CocusFlute said in a recent post,
”What tradition is the book rooted in: Donegal? Kerry? Slieve Luchra? Clare? West Clare? East Clare?”
Well, he used the word tradition but he might have used the word style right? Now, I am asking that question as a lead in to my main question, not as the start of an argument over the definition of the word tradition vs the word style.
I wonder if you guys could help me learn more about ITM by talking about the different styles of playing ITM as described by location as some of you so often do.
So, if you heard Joe play a jig you might say,” that is a good example of Galway style”. Or,” Bob over there is playing that reel in Clare style”. The trouble is that right now I wouldn’t have a clue what you meant and it is something that I should pay more attention to.
Now don’t get into micro styles, just help me learn how many well defined styles there are overall and maybe give me name of a player who is a good example of that style.
I have the WFO CDs, like so many others on this forum, and maybe you could pick from them. (Sometimes in the notes they mention the style of the player) It would be a great learning experience for me and I think for some of the other players here who might have wondered about the same thing.
Jim
a good place to start:
Don’t look at me. I can barely distinguish between Dragon, Tiger, and Monkey styles…
While dragon and tiger styles both are known for their powerful palm attacks, dragon is a soft style, with fluid movements and oblique striking angles. Tiger, on the other hand, has firm stances and strong linear attacks. Monkey style, by comparison, is easily distinguishable once your opponent starts flinging poo..
None of that on here, then. Perish the thought!
Thank You rh, that is just what I was looking for. You guys know everything!
Jim
To siphon up a pint at distance while on a low C#.
One of the many things I can teach you grasshoppers.
Aanvil, Drunken Master, Aanvil
I play “Monkey style” but I don’t fling poo! 
I don’t fling poo, but it does come out of my flute. In the form of sound waves.
Despite the low humor, the original question is interesting and worth asking. Regional differences are breaking down all the time. Recordings, radio, and other media tend to homogenize regional differences. It surprises me that there is still such a recognizable difference between spoken regional accents. Corkonians still sound different than Dubliners, Claremen, Kerrymen, or Ulstermen.
I think also that regional differences are more apparent in fiddlers than in fluters. You can hear the clear differences between fiddlers from Sligo (Michael Coleman) and West Clare (Junior Crehan) and East Clare (Martin Hayes), Slieve Luchra and Kerry. Fluters tend not to be so localized, probably due in part to the influence of Matt Molloy, whose effect is ubiquitous. I think also that the flute doesn’t lend itself to such a broad range of stylistic interpretation as the fiddle, which is capable of a much wider range of expression. Fiddlers have much more distinctive styles.
Catherine McEvoy presents as a Roscommon flute-player and argues for a regional style, but she was born and raised in Birmingham and lives outside of Dublin. Harry Bradley is clearly a northern fluter, with a clearly defined attack rather than the more legato style of June Ni Chormaic. But to my ears, and in general, great flute players tend to be more alike than they are different.
Thanks to Wooden Flute Obsession regional differences might be easier to identify and to pin down.
Given a now global interest in ITM, given the Internet, and given much in the way of such student materials, including so many recordings, I wonder what those traditional musicians in Ireland could think, of so many other, perhaps original interpretations of their own music.
We, the aliens!
A very worthwhile read is this Interview with Martin Hayes
For instance he says about regional styles:
I think the regional styles are dying out, and I don’t think they can ever be revived. I think any resuscitation of them in that sense would be very mechanical, would be very premeditated, and of course this music never came out of a premeditated, orchestrated form. It would be imitation rather than a real expression. So the only hope I see is for people to find individual expression in it. Right now most of the traditional music I hear… seems like a work in progress.
And I love this bit about musical expression:
In order to get to the heart of the music you must have pure expression. Whenever I hear music that’s set out to impress me, I’m unimpressed largely. I’m amazed and dazzled at the proficiency and technique and the intelligence of the language and the complexity at times, but if that’s what it sets out to achieve, it’s absolutely pointless. It’s missed the initial point, the core meaning of music. And an awful lot of music does that. You’d almost want to have the childlike simplicity again and just go, “I like that. That’s nice.” A big thing with a lot of musicians is the fear to play something very simple and delicate, in case somebody would think you weren’t a great fiddler or something. In order to get your own individual expression, would you have to become a highly technically proficient musician? The answer really is no, I don’t think that that’s as important as getting your head straight, and getting your heart in the right place.
Read the whole interview!
~Hans
Aha! So there appears to be a real music transition within Ireland itself, that apparently regional differences are becoming more diminished. And, there is other more mentioned in the article, of several years ago, in all a good read.
