This time you sure are. Me, doing trad sing-alongs? Anyone who knows me would laugh their asses off at the idea. You mistook a simple rule of thumb I go by to be something way more than it really is. Thought I was being clear enough.
Yes.
I would have thought I had died and gone to Hell. You do realize that I did that Danny Boy schtick on the other page just for laughs, don’t you?
If anyone could do it, Clapton wouldn’t surprise me.
Lighten up will ya! I don’t know what the trad enthusiasts are like over your way, but the one’s I know dont give a sh1t as long as the musician gives it a genuine go and plays well .
RORY
How about Danny Boy sung by a classical soprano?
Here’s Austrian singer Anna Prohaska (part Irish on her mother’s side):
Well, of course! But what do you do with the knowledgeable audience member who cares enough to say something worth considering? Do you tell them to lighten up?
I don’t go around like some Trad Police. But those are the guidelines my betters advised me to go for when playing airs, and I took it to heart because I thought it was clearly a good idea. I happen to like having a coherent and reliable strategy to hang my hat on. And what of it? Why waste your time jumping down my throat over something you can’t be bothered with? Everybody else is going to do what they’re going to do, so I’m going to go right ahead and do things my way, too, and if it means for me that some thinking is involved, so be it. I could see you telling me to lighten up if I couldn’t let the matter go, but you’re the one still chewing on it, not me, and about stuff in an old post I thought we’d all moved on from by now.
Ah, it’s good to see the old surliness back in the UP Forum. I was starting to wonder where it went… 
When I was at the Piper’s Gathering in 2015, Torrin Ryan talked about his research and playing of slow airs. He had recently won the slow airs category in his division at the all Ireland’s and it was quite delightful to listen to his approach and playing of slow airs. He said he had spent a lot of time going over old style sean-nós singing to develop his style as well as listening the older pipers like Willie Clancy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXPH9-DO8q8
Thanks Tjones. Brilliant couldn’t understand a word he played . Wasn’t there a famous piper who went off
and played for the fairy people and they granted him an absolute mastery of his pipes?
I wonder if they visit Australia my address is…
Wasn’t there a famous piper who went off
and played for the fairy people and they granted him an absolute mastery of his pipes?
Turlough Macsweeney of Donegal, I think. The story was that he was so disturbed by the experience he ran all the way home with the pipes still attached, and by the time he got back was just wearing the bellows.
Here he is with the pipes back in one piece:
http://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/itma.dl.images/povertyofpipers/1242a-ph.jpg
Surliness fans will be pleased to note that he was notoriously surly as well
Well, of course! But what do you do with the knowledgeable audience member who cares enough to say something worth considering? Do you tell them to lighten up?
I think a bigger problem is the not especially knowledgable audience member who has no particular interest in the subtle sonic interplay of chanter and drones and just finds the more dirge-like airs depressing.
I can also see that some tunes can come across as a bit abstract. Amhran na Leabhar is a good example actually, if people are trying to follow the Ennis setting. But I suppose the lesson is to understand and respect the basic tune first before adding the twiddly rubato stuff. That’s giving it a “genuine go” I reckon.
The prime example of playing “The Derry Air/Danny Boy” on uilleann pipes is that of Leo Rowsome (with full regulator accompaniment, which is a showpiece in itself).
Actually come to think about it, I haven;t a clue what I talking about so disregard all my previous posts in this thread.
RORY
Done.
Yeah, I never understood that “depressing” business. I’ve always felt a bit sorry for people who fear the profounder emotions as something to be avoided.
Great Post I have really enjoyed it. I take no umbridge at being called snide I am by nature Sarcastic, twisted, bitter and an all round Mr nice guy.
Case in point I was really pissed of as a newbie when using you tube to advance my knowledge of pipes These pretentious peepees where speaking in toungues and needing sub titles. I complained to a well known piper friend. His reply “the language is the music” OK back in the box.
There are a few tracks on “Return to Fingal” Semmus Emmis where the tracks are split between voice and pipes, Magic
“Every day in every way I am getting betterer and bettereterer”
I’ve always felt a bit sorry for people who fear the profounder emotions as something to be avoided
Well, I agree with that too, but I suppose my point was that (some) pipers do tend to play (some) airs in an overly dirge like manner, which doesn’t help. And according to Bunting et al. this complaint isn’t new.
Anyway I think we can all agree about Ennis at least - magic is the right word.
Sometimes, the moon and stars align and everything is in perfect tune and you get the perfect chord that just resonates in your bones and the room you are in - and you have to let it ring for an extra second or two and savour the moment. Regardless of the phrasing of the singing, the way you learned it, or how you played it last time.
But in general, yes I prefer to learn them from listening to/transcribing sean nós singers. Super easy these days with pitch-shifting software.
Years ago I played A Spailpin A Ruin on the uilleann pipes at a party with a fiddler and a guitarist. We had made the tune metrical so the guitarist could play his lovely patterns behind it, and I quite like the way we play it.
There happened to be a fine sean nos singer present, and afterwards he told me he liked the way we played it, though it was very different from the way it was sung. He later sung it, and it seemed to me that the sean nos was more musical.
Yet I still like the way I play it.