At the last couple of sessions I played Si Beag Si Mor at the local session (where it is better known as ‘She begs for more’). I played it in a style heavily influenced by Cormach Breatnach. The session leaders were very complimentary, and asked if I knew more like it. I am still learning that tune - it will take me a long time to learn all the ornaments and twiddles.
Now, assuming this was not just a hint to learn and play something different for a change, what other tunes could I learn in a similar vein. I like the faster lively and somewhat humorous approach in that clip. What I would ideally like would be another tune in a similar style with a good example of it being played so that I can copy.
How about some spirited French waltzes?
There is one called Les Poules Huppées , also known on these islands as Crested Hens. If the web is right this was written by Gilles Chabenat, a French Hurdy Gurdy player.
I came across this abc version, with a different title, but the same thing:
X:1
T:Valse à Gwenfol
M:3/4
L:1/8
K:Em
|: GF | E2 EF GE | B4 AB | cB Ae dc | Bc BA GF |
E2 EF GE | B4 AB | cB Ac BA | F4 :|
|: ef | gB Bg Bg | c4 ef | ge ag fe | ^d4 ef |
gB Bg Bg | c4 ef | ge ag f^d | e4 :|
It plays well with a bit of speed and swing. The only challenge is the half-holed D#, but you can get that on a low D whistle, and that gives it special character. you can even impress the keyless flute players, who cannot do that half-holing trick for D#, usually!
Crested Hens is a good tune and was popular around here as a result of the recording by Solas more than 10 years back. It fell off the radar a some time ago.
There is a Dans An Dro that Larry Nugent and others recorded which is nice.
DrPhill you could mine the Carolan repertoire and play many of his compositions with the same spirit as the Breathnach video.
Another tune that made the rounds about ten years back was The Last Pint written by guitarist Pierre Bensusan and popularized on whistle by Lunasa and providing a reason for many of us to go out and buy low F whistles. Notice the difference in feel between the two videos. Bensusan’s playing is not a bad source for material either.
O’Carolan’s Ode to Whiskey, is good. And there’s Blind Mary, Planxty Miss Frances Power, Planxty George Brabazon and others you may recognise. Planxty Captain John Kane you might know as “The Wounded Hussar”.
Sonny Brogan’s and Charlie Lennon’s are good for a change. They have a different rhythm, for when people get tired of all those old jigs and reels.
X:74
T:Sonny’s
T:Sonny Brogan’s
T:Hag With The Fiddle, The
T:Hugh Gillespie’s
T:Irish, The
T:Johnny Doherty’s
T:Old Donegal, The
T:Phroinsias’
T:Polka , The
T:Polka-(Mazurka), The
T:Polka-, The
T:Sonny Ó Brógáin’s
T:Vincent Campbell’s
M:3/4
L:1/8
R:mazurka
K:Dmaj
|:DF|A2 AG FA|d2 dA BA|G3 B AG|FA EA DF|
A2 AG FA|de dA BA|G3 g fe|d4:|
|:Ad|f2 fa gf|e2 eg fe|d2 df ed|cd Bd Ad|
f2 fa gf|e2 eg fe|d2 df ec|d4
Are you looking over my shoulder? I was just listening to that on YouTube. Exactly the same recording. Spooky. I sounds the sort of thing that I had in mind. In fact Zamzar is doing a conversion to mp3 as we speak…
Many of the others I like too - Crested hens was on my list a while back but never rose to the top so I have a bit of a head start on it - I like the lively style of Hans’ suggested recording.
lothlorien-‘Dans en dro’ sounds cool, but I am not sure if it is well known enough to get people joining in. One thing about ‘Si Beag Si Mhor’ is that it is well known, but the leaders of the session I attend listen to what I am doing and play along in the same style. It really helps. I guess they would know Lord Inchiquin, and Crested Hens.
As usual you are coming up with excellent suggestions and I am now doing lots of listening - not a bad thing at all.
Thanks for all the suggestions so far, and keep them suggestions coming.
Am I right in thinking you don’t read staff notation? If so, you could do worse than spend a couple of days coming to terms with it - it’ll open up all the big compendiums of traditional music to you. Just a thought.
It depends upon what you mean by ‘read Staff notation’ . I make a lot of use of ‘dots’ as I call them for brevity, to learn the pitches in the tunes, but I am hopeless at divining the rhythm from the dots. I much prefer to listen to an inspiring recording and use the dots as a crutch to learning the tune. There is no way looking at the dots that I could have arrived at Cormach’s interpretation of ‘Si Beag Si Mhor’.
I do trawl books and lists, then listen to recordings, so I can indirectly access the compendia you refer to. And maybe over time I will absorb the ability to look at Staff and hear the tune in my head (some folk can do that, yes?), but with limited time and energies I prefer to concentrate on learning to play. The folk on this board (and at the local session) seem very supportive and helpful at filling the gaps in my knowledge.
