Waltzes With Flutes

[dunnp]

I love the way many pipers play Trip Over the Mountain, particularly the Clancy version on The Gold Ring.

Is it originally a song air?

heres a youtube version I found quickly:
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dGnSCXJ1Qtw


compare to Teada:
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=g-ebGUQjdKQ

My favorite waltz is the Moon Waltz, I it found on Jack Campins scottish flute page.
fair play to Jack for putting that site up!

I used to play a waltz like tune called Peeler Creek, American maybe?
You might like it Jim I think Old timeys guys play it.

[Kirk B]

Here's a real tricksy one that I learned to play on the flute and I love it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htolggwtluE

Cheers,

Kirk

[Sillydill]

Hey MadmanWithaWhistle,

The Ookpik Waltz, was posted by our own "bayswater"

Very Nice!

[MadmanWithaWhistle]

I figured he might be a Chiffer. He's got a nice sound and a clear recording for me to learn off of!

[dunnp]

though the latter reeks of ego and is hardly noticeable as a waltz.

The Trip Over the Mountain

For me the long slides, held notes , timing etc. make this tune.
Certainly the first time I heard Willie Clancy play it the hairs were all up.

Does anyone know where the pipers version comes from? Was it originally Seamus Ennis?
Someone once told me they thought it was a piss take that just stuck.


Why the crazy slides etc. other than they are so expressive on the chanter?

(you can hear Ennis here:)

http://source.pipers.ie/Media.aspx?medi ... goryId=374

Does it have words?

As a straight waltz it works but doesnt have the strange power of the other for me.

[oleorezinator]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NallQ1ElMVw
Ashokan Farewell. Any of the o'carolan tunes in 3/4 might
be played as waltzes.

[rama]

the great fluter marcus hernon wrote a couple of nice waltzes, i think he called one of 'em 'the beautiful goldfinch'. http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/5684

[JackCampin]

"Mr O'Connor" is not a waltz.

Carolan died about 60 years before waltzes were invented and 100 years before they got to Ireland.

"Ashokan Farewell" was not written as a waltz either (I don't know what category you could put it in apart from "unspeakably turgid bore") and its range is wrong for the flute (for which fluters can be thankful).

[oleorezinator]

"Mr O'Connor" is not a waltz.

Carolan died about 60 years before waltzes were invented and 100 years before they got to Ireland.

"Ashokan Farewell" was not written as a waltz either (I don't know what category you could put it in apart from "unspeakably turgid bore") and its range is wrong for the flute (for which fluters can be thankful).

http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/5020 midnight on the water.
Here's a scottish waltz.
http://www.flutetunes.com/tunes/lochaber-no-more.pdf
Jim, if you please, check with the waltzmusikpolizeifuehrer before using any of my suggestions
and remember don't you dare play any tune that's not in the range of the flute!

[oleorezinator]

O'Carolan died about 60 years before waltzes were invented and 100 years before they got to Ireland..

Obviously another Irish visionary.

[Peter Duggan]

Here's a scottish waltz.
http://www.flutetunes.com/tunes/lochaber-no-more.pdf

No way would I describe Lochaber No More as a 'waltz'...

Jim, if you please, check with the waltzmusikpolizei before using any of my suggestions
and remember don't you dare play any tunes that's not in the range of the flute!

But (without 'subscribing' to any such group) you might try Margaret's Waltz by Pat Shuldham Shaw (normally in A), Kate Martin's Waltz by Blair Douglas (written in G, but surprisingly tricky for that) or especially the Louis Waltz (which Google suggests is properly La Valse du Beau Canton by Andy DeJarlis and I've found to sit perfectly on flute).

[jim stone]

People have told me that O'Carolan's tunes aren't waltzes, none of them, and I believe it, but I confess
I don't know why they aren't waltzes.

[dunnp]

Jack's reason is as good as any. O Carolans compositions predate the waltz.
Every tune in 3/4 time is not a waltz but certainly many can be waltzed (the dance that is).

Going over some Scottish waltzes today I found a tune called Ruth Woodburn.
I played it through and thought what a perfect flute tune.

I'll try to record it or abc it if I get a chance.

[MTGuru]

Jack's reason is as good as any.

Just as a jar of strawberry jam makes a good paperweight. But it's not a paperweight.

In my experience, contradancers will waltz to anything in 3/4 time, as long as it's got a good beat. "Norwegian Wood" or "Three Blind Mice" will do nicely, thanks.

[Nanohedron]

People have told me that O'Carolan's tunes aren't waltzes, none of them, and I believe it, but I confess
I don't know why they aren't waltzes.

Perhaps in the same way that not every snail equals escargot? (Oops. Cross-posted w/ MTGuru. )

But seriously, it partly depends on who's talking and what they need to get them through the night. If all one sees is music in general, then looser terminologies are fine out of necessity. However, if you take ITM as a study worth one's time with its own valid distinctions, then the landscape changes. While I would freely admit they display waltz rhythm, I don't consider O'Carolan 3/4 tunes to be waltzes as such because they weren't composed as such, to be danced to. These were art pieces to be listened to by the patron at leisure. For this reason, some people call O'Carolan tunes airs, but I won't call them that, either. I call them harp compositions. For me, an air is with few exceptions the melody to a song with lyrics, played instrumentally without benefit of the lyrics. Waltz, air, not-waltz, not-air...it's all tomayto-tomahto, I suppose.

So if asked, I might say that yes, you could call them waltzes..but that's only in a manner of speaking. Historically, they are not, any more than is the Korean song Arirang. To me, that counts. YMMV.

A goodly number of O'Carolan's 3/4 tunes, particularly the planxties, are also asymmetrical as in the example above. This doesn't preclude them being danced to, necessarily, but being no dancer myself I would think the asymmetricality would somehow prove awkward under the feet. That said, no doubt someone can point out asymmetrical actual waltzes to me.