I am utterly curious why there are so little (better said, NONE) airs to find on recordings or even in groups or discussions…
it seems to be all about jigs, reels, slipjigs, you name it, but no airs?
while they can be so beautiful or does no body feel challenged enough to dare to play them?
if somebody knows of cd’s with nice airs on flute or combo flute/ fiddle etc please let me know.
but I am most interested to hear your opinions on this why no airs…
like airs myself, and yes they are maybe hard to get a grip on when you have not been into all this for long enough yet but also I think a good way to express yourself through your instrument.
I find the jigs and reels may be flexible to get your own style into it, but when it is about feelings, there is nothing like an air…
agree? disagree?
cheers
berti (playing flute over 1 year and whistle over 2 years)
I agree on airs. I love Irish airs and for me they represent the very heart of Irish Traditional Music. Tomás Ó Canainn author of “Traditional Music in Ireland” has said: “The slow air is rightly regarded as one of the most beautiful facets of the Irish music tradition and yet many of the better dance music executants never attempt the playing of an air. A well-played air has a splendid soaring dimension that must be experienced to be understood.”
On this BB in the thead “Na Filí” I recently posted the following regarding Tomás ó Canainn collection of slow airs:
I have just received a copy of Thomás’s double CD of Slow Airs. Its a fantastic reference to Irish Music and a fantastic bargain at 15 Euros (about $18 ) plus postage.
There are 122 - thats right! One Hundred and twenty two airs on these two cds. I have seen a lot of people asking for sources for new tunes on these boards - this is one of the best sources I have come accross, at least for the slow airs.
imho I think it’s because airs are intended to be sung, and unless you learn the air from a singer trying to replicate it on an instrument other than the human voice usually produces a pale shadow of the original at best and ghastly chud at worst.
At great risk of starting another raging dots vs. ears conflagration, I’d say that airs are the single best argument against learning a tune from dots.
Some of the best airs I’ve heard played on an instrument other than the voice have been played by musicians who are also fine singers, and are able effectively to translate the song into their instrument with exactly the right breathing, phrasing, and understanding of the original song itself.
Some of the worst instrumental airs I’ve heard have been played on whistle or flute by people who have no idea of the relationship between air and song and have learned something like ‘Cill Chais’ out of a tune-book. Having no idea of the context or meaning of the song, they’ll play it “wiv feewing” like it’s some heart-achey love ballad (which it isn’t).
Every recording I own has at least one air on it, and oftentimes more.
At session, airs are kept to a minimum for the same reason songs are: Because they’re essentially solo activities, which means that most or all of the musicians will be sitting out when someone plays one. This is fine occasionally, but everyone comes to session to play, and so these kinds of things are minimized.
I would agree totally and would add that a player
must “hear” the song in their head, and must identify
with the feeling or emotion of the piece, in order to
make any decent attempt at a slow air.
On the matter of the dots, I also fully agree. I believe
one of the greatest barriers to expression is the
exclusive use of the dots. It can sound like one of those
gastly computer voice programmes doing a reading
of Sharespeare.
Another factor is the cultural one, and perhaps this is where
the argument gets messy. Putting it simply, I believe it is
all about feeling, which is formed and coloured by culture,
history, social contacts, and maybe even genetically
influenced!!, where ever it comes from, if you dont feel the
feeling, you cant play the feeling.
Agreed, and I don’t think the argument is messy at all. Many of the songs come from ancient bardic tradition, ancient poems about events and peoples which have a deep cultural significance (and yes, perhaps a genetic influence too) which can’t be truly appreciated by anyone living outside the culture.
It may, for example, be possible to find a translation of the original gaelic poem or song, and the translation might be fairly accurate, but ‘knowing what the words mean’ won’t unlock the ‘real’ feelings that gave them birth.
Those outside the culture can try to imagine the feelings, those steeped in the culture and history actually feel them deep in the roots.
After all’s said and done, I tend to think that songs are best left to the singers; they can do so much more with them than an instrumentalist can.
Here I might disagree to some degree!
The melody often carries more than the
words. Melodies frequently outlives the
words, the feeling translated into some
new context. The “Derry Air” is a good
example of this, or “The Groves of Blarney”
I am not arguing that every song might
translate as well as the above examples.
Some ballads have melodies which are
little more than incidental to the story being
told.
There is a large body of hauntingly beautiful
melodies with emotional content so strong
and universal, that they will, most probably,
live on forever, and have the emotional
content ‘translated’ into the feelings and
expressions of the day.
Melodies of this category have, I believe,
an equal place in both song and instrumental
expression.
Berti, if you want to learn to play slow airs you will have to hear the sung version. The best source for sean nós CDs is Cló Iar-Chonnachta: http://www.cic.ie/cgi-bin/index.asp.
