how does she stay so composed?

[rgouette]

In front of all them folk...so relaxed looking
just amazing..I think
I spose the answer is ...practice..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P40YOU8ggJk

[myles]

Practice!

She's a fine piper but I have to say that performance of Taimse im chodladh is not to my taste at all. Far, far too slow and completely loses the thread of the air.

[rgouette]

Practice!

She's a fine piper but I have to say that performance of Taimse im chodladh is not to my taste at all. Far, far too slow and completely loses the thread of the air.

Oh ok, I'll fess up that it's the only version I've heard until now...

Just fired up an ancient video of Liam O Flynn.. quite different

Maybe her rock solid drones make it so appealing to me..

[benhall.1]

Practice!

She's a fine piper but I have to say that performance of Taimse im chodladh is not to my taste at all. Far, far too slow and completely loses the thread of the air.

I completely disagree. For me, that performance seemed quite brisk. Beautiful. But I could easily have had her take more time over it. I don't understand your comment on the speed at all.

[myles]

I like this version personally.

https://youtu.be/rAI79RlbWdY

All a matter of taste I suppose!

But I could easily have had her take more time over it. I don't understand your comment on the speed at all.

The theme notes are very drawn out (in the version in the original post). The song isn't a dirge after all and I prefer when it isn't handled like one...

[benhall.1]

I've just listened to the old Liam O'Flynn recording. Yes, a bit quicker, but I've heard - and greatly appreciated - that air played a lot slower than Catherine Ashcroft plays is in that video. I actually prefer her version to Liam O'Flynn's - an amazing discovery to me!

[Nanohedron]

I totally get why myles prefers his example. Plus on a B set with a box, like that? Baby, I'm all yours.

That said, I like Ashcroft's rendering too. I was always crazy for airs yet I never learned this tune for some reason, so I can't speak to how discernibly she expresses its pulse. Given my ignorance of the tune, all in all I found her playing very pleasing.

[myles]

There's a nice story about this air in Arthur O'Neill's memoirs.

There was at this time, which was about thirty years ago, a patron or some kind of meeting not unlike a fair held in that quarter, and Mr. MacDonnell's house was full of company when I met Hugh there. Amongst the rest of the guests there was a young nobleman from Germany named the Marquis of Devianne. I was curious to know his cause of coming to Ireland and was informed that he fell in love with a beautiful young lady in his own country, but his parents not approving of the match they diverted his attention from it by sending him over to this Kingdom to take possession of an estate in the County of Roscommon, in right of his mother. From what I myself could guess, and from what an accomplished countryman of my own told me, he was one of the most finished and accomplished noblemen he ever met.

Hugh and I played for a long time our very best things. But the Marquis was at a loss how to call for the tune of 'Past one o'clock' or 'Tá mé 'mo chodladh 's ná dúisigh mé' , and when he perceived me going towards the hall door he followed me and told me he once heard a tune but could not recollect the name of it, but he said he had a man that made boots and shoes for him and that his name was Tommy MacCullough of Dublin. He spoke the name of Tommy MacCullough so broad and the words 'made boots for me' that I readily guessed it was 'Past one o'clock', which I went in and played for him ; on which he seemed uncommonly happy and informed the company all round that it was his choice

Anyway it's probably another one of those Jacobite airs from the 1680s or so.

[Nanohedron]

BTW, does anyone know the march that McGovern and Carberry played after the air? It's new to me.

[chaos97]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkDr0aZZn2g
Here's a nice version played by Dan O'Dowd on his Egan set.

BTW, does anyone know the march that McGovern and Carberry played after the air? It's new to me.

The Races of Ballyhooly. I found it in another video of their playing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EK2vFY22dFk

[Nanohedron]

Thanks! A stirring tune.

[benhall.1]

I've only just got round to listening to/watching that Carberry/McGovern video. Gorgeous. Thanks for posting that myles.

[dunnp]

X:2851
T:The Races of Ballyhooly
O:ireland
B:Joyce, P. W.; "Old Irish Folk Music and Songs"
R:song air
H: From memory, as I learned in my young days. The Irish song that gave
H:name to this fine air--of which I heard fragments in my youth--commemorated
H:the fate of a number of peasants who were shot down in the neighbourhood of
H:Ballyhooly near Fermoy Co. Cork, while resisting the collection of tithes,
H:early in the last century (about 1825). The poet utters a prophecy, which
H:has come to pass, that the particular church for which these tithes were
H:assessed would be levelled, till not one stone remained on another.
H: I have a copy of the whole song written in English letters phonetically;
H:but it is such gibberish that I can make nothing of it. The first line
H:however is plain enough: T\'a sgeul agum an innsinnt s'n\'a smuainim gur
H:breug \'e: "I have a tale to tell, and I don't think it is a false one."
L:1/8
M:C
K:D
A/F/|D2 DE FA G/F/E/D/|E2 e3/2f/ e2 (3def|gfed B/d3/2AF|D2 d3/2e/ d3:|
A|d3/2e/fg afed|d3/2e/fg a3 f|gfga b3/2a/gf|
e2b2b2A2|d3/2e/fg afed|g/f/g/a/ b/a/g/f/ e2 (6A/B/c/d/e/f/|
g3/2e/fd B/d3/2AF|E2 e3/2f/ e2 (3def|g3/2f/ed B/d3/2AF|D2 d3/2e d3|]

[myles]

Yes all the Carberry and McGovern stuff is fantastic. Such a relaxed, easy lift to everything they play. Here's another good one

https://youtu.be/MfasUK978vc

[An Draighean]

X:2851
T:The Races of Ballyhooly
O:ireland
B:Joyce, P. W.; "Old Irish Folk Music and Songs"
R:song air
H: From memory, as I learned in my young days. The Irish song that gave
H:name to this fine air--of which I heard fragments in my youth--commemorated
H:the fate of a number of peasants who were shot down in the neighbourhood of
H:Ballyhooly near Fermoy Co. Cork, while resisting the collection of tithes,
H:early in the last century (about 1825). The poet utters a prophecy, which
H:has come to pass, that the particular church for which these tithes were
H:assessed would be levelled, till not one stone remained on another.
H: I have a copy of the whole song written in English letters phonetically;
H:but it is such gibberish that I can make nothing of it. The first line
H:however is plain enough: T\'a sgeul agum an innsinnt s'n\'a smuainim gur
H:breug \'e: "I have a tale to tell, and I don't think it is a false one."
L:1/8
M:C
K:D
A/F/|D2 DE FA G/F/E/D/|E2 e3/2f/ e2 (3def|gfed B/d3/2AF|D2 d3/2e/ d3:|
A|d3/2e/fg afed|d3/2e/fg a3 f|gfga b3/2a/gf|
e2b2b2A2|d3/2e/fg afed|g/f/g/a/ b/a/g/f/ e2 (6A/B/c/d/e/f/|
g3/2e/fd B/d3/2AF|E2 e3/2f/ e2 (3def|g3/2f/ed B/d3/2AF|D2 d3/2e d3|]

Thanks for that!