Help me to identify an instrument from Braveheart theme

For all instruments -- please read F.A.Q. before posting.
Post Reply
hag01
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Nov 15, 2016 11:35 am
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
Tell us something.: I'm a musician and music composer, and I have great interest in Irish traditional music, especially because of the great James Horner, the composer of Braveheart and Titanic soundtracks.

Help me to identify an instrument from Braveheart theme

Post by hag01 »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AN04imFDK8
Is this an Irish flute or a low whistle in the beginning?
User avatar
MichaelLoos
Posts: 675
Joined: Wed Sep 05, 2007 2:53 am
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
Tell us something.: I'm here because I just wanted to change my location... but it turns out much more complicated than I thought. Do I already have the 100 required characters?
Location: Klietz, Germany

Re: Help me to identify an instrument from Braveheart theme

Post by MichaelLoos »

Almost sure it's a low whistle.
User avatar
Thomaston
Posts: 1285
Joined: Thu Aug 17, 2006 8:43 am
antispam: No
Location: Auburn, AL

Re: Help me to identify an instrument from Braveheart theme

Post by Thomaston »

Fun fact: those are uilleann pipes further in, not anything Scottish.
User avatar
MichaelLoos
Posts: 675
Joined: Wed Sep 05, 2007 2:53 am
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
Tell us something.: I'm here because I just wanted to change my location... but it turns out much more complicated than I thought. Do I already have the 100 required characters?
Location: Klietz, Germany

Re: Help me to identify an instrument from Braveheart theme

Post by MichaelLoos »

It's a long time since I watched the film, but IIRC, the complete soundtrack doesn't feature anything Scottish.
User avatar
sfmans
Posts: 208
Joined: Thu Mar 12, 2009 5:41 am
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
Tell us something.: I've been a whistle player for over 40 years now, which is a sobering thought. I got started on a battered old Generation D and, well, just never stopped really!

Current gigs are The Powderkegs border morris, the concert band Trebuchet with our music theatre show The Mill Ballads www.themillballads.com, and Welsh dance band Caffl.
Location: High Peak, Derbyshire
Contact:

Re: Help me to identify an instrument from Braveheart theme

Post by sfmans »

Hollywood soundtracks are the ultimate victory of the tradition-mashing concept of 'Celtic Music', in that any 'Celtic' sound will do for any 'Celtic' nation. So what is the entire film is set in 13th Century Scotland? Apply a generous sound-wash of 1990s generic 'Celtic' and you're away!

See also Local Hero, BBC Countryfile every time they go to Scotland or Northern Ireland, etc etc. Countryfile are amongst the worst offenders - last time I saw something on that from Northern Ireland it was soundtracked with the works of that well known Northern Irish piper ... Kathryn Tickell!

I know it's only mood-setting music rather than meant to be or claiming to be historically and ethnographically correct, but it still gets my dander up :)
User avatar
Nanohedron
Moderatorer
Posts: 38211
Joined: Wed Dec 18, 2002 6:00 pm
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
Tell us something.: Been a fluter, citternist, and uilleann piper; committed now to the way of the harp.

Oh, yeah: also a mod here, not a spammer. A matter of opinion, perhaps.
Location: Lefse country

Re: Help me to identify an instrument from Braveheart theme

Post by Nanohedron »

sfmans wrote:Countryfile are amongst the worst offenders - last time I saw something on that from Northern Ireland it was soundtracked with the works of that well known Northern Irish piper ... Kathryn Tickell!
But ... fact-checking is so hard ... :twisted:
"If you take music out of this world, you will have nothing but a ball of fire." - Tribal musician
User avatar
Peter Duggan
Posts: 3223
Joined: Tue Aug 30, 2011 5:39 pm
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
Tell us something.: I'm not registering, I'm trying to edit my profile! The field “Tell us something.” is too short, a minimum of 100 characters is required.
Location: Kinlochleven
Contact:

Re: Help me to identify an instrument from Braveheart theme

Post by Peter Duggan »

Thomaston wrote:Fun fact: those are uilleann pipes further in, not anything Scottish.
All those European orchestral instruments of diverse origin too! :o
sfmans wrote:I know it's only mood-setting music rather than meant to be or claiming to be historically and ethnographically correct, but it still gets my dander up :)
So how do you feel about all those orchestras for sci-fi, westerns, costume dramas etc.? Historically and ethnographically correct?