Ideally, you will need to learn to speak Irish so you will know what the words mean. For many of us, this is too much hard work. But if you are going to play slow airs, you should at least memorize EXACTLY how the song is sung, and play it the same way. At least you won’t make a fool of yourself by following this method, as your playing will be the same as the sung version.
There are no methods for writing slow airs. The sung versions take very little notice of timing. Each singer adds their own nuances to the performance, but they can do that because they know what the words mean, and why they are choosing to emphasize some parts, or decorate some parts, and pass quickly through others.
I once listened to a Japanese rock band trying to play old rock and roll tunes. The timing was badly incorrect. I could not sing along with them, even though I knew all the words. Its the same thing playing slow airs. People who know how the song goes will try to sing along with your playing. If they can’t sing along with you, they will know that you are not competent to be playing that tune.
When faced with this sort of responsibility, you can see why many players decide to forgo slow airs.
This business of following the Irish text in your head as you play
has probably got to do with phrasing. A lot of the emphasis and
feeling in the rendering of slow airs is achieved in the phrasing.
There is an elegancy in how phrases are broken up and it has to
be done lyrically, as if poetry was being quoted. It therefore helps
to know the words and sing them in your head while playing,
though IMHO it is by no means essential.
Familiarity with Irish airs brings a “feeling” for the music itself, you
just know when it feels right. Some of the finest musicians do it
completly instinctively. Indeed the very essence of sean nós and
playing airs is this matter of instinct.
Any learned attempt will tend to be, in the early stages at least,
somewhat self-conscious and rigid. IMHO only a natural and
instinctive “feel” for the music can give the best results.
I would agree that knowing the song is the way to go. There are a number of Irish songs that are in english and can be played. I took up whistle and flute in part because moving to the Baltimore-DC area had a devastating effect on my voice. The doctors said it was a reaction to something in the brackish air.
I found it easy to learn The Month of January after falling in love with the song on a Dolores Keane CD. Cullodens Harvest, I got from a Deante recording. So for those looking for slow airs, try learning by ear from a singer. I am limited in my selection to those in english; but, that still leaves me hundreds to play, perhaps not the oldest, but still a large number of airs.
I came to music from a folk singing tradition through the folk revival of the 60’s. In that period there was a variety of phrasing the various folk singers used in their interpreations of songs. The same can apply to Airs, but you need to have a connection to the essence of the song, the complex mix of emotion and spirit that the song touches. That’s gives you, what others might call the ‘instinctual’ ornamentation that fits the tunes.
I would also point out that many of the melodies have multiple songs written to them. For example, Crooked Jack and The Star of County Downe have the same melody but a completely different feel. Even the social setting of songs can impact on songs. ‘We Shall Overcome’ went from funeral dirge to freedom anthem.
I guess what I’m getting to is, if you want to learn slow airs, start with a folk song you know by heart. It will flow from your fingers and breath much more easily. You’ll learn the ornaments and variants in context. The skills you gain running through several version of “The House of the Rising Sun” will serve you when you discover a particular traditional Irish Slow Air that you connect with.
You need to also consider your audience, most here in the U.S. are not going to know Gaelic, so learning those slow airs from the Gaelic, limits their connecting to what I’m playing. My irish-american audience are going to recognize, songs they’ve heard in english, and there are lots of them.
I think we can get too damn precious about this. “Slow airs can only be played by those born into/steeped in the tradition/those who know the words in the native tongue/with an inherited feel/blah blah.” Come on now - you can say that about any style of tune in any genre of music. “White men can’t play the blues…” - sheesh! It’s a hangover from those quasi-mystical types who are prone to posting to IRTRAD who’ll have you believe that only dyed-in-the-wool Irishmen whose ancestry goes back thousands of years and who have Guinness in their veins instead of blood can even remotely be regarded as being able to play the tunes. Right - slow airs need a different approach to dance tunes. If it’s a song-tune it’s definitely good to know the words. But many a slow air either never had words or else they’ve been lost. So we’d better not play those ones eh! Gawd. You can learn to play slow airs like you can learn to play any other kind of tune, if you’re receptive to the particular requirements, and that don’t include the need to speak Gaelic. It requires musical sensibilities that can be picked up by that best method of all - listening, listening and listening some more. Then, when you’re totally fed up of listening, listen some more.
What is a blinkin’ slow air anyway? Is Danny Boy a slow air? Eleanor Plunkett? Bridget Cruise? Raglan Road? If you play a tune slowly is it a slow air? I’ve heard slow airs that have rhythm and some that don’t. In fact, I’ve heard some both ways. Amhran a Leabhair. Jackie Daly (fabulous slow air player on an instrument not easily given to slow air-playing, and hardly noted for his singing!) plays the Glen Cottage Polka no 1 as a slow air superbly.
