Liam O'Flynn's pipes.

A forum about Uilleann (Irish) pipes and the surly people who play them.
User avatar
rorybbellows
Posts: 3191
Joined: Sun Dec 14, 2003 7:50 am
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 10
Location: the cutting edge

Liam O'Flynn's pipes.

Post by rorybbellows »

What do you think would be a good future for Liam's Rowsome set. Should they put in a museum , or should they (be) bequeathed to some worthy piper ?


RORY
I'm Spartacus .
Ian Lawther
Posts: 146
Joined: Tue Jul 08, 2003 7:22 pm
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 12
Contact:

Re: Liam O'Flynn's pipes.

Post by Ian Lawther »

Putting a set of pipes (or any instrument) in a museum is like having a favourite pet stuffed........
User avatar
jon1908
Posts: 158
Joined: Wed Dec 12, 2007 6:20 pm
antispam: No
Location: North Wales

Re: Liam O'Flynn's pipes.

Post by jon1908 »

I would imagine that Liam covered this in his will?
User avatar
RLines
Posts: 325
Joined: Wed Sep 24, 2008 10:05 am
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
Tell us something.: Uilleann Piper. Gramophone Enthusiast. Piping Art Collector. Co-chair Pibyddion Uilleann Cymru. Board Member NPU.
Location: Glan y Fferi, Wales

Re: Liam O'Flynn's pipes.

Post by RLines »

The set was present at NPU's 50th anniversary tionol in Dublin last month, with many great pipers taking turns playing them.
My Twitter: @FerrysidePiper
My YouTube
Club Twitter: @UilleannCymru
User avatar
PJ
Posts: 5884
Joined: Tue Jan 18, 2005 12:23 pm
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
Tell us something.: ......................................................................................................
Location: Baychimo

Re: Liam O'Flynn's pipes.

Post by PJ »

rorybbellows wrote:What do you think would be a good future for Liam's Rowsome set. Should they put in a museum , or should they (be) bequeathed to some worthy piper ?
I vote that Rory be given the set. :wink:
PJ
User avatar
rorybbellows
Posts: 3191
Joined: Sun Dec 14, 2003 7:50 am
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 10
Location: the cutting edge

Re: Liam O'Flynn's pipes.

Post by rorybbellows »

RLines wrote:The set was present at NPU's 50th anniversary tionol in Dublin last month, with many great pipers taking turns playing them.
In a way I'm glad I wasn't there , I dont know how I'd feel about listening to other pipers taking turns on Liams pipes. This is of course a purely personal view but for some reason, no matter how good they were they would not be good enough .

RORY
I'm Spartacus .
AaronFW
Posts: 411
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2017 6:49 pm
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
Tell us something.: I started with playing bamboo flutes. But I transitioned to primarily playing the Boehm flute a few lessons ago with the aim of getting good music instruction. However, I've been transitioning to playing Irish Traditional Music on simple flutes.
Location: Ohio

Re: Liam O'Flynn's pipes.

Post by AaronFW »

rorybbellows wrote:
RLines wrote:The set was present at NPU's 50th anniversary tionol in Dublin last month, with many great pipers taking turns playing them.
In a way I'm glad I wasn't there , I dont know how I'd feel about listening to other pipers taking turns on Liams pipes. This is of course a purely personal view but for some reason, no matter how good they were they would not be good enough .

RORY
I think I get what you are saying. That makes sense.
User avatar
daveboling
Posts: 4881
Joined: Sun Feb 17, 2002 6:00 pm
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
Location: Huntsville, AL

Re: Liam O'Flynn's pipes.

Post by daveboling »

rorybbellows wrote: In a way I'm glad I wasn't there , I dont know how I'd feel about listening to other pipers taking turns on Liams pipes. This is of course a purely personal view but for some reason, no matter how good they were they would not be good enough .

RORY
I don't believe the way Liam sounded was tied that tightly to the set he played, and I suspect you don't either. If you had allowed him to play your set, I think you would have felt, even more, appreciation for his talent and style. Conversely, hearing his set played by others would have reinforced appreciation, again, of his talent and style. Was it Ennis' or Clancy's set Liam played on the Planxty reunion concert DVD? He mentioned which, but all I could hear was him coming through the pipes.
I'd rather Liam still be among us, in good health, showing us one of the ways music can be well played, but all of those occasions are recorded, or living in memories.

dave boling
I teleported home one night
With Ron and Sid and Meg.
Ron stole Meggie's heart away
And I got Sidney's leg.
-- Douglas Adams

'Bundinn er bátlaus maðu'.
User avatar
rorybbellows
Posts: 3191
Joined: Sun Dec 14, 2003 7:50 am
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 10
Location: the cutting edge

Re: Liam O'Flynn's pipes.

