simultaneous air & reel
Posted: Sun Jun 21, 2020 7:49 am
Many years ago I had a Na Fili album and they did a very cool arranging trick, have a whistle play a slow air and later have a fiddle come in playing a reel. I thought the effect was magical.
I found it on YouTube, you can jump to 1:12 to hear the beginning of the air on solo whistle.
At 2:19 the fiddle comes in underneath playing a reel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyFutx1DGog
As nice as this works, I don't think I heard other Irish groups do this.
Fast forward to a few years ago, when a Scottish pipe band did the same thing, actually the reverse, playing a reel then have an air come in joining the reel.
Here, Simon Fraser University Pipe Band. They do some reels to end their set and half the pipers come in playing the air The Braes Of Locheil underneath the last reel.
You can jump to 5:16 for the beginning of the reel, to 5:26 for when the slow air comes in.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xo4jOMdjfRQ
It's now become quite popular for pipe bands to do.
Which brings me to something I've wondered about: yes you can have melody instruments play a reel and air simultaneously, but also in an Irish band you might have backing/accompanying instruments such as guitar and drum.
Have any bands done an arranging thing where the band plays a reel, then the accompanying instruments continue to play the reel backup, but a melody player plays an air over it? So it's not a matter of two simultaneous melodies, just an air being played, perhaps in free time, over a reel backing?
I'm sure people are saying "what nonsense is this?" but it's something I've heard done regularly in another genre, in Bulgarian music.
The band keeps the dance rhythm going- they have to, they're playing for a roomful of dancers- but a musician might take a solo where they play dance tunes in the same dance rhythm, or they might play a slow air. The air, all or in part, might be in free time, having nothing in common with the continuing dance rhythm.
Seems to me that this would work in Irish music too.
I found it on YouTube, you can jump to 1:12 to hear the beginning of the air on solo whistle.
At 2:19 the fiddle comes in underneath playing a reel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyFutx1DGog
As nice as this works, I don't think I heard other Irish groups do this.
Fast forward to a few years ago, when a Scottish pipe band did the same thing, actually the reverse, playing a reel then have an air come in joining the reel.
Here, Simon Fraser University Pipe Band. They do some reels to end their set and half the pipers come in playing the air The Braes Of Locheil underneath the last reel.
You can jump to 5:16 for the beginning of the reel, to 5:26 for when the slow air comes in.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xo4jOMdjfRQ
It's now become quite popular for pipe bands to do.
Which brings me to something I've wondered about: yes you can have melody instruments play a reel and air simultaneously, but also in an Irish band you might have backing/accompanying instruments such as guitar and drum.
Have any bands done an arranging thing where the band plays a reel, then the accompanying instruments continue to play the reel backup, but a melody player plays an air over it? So it's not a matter of two simultaneous melodies, just an air being played, perhaps in free time, over a reel backing?
I'm sure people are saying "what nonsense is this?" but it's something I've heard done regularly in another genre, in Bulgarian music.
The band keeps the dance rhythm going- they have to, they're playing for a roomful of dancers- but a musician might take a solo where they play dance tunes in the same dance rhythm, or they might play a slow air. The air, all or in part, might be in free time, having nothing in common with the continuing dance rhythm.
Seems to me that this would work in Irish music too.