We should stop making rules that prevent us from exploring, playing and enjoying the tunes. I would say that as a harmonica player I suppose.
The term “slow air” does seem to be used differently by different people and it seems as though this is part of the problem. I had thought that the term only applied to instrumental versions of songs sung in the sean-nos tradition. Those songs I don’t feel I would be able to play because the idea is, I believe, that they be played as though the instrument were singing in that same tradition. One problem is that even if I hear them sung, I am hearing not the skeleton of the song but the rendition of a particular singer. In many cases I cannot distinguish between the fundamental melody and what that particular singer has done with the song. I could not just copy the singer because that would be taking what belongs to that person and pretending it is my own. If I did find the skeleton of the song and a literal translation (and I have heard that the songs in English would be a good place to begin, as Lee Marsh mentions) so that I would understand how the phrasing in the melody should work, I still would not have the understanding to do justice to that tradition. I believe one might be able to learn, however, given sufficient study, listening and critique from qualified musicians. I am pretty rigid in my feeling that it is not right to mess with that very special tradition. It will dilute it, make it less strong, make it so that anything goes. That’s just my feeling. I don’t feel it has anything to do with being Irish. It has to do with training. I don’t believe the singers just start singing however they feel like. They have worked to learn this very particlar style. They aren’t just emoting.
It was pointed out to me in a discussion I cannot find right now that the term “slow air” is used by some important person writing in the past to mean something not as specific as a song from the sean-nos repertoire. So, the term is becoming confusing to me. That said, I think there are a lot of beautiful songs not in the sean-nos repetoire that one could play and have plenty of room for expressiveness. It doesn’t seem like it would be appropriate to play them using the more distinctive qualities of some sean-nos singing such as altering the meter or playing many notes for a single syllable, etc. That would not be respecting the sean-nos tradition or the tradition of the more straight forward songs. I guess I would just call these songs “airs” myself, because I still use the term “slow air” for the very particular category of airs from the sean-nos tradition.
I was trying to figure out what sorts of airs to songs I could play. I asked an advanced player if I could, for example, play Down by the Salley Gardens (I don’t know if it would be called a ballad or what exactly)in a straight forward way without insulting anyone. He said yes and that it would sound very pleasant. There is also a “slow air” with the same melody and, of course, that would be a more beautiful thing to hear. But it would be ridiculous for me to pretend I could play the melody as a “slow air” in the sean-nos style. I could, however, get a lot of enjoyment by playing the air in an appropriately expressive way.
I agree with Steve’s basic premise that we can get too precious about the issue. And when saying it’s genetic things become downright scary I have have quite a lot of Irishmen hear slaughter perfectly fine airs, quite a lot of the natives are totally clueless to what this music is about.
I do think however playing a good slow air requires an intimate knowledge of the song(s) connected to the air, the culture from which these come and if need be the language they are sung in.
And I have heard Jackie Daly sing on more than one occasion and I am sure he knows what his airs are about.
Going all precious on the one side is one thing, denying there’s specific knowledge involved when tackling certain tunes successfully is going overboard on the other end.
I love playing slow airs, or shall I call them tunes played slowly with feeling?
Anyway, however you want to name them, they are my favorite tunes to play. And I tried to analyze why this is so. And in all honesty, I must say one of the reasons I like playing them is because you don’t have to move your fingers at the speed of sound, as with some jigs or reels. I just can’t manage to do that (yet) after now having played for about 4 years.
But it is not the only reason, I play airs because they speak to me and touch me more than any other kind of tunes. They touch that special inner spot, when I play the tune, I emerse myself totally into the tune, there is nothing else at the moment.
A ‘slow air’ or ‘air’ is a specific tune type, every bit as specific as the terms ‘jig’, ‘reel’, ‘hornpipe’ etc. Think sean nos, an “unaccompanied ‘a capella’ song form with virtually no connection to the modern singing of ballads in pubs”.
It isn’t a ballad (‘Danny Boy’) or an O’Carolan composition (Eleanor Plunkett, Bridget Cruise) or a modern song set to older music (Patrick Kavanagh’s “Raglan Road”). So no, if you play a tune slowly, it’s not a “Slow Air”.
Playing the Glen Cottage Polka no.1 slowly may be done superbly, but that doesn’t make it a slow air any more than playing The Donegal Mazurka slowly makes it a jig.
The link to the gaelic has been mentioned often, and the quote previously about judging a Fleadh is a good indication… just as a tune has to meet certain criteria to be considered a “jig” or a “reel”, a slow air also has its defining characteristics.