Post by rorybbellows »

daveboling wrote:I don't believe the way Liam sounded was tied that tightly to the set he played, and I suspect you don't either. If you had allowed him to play your set, I think you would have felt, even more, appreciation for his talent and style. Conversely, hearing his set played by others would have reinforced appreciation .
dave boling
No actually I dont agree. There are recording out there of Liam playing before he acquired the Rowsome set and his sound was different. It would be my hypothesis that his style developed with the Rowsome set not independently of it. As his style developed and matured that style would of course transfer through other sets,but his playing was nurtured on the Rowsome set and for me at least that puts it on a very special place, emotionally speaking on the altar of Uilleann piping. But in reality I know the set should be played, I just hope it goes to someone who can do it justice and again from a purely personal viewpoint I cant see who that would be.

RORY
I'm Spartacus .
User avatar
Mr.Gumby
Posts: 6606
Joined: Mon Jun 07, 2010 11:31 am
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
Location: the Back of Beyond

Re: Liam O'Flynn's pipes.

Post by Mr.Gumby »

I don't disagree his playing was informed by the pipes he played, most good players' playing is formed by what their instrument allows them. But:

By coincidence, I was going through some tapes, looking for a few Tommy Reck clips that had come up in conversation last (Willie) week, when I stumbled on recordings of LOF made by Ciarán MacMathúna during the late sixties. While there is still an obvious residue of Rowsome (and perhaps Clancy) in the regulator playing, the sound is already unmistakably that of LOF, perhaps not yet fully formed but well on the way.
My brain hurts

Image
User avatar
oleorezinator
Posts: 1625
Joined: Mon Dec 29, 2003 1:21 am
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
Tell us something.: I love uilleann pipes I love tin whistles I love flutes I love irish music I love concertinas I love bodhrans
Location: Behind the anthracite and shale curtain.

Re: Liam O'Flynn's pipes.

Post by oleorezinator »

Mr.Gumby wrote:I don't disagree his playing was informed by the pipes he played, most good players' playing is formed by what their instrument allows them. But:

By coincidence, I was going through some tapes, looking for a few Tommy Reck clips that had come up in conversation last (Willie) week, when I stumbled on recordings of LOF made by Ciarán MacMathúna during the late sixties. While there is still an obvious residue of Rowsome (and perhaps Clancy) in the regulator playing, the sound is already unmistakably that of LOF, perhaps not yet fully formed but well on the way.
From 1967.
https://comhaltas.ie/music/detail/the_b ... up_of_tea/
Information is not knowledge.
Knowledge is not wisdom.
Wisdom is not truth.
Truth is not beauty. Beauty is not love.
Love is not music. Music is the best.
- Frank Zappa
User avatar
Mr.Gumby
Posts: 6606
Joined: Mon Jun 07, 2010 11:31 am
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
Location: the Back of Beyond

Re: Liam O'Flynn's pipes.

Post by Mr.Gumby »

It's probably interesting too, to listen to Clancy play the same set on the tapes he made for John Joe Tuttle. Wild stuff. And probably a good example of someone taking the instrument in another direction than we have heard it being taken since the seventies.
My brain hurts

Image
jack london
Posts: 71
Joined: Sun Jan 02, 2005 11:18 am
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
Tell us something.: I like pipes and other things involving music, like music and pipes. Reeds are an enigma. Though I can make violins, I can not make a reed.
Location: Skinskinatti (Popeye's home town)

Re: Liam O'Flynn's pipes.

Post by jack london »

Mr. Gumby--

Can you post the recording you mention for those of us who do not have it? I am amazed at the Clancy-isms in Liam's playing. I would love to hear the comparison.
May I always be the person my dog thinks I am.
User avatar
rorybbellows
Posts: 3191
Joined: Sun Dec 14, 2003 7:50 am
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 10
Location: the cutting edge

Re: Liam O'Flynn's pipes.

Post by rorybbellows »

Mr Clancy playing the Rowsome set.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5q-9XQbGyc

RORY
PS Irish people are totally bonkers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nl5WJW5VtjE
I'm Spartacus .
Driftwood
Posts: 145
Joined: Sun Mar 13, 2011 7:24 am
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 12

Re: Liam O'Flynn's pipes.

Post by Driftwood »

daveboling wrote:I don't believe the way Liam sounded was tied that tightly to the set he played, and I suspect you don't either. If you had allowed him to play your set, I think you would have felt, even more, appreciation for his talent and style. Conversely, hearing his set played by others would have reinforced appreciation, again, of his talent and style. Was it Ennis' or Clancy's set Liam played on the Planxty reunion concert DVD? He mentioned which, but all I could hear was him coming through the pipes.
I'd rather Liam still be among us, in good health, showing us one of the ways music can be well played, but all of those occasions are recorded, or living in memories.
Some folks might look at this another way:- I've heard of people who couldn't bear sitting in their grandpa's (RIP) favourite chair (or anyone else sitting there for that matter) for some considerable time after they passed away. Sentimental maybe, but what are we about if we're not that?
Post Reply