It’s Willie Clancy week so I heard dozens and dozens of concert pitch pipes around town, and that makes you wonder sometimes about the state of things.
Last Tuesdaynight I was standing outside on the Ennis road talking briefly to Stephen Scales when the session in Fahy’s kitchen fell silent and one lone piper continued on. Both Stephen and myself did a double take and went ‘what the feck, who’s that’. The playing was great, very tasty and the pipes sounded superb. A broad rich tone, loud without screaming. .Some definite aspects to the overall sound you’d find in Liam Flynn’s piping but a broader, full, warm, richer sound altogether. Overall an old fashioned sort of piping sound. Closer to the sound of pipes that made me want to play them in the first place. No thin back Ds and perfectly in tune too.
We looked in through the window but hadn’t a clue who the piper was, I guessed it could be Billy McCormack. And it turned out it was him. And it was the best sounding concert pitch playing I heard in years.
For me it once more raises the question why the hell pipers put up with pipemakers turning out awful sounding stuff. How did the present concept of how pipes sound come about? Pipes made these days do not at all sound like the one I heard played on tuesdaynight.
I heard one concert set played by a very wellknown piper last night that had it’s soft bottom ds in tune with the drones while all the hard ds the piper was using weren’t.
‘I never heard anybody say anything bad about this maker’s pipes’ someone said earlier in the day when i didn’t commented on his choice of maker for his new pipes. Well if you’d listen nobody would have to.
Pipers should not have to put up with this sort of stuff.
Mr Laban,
Did you ever find out what kind of pipes Mr McCormack was playing that day? They must have been really superb if someone of your avowed preference for flat pitch appreciated them.
As to why we (“the piping masses”) put up with less than stellar pipes, I guess the first things that come to mind are cost and availability. However, that may be changing. For instance, alot of people here have great things to say about Gallagher pipes, and his cost and wait times are quite reasonable. So here’s to hoping quality and availability will go up in the future.
And not to rehash old threads, but I really wish that any maker who has more than a 10 year wait list would take on more apprentices. I know there may be financial reasons why that isn’t feasable. And then there’s the argument that quality may not be the same. OTOH, assuming that the regular quality of pipes from a Williams or Froment is “stellar” I would actually be quite happy with a “really good” set “from the workshop of” Williams or Froment. One could still get on the 10 year wait list if one wanted a set totally from the master’s hand.
Well, just a thought anyway. Personally, I think musicians in general put too much emphasis on their instument and not enough on their playing. A superb instrument can give an already high level player that something extra, but the vast majority of us should be worrying about getting our technique and musicianship right, rather than spending gobs of money on a set that’s more than we need. Martin Hayes still plays the same fiddle he learned on as a kid, and it doesn’t seem to be holding him back any.
james
I don’t disagree with James, but more to the point, if Peter is going to slag some maker(s) quality, he should state whose pipes he thinks are not up to snuff, instead of all the innuendo. I don’t question Peter’s taste or judgement, but I do question the purpose of a diatribe that doesn’t really state who it is aimed at.
Why do pipers buy poor sounding pipes? Because they often have no option to hear the pipes of most makers in advance, and are stuck buying blindly long distance - across the country or across the world. The only thing they can go on is input from other pipers, and a thread like this that doesn’t name names is part of the reason poor pipes are still being made and bought.
Had Billy at a tional here a year ago. Turned everyone on to bluetack. I had a good time playing with him. Nice man.
Have to say that a good instrument makes a huge difference in the progress of any level of player. I have been struggling with the wrong size of bag for years. My playing has improved considerably since I have a more comfortable set. I enjoy playing more now too. Things are hard enough without struggling with your instrument.
I don’t know that anybody knows the maker of Billy’s pipes for sure. They belonged to an earlier Billy McCormack who willed them to some Nuns. Billy ran into one of them and was given the pipes because of his name. Pipes tend to find thier home eventually.
I believe that Billy’s pipes are a set of Taylors. A William Taylor set to be precise. They are the pipes featured in the photo of Eddie ‘the kid’ Joyce.
When I was given a description of Billys’ Chanter/Set as ‘loud but not screaming, sweet yet strong, a
strong Flynnish sort of quality to the sound but broader, warmer, very
rich’, I was not surprised to read who made his chanter!!! Ah, I’ve been saying this for years. O’Briain is the knees of da bees for the Concert chanters…
Sean Wrote: "Yes Joseph, Billy does have a nice Taylor set, but he now has one of those amazing Cillian O’Briain concert chanters also. That would be most likely to be the combination he was playing. "
Ahh. I wish I could afford to jet over and give it a good listening to. Perhaps next year.
