Yes. If you’re not careful, you could wind up like this poor fellow:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAildPgtWKM
Peter…
I would never play an air within earshot of you. Not only would it make you cry…but you’d probably chase after me and break my whistle.
You know, I can join on this… anyway, I’ll put out a recording of Gile Mear here and you can kill it with your criticism =)
Oki, here’s a recording. I admit that it’s lousy and in a couple of places I myself feel I had to phrase things differently and make the ending less long, but because I don’t know when I’ll have the chance to make the next recording, here you go.
http://www.dimlight.net/music/louigi/gile_mear.wav
ps: I heard it sung, dunno if it shows
Not lousy, IMHO; nicely and tastefully done. It’s apparent, I think, that you’ve heard it sung. As to the issue that you “feel [you] had to phrase things differently etc.”, I’m not quite sure if you mean you’d do it differently if you were to do it again, or that the result was unavoidably somewhat different from your sources…but whatever you meant, I think your version works in terms of the general tone of this discussion. Variance is part of the music, after all, although with airs it succeeds best if the framework is left intact. You did that.
It’s true that you could certainly have taken an even more elastic, less mensural approach, but as Peter points out, that sort of thing can be overdone and to no good purpose. The pulse matters.
BTW, this is only my $0.02USD (a devalued currency these days )
Thx, you cheered me up, really.
What I meant by different phrasing was that in a couple of places I think I didn’t have to make pauses.
Also, I am still feeling unconfident posting to this forum where people who really know how to play an instrument hang out =)
It may be that those who can play or sing slow airs well
don’t hang out for criticism from people who are good at hanging out at
internet forums.
Confidence begins by accepting one’s present state
and promoting it. 
sounds a lot like ‘westering home’. I like your rendition.
(hey, same key too!)
I didn’t notice anything out of place. You could even have relaxed the tune a bit, but I think it takes time to be able to do that well.
Ha. Don’t be so sure about the rest of us. For all you know, I have one finger on each hand and can’t play diddly.
Ask questions, sift the answers. The only bad question may be an unasked one, but above all listen to the music.
That sounds good, Louigi. What whistle were you using?
A tweaked Walton C. (though it sounds a little lower than C. Recently I found out it’s mouthpiece can be moved, so I should tune it to precise C)
seamus ennis said to play slow airs properly, one should have a verse memorised.
why so?
I believe thats what many people said about Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie too when they bagan blowing their horns!
There is an old chines saying that goes someting like this:
The woods would be very quiet,
if only the bird with the most beautiful voice would sing.
The most important aspect of playing music is to have fun. And there is no right or wrong way of interpret a piece! Glenn Gould´s Bach interpretations were considered very bold (and cool) in the 60´s. There are still people who can´t stand them - but I like them. The world would be a poorer place without Glenn Gould.
I´m not saying that anything goes, but try not to listen to much to authorities - it might be very restraining.
Well, that’s true, but before making up own individual style one has to learn properly. And that means listening to authorities. If you start experimenting right from the start without trying to copy a classic performance - well, you’ll just never really learn to play anything. But once you have the basis - hey, why not?
When I hear a moving air
I hear not an authority
But heart …
If you know are familiar with a song (esp. if sung in Irish), it is a bit off-putting when someone plays that song as a slow-air with the phrasing (which is dictated by the natural phrasing of the words) all wrong. The same air may sound fine to someone who doesn’t speak the language or who has not heard the song sung.
There is very much a wrong way to play a piece, there are many right ways to play a piece but there are definitely more way to completely mangle an air. I resent the ‘all we want is to have fun’ approach’ when it comes to playing airs, it has ample opportunity to reduce these tunes to meaningless strings of notes, new age mood music and the like. There’s room and plenty of freedom for a personal approach but there are limits to it.
The suggestion ‘that was what said about Gillespie and Parker’ is a cheap shot attempting to defuse an argument in the discussion, there’s a difference between finding new ways in music and not knowing the structure and content of a piece you’re playing. There is just plain old bad playing and incompetence to deal with before we start discussing ‘interpretation’.
Several times I have quoted the following in these discussions:
and there is an important point there.
And “alurker” wrote:
“If you know are familiar with a song (esp. if sung in Irish),
it is a bit off-putting when someone plays that song as a
slow-air with the phrasing (which is dictated by the natural
phrasing of the words) all wrong. The same air may sound
fine to someone who doesn’t speak the language or who
has not heard the song sung.”
Take one part of each and mix carefully together.
The resultant mix near perfectly reflects the experience
of hearing a slow air well played.
The sample posted by “Louigi Verona”
http://www.dimlight.net/music/louigi/gile_mear.wav
while a very reasonable bit of playing, sounds all
out of sorts - it just is not right. The phrasing,
the timing, the endings, the rubato and the
decorations all sound - not right!!
While it is a very reasonable example of whistle playing,
it is, at the same time, an excellent example of how not to play
“Mo Ghile Mear”
I would be very thankful for a more… um… constructive feedback. That is - what exactly is wrong and what should I do to make it right? If you think I should listen to a better recording than from that book - leave a link please. My playing there is very similar to the playing from the Slow Airs book I mentioned.