:boggle:
And we in dreams behold the Hebrides.

Master of nine?
User avatar
sfmans
Posts: 208
Joined: Thu Mar 12, 2009 5:41 am
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
Tell us something.: I've been a whistle player for over 40 years now, which is a sobering thought. I got started on a battered old Generation D and, well, just never stopped really!

Current gigs are The Powderkegs border morris, the concert band Trebuchet with our music theatre show The Mill Ballads www.themillballads.com, and Welsh dance band Caffl.
Location: High Peak, Derbyshire
Contact:

Re: Help me to identify an instrument from Braveheart theme

Post by sfmans »

Peter Duggan wrote:
Thomaston wrote:Fun fact: those are uilleann pipes further in, not anything Scottish.
All those European orchestral instruments of diverse origin too! :o
sfmans wrote:I know it's only mood-setting music rather than meant to be or claiming to be historically and ethnographically correct, but it still gets my dander up :)
So how do you feel about all those orchestras for sci-fi, westerns, costume dramas etc.? Historically and ethnographically correct?

:boggle:
Now hang on a minute - are you suggesting that every space station and frontier town DIDN'T have their own symphony orchestra?
User avatar
ecadre
Posts: 273
Joined: Thu Sep 10, 2015 2:59 am
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
Tell us something.: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Location: Coventry, England

Re: Help me to identify an instrument from Braveheart theme

Post by ecadre »

sfmans wrote:Hollywood soundtracks are the ultimate victory of the tradition-mashing concept of 'Celtic Music', in that any 'Celtic' sound will do for any 'Celtic' nation. So what is the entire film is set in 13th Century Scotland? Apply a generous sound-wash of 1990s generic 'Celtic' and you're away!

See also Local Hero, BBC Countryfile every time they go to Scotland or Northern Ireland, etc etc. Countryfile are amongst the worst offenders - last time I saw something on that from Northern Ireland it was soundtracked with the works of that well known Northern Irish piper ... Kathryn Tickell!

I know it's only mood-setting music rather than meant to be or claiming to be historically and ethnographically correct, but it still gets my dander up :)
Though I agree with you, twas ever thus it seems.

Here's the correspondent of the Morning Post and Daily Advertiser, London, getting cross over the same issue, on the 8th of November 1791:

"As an Irishman, give me leave to observe, that in the representation of Oscar and Malvina the Irish pipes are introduced; but why the piper should be habited in a highland dress, I cannot reconcile to my feelings... now, by my shoul, I tink an Irishman playing so well upon the pipes as little C——y, should not be ashamed of his brogues, and let the music give his Scotch bonnet the lie."

The piper was a certain Denis Courtney who became well known at the time.

For more interesting stuff see: http://www.itma.ie/images/uploads/unionpipes.pdf
User avatar
s1m0n
Posts: 10069
Joined: Wed Oct 06, 2004 12:17 am
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 10
Location: The Inside Passage

Re: Help me to identify an instrument from Braveheart theme

Post by s1m0n »

... why the piper should be habited in a highland dress, I cannot reconcile to my feelings...
Because the Irish national dress hadn't been invented yet.

Image

And that cape-thingy would prolly foul the chanter
And now there was no doubt that the trees were really moving - moving in and out through one another as if in a complicated country dance. ('And I suppose,' thought Lucy, 'when trees dance, it must be a very, very country dance indeed.')

C.S. Lewis
jadphoto
Posts: 146
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2011 5:42 pm
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 12

Re: Help me to identify an instrument from Braveheart theme

Post by jadphoto »

I do believe however, that during the wedding scene, and perhaps a time or two later there were Scottish small pipes in the soundtrack. :poke:

After it's Hollywood...and if Tom Cruise can be Jack Reacher Mel Gibson can sure as hell be William Wallace. :shock:

JD
Post Reply