Yes those things are part of it.tstermitz wrote: Are you thinking about breathing places or needing to fold, or what?
I normally don't put breathing spots in when I write out something, I like having the full flow of 8th-notes like a fiddle/box might play, and I'll put in the breathing-spots at different places as I play through the repeats. It's actually a bit annoying for me to read a setting that has quarter-note pauses written in, it's sort of like having somebody trying to tell me where to breathe.
However there's a couple tunes where I am sort of boxed into breathing at the same spot every time, due to long passages that I feel are intrinsic to the tune, that I can't find a nice place to break for a breath. There's a jig like that, I can't remember the name, but it has a three or four bar passage that I don't like breaking, so I put in a breath before I hit that bit.
About folding, being that I'm a whistleplayer now rather than a fluter if a tune wants to sit at a lower place I'll just play it on a mezzo whistle. So, rather than staying on a D whistle and folding I'll transpose the whole tune and play it with no folding. Tam Lin/Glasgow Reel mentioned above is like that.
It's often not those things, but other things that are hard to put into words sometimes, that makes a setting feel nice under flute-fingers or feel alien or awkward. There are typical flute phrases that I'll substitute for what the setting has, where they feel right. Often it's putting in rolls where a setting has noodling around, too note-y, it's hard to put into words. I'll try to find examples.
EDIT:
I found this example, a setting of Star Of Munster. It's the first four bars of the 2nd part.
It's an extreme example, and I'm sure I will get some stick for it.
The top line is a setting I saw online. When I say a passage is "noodly" it's things like this, especially bar 3.
The second line is one of several ways I play that part. It was actually lifted from a fiddler I heard years ago at a session. I really liked the wildness to how he played, and I think it translates well to the flute and whistle.