…the core meaning of the music…
I recently received as a gift a couple of CDs from Ireland. Many of the tunes on the CD are sung. I’ve been quite shocked at the words! Some are quite gruesome and gory. I am wholly not able to play in a manner that brings out this kind of meaning to the music!
Ressurrecting a post
Sorry for the ignorance, but can you please tell me which players at the Flute Obsession CDs have a northern style of playing? What’s the main characteristic of that style? I suppose it’s punchy, with a strong attack, right?
I was just listening to a couple of wonderful CDs the Hidden Archive threw up today. Paddy Killoran, Mrs Crotty, Josie Hayes and others recorded locally in 1958 and 1960. If anything could describe Josie Hayes’ flute style it’s ‘punchy, with a strong attack’ but he was pure old fashioned West Clare. Not an easy job, that pigeon-holing.
Romulo,
After a quick look at the WFO CDs, the players that I think of as having a Northern style, are Marcas Ó Murchú, Deirdre Havlin, Cathal McConnell, Frankie Kennedy, Desi Wilkinson, Desy Adams, Paul MacGlinchey, and Christine Dowling (my apologies if I missed any players on there). In all honesty though, I may be picking some of those people for the mere fact that they live in Northern Ireland. For instance, I think of Marcas Ó Murchú or Desi Wilkison having a pretty classic ‘Northern’ style, but their playing is very different from Deirdre Havlin’s for instance. To muddy the waters a little further, I feel like there are different strains of the Northern Style - there is a ‘Belfast’ type sound that is very punchy and rhythmic, which is similar, but different from Frankie Kennedy who was from Belfast, but played a lot of Donegal tunes. Finally, you have Cathal McConnell representing Fermanagh, which has its own unique, but related, sensibilities.
To make my post even less useful, I think there are a lot of correlaries between the older flute tradition in North Connaught (Sligo, Roscommon, Leitrim) and what people call the “Northern” style today. If you were to listen to recordings of John McKenna next to a lot of “Northern” flute players, I think you would hear a lot of similarities. Likewise, as Peter points out, a lot of the older Clare players have a similar style. There is a really forceful rhythm created with your breath and melodic variation over a lot of rolls and such. That said, as soon as you lay down those themes and listen to the people listed above, there are more exceptions to the rule than not.
Personally, I agree with Cocus, that Matt Molloy changed the landscape for flute playing. To me, there are more similarities on players who came of age prior to Matt Molloy and those that came after. That is not a value judgement, but probably more a testament to Matt Molloy’s influence on his instrument. In some ways, it is probably similar to the far-reaching effect Coleman had on the fiddle in the 20s and 30s.
All in all, I think regional styles in many ways are breaking down as Marting Hayes indicates in the interview posted above and that in order to get a sense for it, it’s better to listen to some older recordings. It’s a combination of style repetoire, and feeling.
To my mind, the biggest difference in regional styles amongst older flute playing traditions is between Galway and other areas. Granted, this is a big generalization, but if you listen to players like Paddy Carty, Eddie Moloney, PJ Maloney, etc., they really did have a different rhythmic sense and use of their breath than players in Clare, Connaught, or the North.
Brendan
I both agree and disagree with this statement. There is also alot of similarity in some players who came after Matt Molloy. A younger generation of Players who were influenced by his innovative playing style they sound alot like him. Regardless of location.
I’m a big Molloy fan but I like hearing people have a distinctive flute style of their own too. Conal O’Grada is one player comes to mind whose style I love. You could describe it as a bit northern as its punchy mbut the rhythm is a bit different.
A subtle style that would have escaped my ears for along time is clare flute players like Eamonn Cotter & PJ Crotty. I love this style now relaxed, fiddle influence and melodic.
Well, I think we’re going to run into a problem right away. You can take a bunch of players from a particular region, but that is not going to explain their style. WFO2, for instance, has a group of Sligo-area flute players, and I’m not sure you could group them at all musically. WFO3 had a core of players near Belfast, and another grouping from Clare, and again I’d say that their styles were more indicative of individual preference and musical expression than a regional one.
Northern players that might fit your assumed model of style would be (on WFO1) Fintan Vallely, Hammy Hamilton, Frankie Kennedy.
And while Harry Bradley may be out of the North, hadn’t he some focus on the style of John McKenna, from Leitrim?
And Cathal McConnell’s from Fermanagh, but he can certainly be linked to other styles.
Kevin Krell
Notice how many names are being dropped? It’s much easier to attribute musical styles to icons rather than to particular regions. ITM is going the way of Pop-- cult of personality.