others are familiar enough with the examples I gave to get the point.
Thanks for your thoughtful response, Jim.
You too.
Of course it is fair of you to
take the criticism to be of Galway personally.
Civility is our lifeline here, IMO. And I figure
the stronger one gets, the more one knows,
the more gentle one ought to become. You
appear to know a good deal about music.
Also one is most persuasive if one stays on
the subject, I find. If I may say so,
clean is deadly.
You’re right, of course, but I’m damned if I’LL admit it.
maybe video clips like this would be better received or appreciated in a whistle forum or classical forum. it seems a bit out of context here.
Hmmm… a very odd woodwind being played at about 00:07.
There are about 7 or 8 Master Class vids of him up on YouTube that are worth watching. Matters not what kind of flute you play… good stuff.