In Somerset where the OP is, “Les Poules Huppees” will be a well-known session tune on the English scene, as it has been for 20 years. Solas had nothing to do with its popularity.
I was wondering about that. Looking for examples on utube there were all these slow versions titled “Crested Hens” or “Crested Hens - Les Poules Huppees”, and I thought that was probably an influence of the Solas adaptation, which is so slow and lost all the life of the French bouree. Good to know that it is played in English sessions as a bouree. I found one example from a session recording from Glossop / Derbyshire: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeN8U9eQ_8s
You’ll notice that I said “around here” in referring to Solas popularizing Crested Hens. Solas have local connections. I said nothing about how or when it may have been popularized elsewhere. I don’t give a jig about what’s happening elsewhere. How could I? I observe what’s happening here and to infer that I don’t know what’s happening here in my neighborhood is nasty. Why would you even make a comment like that? Why is my experience and observation any less valuable than yours? Are you a standing member of the Trad Police I’ve heard so much about? Well there is an apparent lag in the news cycle, I guess. Perhaps those of us in the States don’t become aware of good tunes in the same time frame as others do but we play them once we hear them, just like everybody, everywhere.
Don’t take it personally, Feadoggie. Jack Campin has expressed his disinterest in (and unawareness of) Irish trad bands before. It’s not his thing.
If Phill’s session is an Irish session where the tune is already played, then it’s quite likely that the Solas setting of Les Poules Huppées is the (or a) source, as they were the main vector for bringing the tune to ITM awareness and popularity with their 1996 recording (now 15 years ago). If an English session, then it must have been some vector, perhaps different, since a modern French bourée à l’Auvergne is as little native to Somerset as to Pennsylvania. So what does it matter? I don’t think Phill is a native of Somerset anyway. Seamus Egan as the Philly local who brought the tune there is as valid a carrier as anyone. And FWIW, I know at least one French friend who was unaware of Les Poules until he heard the Solas recording.
The practice of slowing down reels and other dance tunes to create performance pieces is well-established by now. The fast and slow settings will both have their charms, and allow for exploring different aspects inherent in the melodies. So there’s nowt wrong with that. A bourée imported into a tradition without bourées may be reinterpreted as a kind of waltz, and waltzes allow for tempos slow and fast and in-between, to taste.
Unfortunately, Hens is one of those tunes with a session rep of being overplayed by beginners. But that’s no reflection on the tune.
Anyway, back on topic … I second the Carolan suggestion for Phill. Carolan tunes have a mixed heritage of both notated and aural transmission, so lend themselves to being approached from both directions. Many are well-known, they span airs and dances, they’re on the boundary between trad and art music, and they allow for flexible interpretation. All of which seems like a good mix for Phill at his present stage.
The story of The Last Pint, as Kevin (Crawford) told it last week …
Pierre Bensusan was told to visit Ireland to explore Irish sessions and the deep compatibility between his music and Irish trad. And so he did, making his way to Clare. But he happened to choose St. Patrick’s Day week for his visit, when every Clare muso was off to the States or elsewhere to meet the demand for trad music while drinking green beer. So wherever he went, there were no sessions to be had anywhere, only pints and pints to pass the time. And as he was leaving, he wrote the tune in honor of the very last pint he hoped to see for a long, long time.
Kevin and Cillian (Vallely) play the tune as an F whistle duet, very close to their setting and playing on the Lúnasa recording. And Kevin implied that the naming of his own tune The First Pint was a sideways reference to the Bensusan title.
Thank you all for your suggestions. I have chosen Lord Inchiquin for now (the recordings caught my imagination in some undefinable way), though Crested Hens is on my list. I have until the tenth of November to learn it as I only go to one session a month at present (it seems a better fit for my tastes). I will try to remember to let you know how it goes.
I have not detected ‘Crested Hens’ at a session locally, though I might have missed it as I am generally only sure of recognising tunes I can play (sometimes not even then). I am sure that french tunes are ‘allowed’ as there is something called ‘Horses Brawl’ in french that gets played a lot. The weekly session here uses Paul Hardy’s as a bible, but it does not seem to be in there though.
Did you mean the specific Carolan suggestion of ‘Lord Inchiquin’, or the more general suggestion to mine the Carolan archives? I am not sure how I would go about the latter. Especially as the interpretations can vary more wildly than ABC2MIDI suggests .
Wow, I am at a ‘stage’? And I thought I was just blundering around enjoying myself .
Little do I know of archives, but you’ll find a big bunch of O’Carolan tunes in the big O’Neill book. I don’t think it’s hard to find lots of his stuff around in print or on-line. Play them through and see what you like.
. I make a lot of use of ‘dots’ as I call them for brevity, to learn the pitches in the tunes, but I am hopeless at divining the rhythm from the dots. I much prefer to listen to an inspiring recording and use the dots as a crutch to learning the tune. There is no way looking at the dots that I could have arrived at Cormach’s interpretation of ‘Si Beag Si Mhor’.
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