pancelticpiper wrote:For sure amongst us ITM players some have a special love for airs and some don't care for playing airs all that much.
Francis O Neill mentions the same thing when discussing various players of his aquaintance: some were noted for their air-playing, some for their dance-music playing.
The best players, such as Paddy Keenan, Matt Molloy, etc are superb both at airs and dance music. I would venture to say that no-one could really call himself an ITM player without having a fair mastery of both.
I love it all, reels, jigs, polkas, waltzes, airs, all of it. But on the uilleann pipes I have a particular love of airs. One of my favourite uilleann CDs is The Ancient Voice of Ireland which consists entirely of airs.
About that YouTube video, I myself am not amused. It implies that "Irish" means fast pounding repetitive dull pub songs. I wonder if that guy is really that ignorant or if he just thinks he's being funny. And the Beatles were Irish, weren't they? From an Irish area of Liverpool?
Good post. Loads to think about there. Of course, I don't agree with one or two things ...
"No-one could really call himself an ITM player without having a fair mastery of both." I think you may well be right. But ... because of my sincerely held take on it - that you can't play the airs without knowing the words - that means I probably won't ever be a master, as I just don't know enough of the underlying songs. I think it rules out quite a lot of us, and of some really good players, in fact.
I really liked that YouTube video. I think it's really funny. I don't think it's about ITM as you and I would understand and play it, Richard. But if you've ever been in a particularly touristy pub in Temple Bar - or even if you just think of a typical Irish pub band anywhere in the world on Paddy's night - I think you'd be closer to his target. And
that target is fair game, in my book.
And the Beatles weren't Irish in a sense that would be understood over on this side of the pond. Here, we don't think of genetic/family heritage, but simply of where someone is born. So they were English. I think there's a different take on such things in the States (but you can set me right on that one, as I'm only speculating from things people have said on various forums).
And, CelticWhistler, the point that Mr Gumby was trying to make is that pretty well all Irish (and other Celtic) airs
are the tunes to songs, ballads, what have you. So yes, TSMFW is a ballad, and its tune is an air. That's what an air is - the tune to a song/ballad. There are a few modern airs which don't have words, but, even so, I would suggest that their composers have in mind that they are song-like in character, and would have some idea of what they might be about, even. Out of interest, the reason why it's used as an anthem by Rangers fans is because it's anti-Catholic (Celtic being the arch-enemy, of course).
I wouldn't think of Mr Gumby as "talking down" to you, but rather of being less than enamoured of some of the things you have posted. Some of the things you have said, on this thread and on others, are insulting to some of us in ways that you don't seem to be aware of. I think if you become more aware of where the insult lies, and of how deeply it runs, you may have less trouble in future.
That sure didn't take long.
