While I was watching the performances of the many great pipers during the NPU Tionol 2008 in Dublin, I came to the notion of “virtuoso piper”. I saw so many great pipers with perfect techniques mastering their instruments, but there were a couple of them who not only played at a high level but like crazy with the regulators smiling without any deap concentration; a kind of “piping juggler”. This is how I can imagine the way Johnny Doran and Patsy Touhey may have played their pipes.
Who do you think are today’s “piping jugglers”?
Yes sure Gay McKeon is a virtuoso piper.
Congratulations, Bill, you found one of the four.
I have three other “juggler pipers” on my list whom I saw in Dublin. Guess who might they be.
On the Bunch of Keys documentary, one person interviewed (I can remember who) said that when Johnny Doran was playing, he’d turn to whoever was sitting beside him and start chatting about good places to get firewood, etc., all the time piping at full speed.
He was not there, I did not see him playing. For a juggling piper it is important that the virtuoso piping should be done in a “smiling”, easy, light way. Such a piper is not necessarily the greatest musician ever.
BTW: I saw you, Mick, piping and I have your CD; the way you are piping is what I am talking about. You can play a reel as fast as a Porsche on your chanter wile playing a slow air in full harmony on the regulators and telling funny piping stories in the meantime
My problem with many of the newer so called virtuoso pipers is that some how the musicality of the tunes get lost in the technique. There are many pipers that seem to say to themselves I can get in an extra 5 note roll here or a crann there and regulator work to boot and everyone will be amazed. I think a lot of this attitude comes from competition piping.
I cannot imagine a piper so bored with his playing that he nods off during a solo. Where is that at?
As to where I am coming from…listen to Micho Russell and you will get an understanding of music without all the fancy extras.
Someone once asked the great blues artist, B.B. King how would he describe his style. He replied " I learn all the hot licks that I can … then I don’t play them".
I don’t think this topic is really about virtuosity in the sense Pat describes it. It take it to describe that state where piping has become fully second-nature to the piper. This ability doesn’t imply that the piper is disinterested, disengaged, or even always “relaxed” - but it means that the purely physical act of playing has ceased to be a conscious source of stress. Most of us could not physically play the pipes in such a state of tiredness that we were in danger of drifting off to sleep - while there is little to recommend “automatic” playing as a goal in itself, it speaks of a great intimacy with the instrument.
Of course that doesn’t mean that “piping” remains stress-free even for such players - there are always the mental/emotional aspects to contend with.
I was impressed at the piping recital at this year’s St. Louis Tionol – I don’t know if it counts as virtuosic, but seeing Tiarnán O’ Duinnchinn, Michael Cooney, Kieran O’Hare, and Tommy Martin plop down in chairs, strap on their pipes, and start cracking jokes while playing full sets with the ease with which I might … Oh, heck, I don’t do ANYTHING as easily as they made it look that day!
I enjoy simple playing with a lot of heart - Matt Kiernan, for instance, or Micho - as much or more than any blizzard of notes/chords. Paddy Keenan has flash, great skill, and plenty of heart. Personality, too. “Simple” playing is often more complex than it seems at first glance, too.
Don’t know the appeal, exactly. Probably it comes from listening to other types of music, blues for instance, and judging ITM through the same standard. I’m not impressed by empty flash in other genres, either, and some busybody pipers remind me of vacuous metal or jazz guitarists.
I have never seen Mick O’Brien play outside of YouTube, but he makes me weep (Tommy studied with him, I think?). If Mickey Dunne or Brian McNamara were there I’d put them in the “virtuousic ease” category.
I’ve been wowed by Ronan Browne’s regulator ease and creativity, as well as Barry Kerr’s. I also think Louise Mulcahy’s about perfect in every aspect on the pipes – she’s who I want to grow up to be like (me 20 years her senior already; we could be in trouble) but I don’t know if she was there either. Although she tends to look pretty serious when she plays, she sure makes it sound easy.
Kevin’s story about BB King reminds me of a remark attributed to Andre Segovia after he heard Jimi Hendrix. He supposedly said something to the effect of “I’d like to learn to play like that and then never do it”. Or something like that. I like the pipers who don’t ornament or regulate the bejesus out of every single bar of the tune. The ability to do something is one things, but then knowing when to use it and when not to is also important. Robbie Hannan’s new CD is actually very nice in this respect. He doesn’t lean on the regulators tons and mixes sparser bars with ornamented bars very nicely. I also really love Jimmy O’Brien-Moran’s style for the same reason.
Piping Friends, This thread is FOR virtuoso pipers and not against them. It is not about who likes whom, it is about identifying piping jugglers. As I wrote in the thread-starting post, I saw a number of great pipers with fabulous, enchanting piping. But, some of them were more than that, virtuoso. Only personal real-live experience count: no YouTube nor CD experience. Come on, who could be the other two?
Cathy, Blue-Shirt Man was playing great but I do not know his name
What the hell! Congratulations, you win. Leo Rickard, yes he is.
I am quite happy with the results so far thre virtuoso pipers are identified by the members of this forum.
They are Gay McKeon (by billh), Tommy Martin (by Cathy Wilde) and Leo Rickard (by Uilliam). The fourth one is Sean McKeon; he is absolutely virtuoso and always ready for test-piping a set.
PS: There is one more virtuoso piper I saw much earlier in Hannover, he is Mick Loos, he plays a number of pipes with a juggler’s capabilities.
