Chiff and Fipple Forums

From the Thread "What Tune are you Learning", Mr Gumby said:

That's one of those tunes, isn't it?

I've heard Fox Hunters done where you could hear the baying of the hounds and the call of the bugle.

Lark in the Morning has a section where you can truly hear the Robin singing. (in the US, a Robin is a lark).

Calliope House sounds quite like a calliope, on D-whistle, anyway.

tstermitz wrote:Calliope House sounds quite like a calliope, on D-whistle, anyway.

Eh? Calliope was the muse of epic poetry. Calliope House was a place in Pittsburgh given the nickname after the muse, because it was a place for the arts.

Anyway, moving on ...

The hornpipe known as "The Cuckoo" has an actual cuckoo call in it. The Morning Thrush is supposed to contain an imitation of a thrush.

A great discussion about Calliope House regarding its composition and performance can be found here: http://slowplayers.org/2014/05/04/calliope-house/

Bob

Some of the tunes I mentioned in the other thread had an element or an option of imitating particular sounds, mainly on the pipes. But there are some tunes where the fiddle does something similar as well. It's a bit of a thin line to stray into novelty tunes there. There are ofcourse several tunes called the Four Poster Bed or the Four Poles of the Bed that involve an amount of creaking and banging of headboards. And there was a fashion for 'descriptive pieces' at one time, the Foxchase among the surviving ones, audio pictures, to an extend.

There is also a whole class of tunes that was inspired by the rhythms or the monotony of work. Junior Crehan had several tunes he put together while working the farm, The Mowing Machine or traveling on the train : The West Clare Railroad. I remember Chris Droney telling how he was cutting a large field and was inspired by it to put a tune together in his mind and he had it by the end of the day when the field was done. I forget which tune it was though. probably one of the Bellharbour reels.

Liam O'Connor plays one of Tommy Potts' compositions 'The Loom' that was inspired by the work of the weavers from Potts' area of Dublin. And it's very evocative of the rhythm and sounds of their work.Potts is ofcourse also the man who saw a butterfly flutter from flower to flower and thought there could be a tune in that.

Séamus Ennis had a great way of parsing tune titles into vivid wordy descriptions of the images the music conjured up in his mind's eye.

There's the sea tunes as well, The Atlantic Roar, Tuaim na Farraige and the Rolling Waves but I am not sure they actually sound like the ocean. Same for Port na bPucai, the whale sound theory is a nice story, but..

And then there's tunes like the Farting Badger.

Mr.Gumby wrote:And there was a fashion for 'descriptive pieces' at one time, the Foxchase among the surviving ones, audio pictures, to an extend.

Brian McNamara has a nice performance that he calls a descriptive piece; three or four parts centered around the battle of Aughrim, if I've remembered it right - it's been some years since I heard him describe and play it.

three or four parts centered around the battle of Aughrim, if I've remembered it right

That sounds about tright. Gol na Mban is another one (another battle).

I read somewhere that the Sí Bheag, Sí Mhór was based on an older tune named after the cuckoo. As the intervals of the cuckoo-like note pairs differ I sometimes get distracted by wondering what a real cuckoo does.

'The Hens March to the Midden' on fiddle?

tstermitz wrote:(in the US, a Robin is a lark)

I can understand why some might think so, because during breeding season the male American Robin's song is one of the richest and most beautiful you could ever ask for, and it fills my heart every time I hear one rejoicing. One description might be "eloquent", but somehow it seems pale to me. Around here they really let loose mainly at dusk, and again at predawn (a lovely way of letting me know I've stayed up way too late ). But larks and American Robins are of completely different families (Alaudidae and Turdidae, respectively), so our robin is a member of the thrushes. On a side note, the European Robin also used to be considered a thrush, but is now classed with the flycatchers.

And yes, there will be a test.

I would not like my family name to be Turdidae....

Best wishes.

Steve

Steve Bliven wrote:I would not like my family name to be Turdidae....

How about Turdus maximus? I would totally change it.

I used to know a guy whose last name was Pudlick. He was always in a foul mood; I figured it was probably from lugging that cringeworthy name around. What price defiance.

The Hag at the Spinning Wheel always makes me think of something busily turning...

Hen's march to the midden.

Though this is really a fiddle show piece (for the effects).

I've often thought that one could hear the "quarrel with the landlady"...the B part in particular of the O'Carolan tune

If I may deviate a step even further than O'Carolan from ITM: A French baroque composer named de La Vigne wrote a part called "Les Forgerons/The Blacksmiths" in his 6th sonata which I've found very evocative. It might be just about playable on a d whistle (gotta try it out...)

Out on the Ocean rolls along, up and down.