…I had planned to post videos (of Billy playing) on our website, but the host nixt it. (explanation: would you lend your car to someone you don’t know, knowing it is possible they would use it to commit a crime?)
Taking recommendations on a new (cheap) host. I would like to make these vids of Billy available. We have his ok to do so, BTW.
I wasn’t going to slag any particular pipemaker. I do think there are very few sets of pipes that sound really well. The overall soundscape of pipes have changed over the past 20 years or so with different styles of reedmaking taking over. I don’t think it’s always a good thing (although pipes are by and large better in tune than they were they don’t necessarily sound all that great to my ear anyway). I don’t think there’s harm in thinking about these things and discussing it. But for now i will tear off again, the week will be over before we know it so best get the most out of it.
You’ve been more than me, Pat. Actually, anyone who has been there has done so more than me.
My concern is that most pipers I know are still purchasing whatever they can get their hands on, and can only go by input from more experienced pipers of what is good and what is not. A blanket statement from a very experienced player like Peter who also has the luxury of living right in the middle of the “action” as it were, questioning why there are so many poor sets, but not letting prospective buyers know who makes these poor sets, just promotes the continued sale of more poor sets.
I’m not trying to put anyone on the spot, but it gets me a bit upset to be told I should be more careful with my purchases, but not told what is good and what to avoid. I’m sure other prospective buyers would also feel the same way with such quasi-input. Its not like you can wander down to the corner UP store and test-drive models by different makers. Many of us are lucky to get to hear more than two or three sets by any maker in person before buying.
DJM, this is about a blanket statement, I am wondering why the sound of piping is the way it is. As it I don’t actually enjoy listening to the great majority of piping. iregret that because, let’s face it, considering the time I have given to them, somewhere deep I must like the pipes.
I heard some piping this week I thoroughly enjoyed, both flat and concert.
But overall, I don’t think with the current state of pipe/reedmaking (it’s a general set-up issue) i don’t think pipes sound their best.
That’s one. Forgive me I drew the issue of plain awful pipes into this, maybe I should have left that alone but as it is, the thursday of the Willie Clancy week, the focus slips every now and again. BUT, when I hear a set of pipes that has the soft bottom D as the is proper one (as in the maker seems to intend you use that one)and the hard D as the fecking awful too sharp one, I think the pipemaker in question should have his tastebuds examined or that he really hasn’t much of a clue. Yes I know, availability and all that but i don’t think anyone should put up with something so essentially wrong as that.
Which pipemaker, I don’t think it’s relevant here, when you go out to buy a set of pipes you check for that sort of thing, you listen to sets made by a maker and preferably try them, and you’d avoid a maker whose instruments display such faults. Personally I hate having to listen to piping that is unnecessarily ruined by faulty pipes. I must have heard at least fifty odd concert chanters this week and it’s sad there was only the one that sounded really well (there were a few more that were going quite well but none really stood out)
I don’t think Billy Mccormack was playing a Cillian O Briain chanter, the head looked Taylor style ( couldn’t see the rest) and the sound was unlike any O Briain chanter I ever heard.
Isn’t that what tionóil are for though? You can see and hear dozens of sets and in some cases, if your nice, give them a blast. Most tionóil have pipemakers attending also… The SoCalPipers tionól for example That’s www.SoCalPipers.com folks!
There’s only one tionól near me (and I had to “get in the right circle” to even learn it exists). I purchased my first set from Ireland only on say-so by others via e-mail. I had no opportunity to hear any pipes up close unless I wanted to wait 10 months for the next tionól. I must say that there are more tionóls now than there were when I started, but there’s still a lot of us isolated pipers around who depend on others giving us the straight goods, and not unspecified criticisms that don’t help direct us in our purchases. I would have been very happy to have been steered away from the maker of my first set, Robbie Hughes.
You won’t find direct criticism here on a forum like this because there is little point on being negative on almost anything life. One thing about the Irish pipes scene is that nothing is ever handed to anyone. You have an opportunity through tionols, e-mail, phone, in-person visits to find out the information you desire: who to hear playing the pipes, who makes the best reeds, who can reed up your chanter by x, who is the best maker without a decade long waiting list, etc. Who cares about the people not delivering the goods or what the situation really is?; one cares about the success stories.
While Germany is a long ways away, Tom Clarke told me that he was able to visit the Rogge workshop and try out 4 different proto/model chanters that enabled Tom to make his decision for his order. What a great service that Andreas is providing pipers!
That’s