James Galway's whistle in Return of the King

msheldon · Post by **msheldon** » Mon Dec 22, 2003 3:22 pm

claudine wrote:What's your problem? Galway is a worldclass virtuoso! So why shouldn't he play a topclass-instrument? If not him, who else should have the right to play such a flute?

Oooh oooh! Pick me! pick me!

Cathy Wilde · Post by **Cathy Wilde** » Mon Dec 22, 2003 3:30 pm

Uh-oh, an admittedly feeble attempt at humor goes horribly awry. Sorry about that! Seriously, I have no problem with it at all. You bet he can play whatever he wants .... and no matter what it is, I bet he can make it sound better than just about anyone else .... But I do remember being impressed by those Generations

(in fact, Galway's playing Generations was one of my longest-running self-arguments for not caving in and spending any more than $20 on a whistle for myself -- after the #1 argument, which is, convolutedly, not being good enough to deserve a better one!)

I remember Muramatsu originally setting out to compete with Haynes and Powell (we're talking the 80s, here) -- just for curiosity, what is their cheapest model?

Anyway, hope I cleared that up.

cat.

emmline · Post by **emmline** » Tue Dec 23, 2003 8:15 pm

The whistle/flute stuff was a welcome break. There are Sam and Frodo, clawing their way to the top of the furnace/forge/whatever mountain and a lovely lilting sound breaks through, clearing from my mind the thought that had previously been gripping it...i.e. "please...no more epic battle scenes!"

Cees · Post by **Cees** » Tue Dec 23, 2003 11:00 pm

That was the part I was most dying to see in the movie and it has always been my favorite part in the books. That whistle part breaking in there was so beautiful and inspiring and peaceful and such a perfect contrast to what they were doing that it was just awesome.

Cees · Post by **Cees** » Tue Dec 23, 2003 11:13 pm

TelegramSam wrote:On a barely related note, Billy Boyd (Pippin) is a better singer than I would have guessed.

I so agree with you, Sam. I was shocked by that song. I never would've guessed he had a good singing voice!! It was really nice. I'm really picky about singing voices, too...I was very pleasantly surprised by that song. (Though that whole bit of Denethor pigging out on tomatoes, grapes, etc. while he sang was really strange...I suppose they did it to show the stark contrast between him and his son, galloping off on a suicide charge just to try to win his father's love. But it was still weird. I was like "what's with all these close-ups on his stained mouth?"

)

fancypiper · Post by **fancypiper** » Tue Dec 23, 2003 11:28 pm

James Galway is no Mary Bergin, Paddy Maloney or any kind of good whistler. He is a classical musician and it shows.

I was surprised that James Galway would lend his name to a whistle (I used to have one and it was a pretty good whistle, btw) where Paddy declined to put his name on a whistle.

Redwolf · Post by **Redwolf** » Wed Dec 24, 2003 12:00 am

Cees wrote:
TelegramSam wrote:On a barely related note, Billy Boyd (Pippin) is a better singer than I would have guessed.
I so agree with you, Sam. I was shocked by that song. I never would've guessed he had a good singing voice!! It was really nice. I'm really picky about singing voices, too...I was very pleasantly surprised by that song. (Though that whole bit of Denethor pigging out on tomatoes, grapes, etc. while he sang was really strange...I suppose they did it to show the stark contrast between him and his son, galloping off on a suicide charge just to try to win his father's love. But it was still weird. I was like "what's with all these close-ups on his stained mouth?" )

I think they were trying to make the point that Denethor was insane...that it wasn't just that he liked Boromir and couldn't stand Faramir, but that he'd gone completely bonkers. You could tell by the look on his face that Pippin was becoming increasingly shocked and disgusted...it was dawning on him that this guy he'd sworn allegiance to was a total nutcase.

We just saw the movie tonight, and it was wonderful! The best of the three, I'm thinking.

Redwolf

Dana · Post by **Dana** » Wed Dec 24, 2003 7:30 am

fancypiper wrote:James Galway is no Mary Bergin, Paddy Maloney or any kind of good whistler. He is a classical musician and it shows.

Yep. Terrible, ain't it when classical musicians try to play whistles. They should be shot. They're a blot on the name of the entire (legit) whistling community.

Dana
aka classical musician trying to play whistle...

emmline · Post by **emmline** » Wed Dec 24, 2003 8:10 am

Cees wrote: (Though that whole bit of Denethor pigging out on tomatoes, grapes, etc. while he sang was really strange...I suppose they did it to show the stark contrast between him and his son, galloping off on a suicide charge just to try to win his father's love. But it was still weird. I was like "what's with all these close-ups on his stained mouth?" )

It showed:
a)his loss of touch w/reality
b)a bloody mess drippping from his mouth symbolizing his culpability in the almost death of his son.

AaronMalcomb · Post by **AaronMalcomb** » Wed Dec 24, 2003 12:37 pm

Does Dale know about these James Galway whistles? You'd think he'd have them on his review page unless he covets them so much he'd rather as few people possible know of their existence.

Cheers,
Aaron

SwtCaro · Post by **SwtCaro** » Wed Dec 24, 2003 5:36 pm

I'm confused--there was another post awhile back where somebody said that it was Joanie Madden on the whistle for ROTK. I'd quote it, but I'm not very good at it. It might be the post just about ROTK. Anybody else heard this?

SwtCaro

Brian Lee · Post by **Brian Lee** » Wed Dec 24, 2003 5:46 pm

This movie strayed the farthest from what Tolkein wrote in the books so far. I was sorely disappointed in several aspects, but overall as far as movies go - it was very entrtaining. The character development seemed more shallow with several key figures than I hoped it would be. Here's to the extended versions! At least to hope anyway...

The music was nice, though I think the fiddle theme of the Roharim was the best little 'hook' piece of the movies. Never thought I'd say it, but I was kinda hoping that Jackson would have killed Gimli off as he had already gone so far off into left field I figured he could pull it off and no one would mind. They turned him into a poorly acted clown. Sad. Oh well...

It was just a movie after all... *shrug*

illuminatus99 · Post by **illuminatus99** » Wed Dec 24, 2003 6:05 pm

Cathy Wilde wrote:Uh-oh, an admittedly feeble attempt at humor goes horribly awry. Sorry about that! Seriously, I have no problem with it at all. You bet he can play whatever he wants .... and no matter what it is, I bet he can make it sound better than just about anyone else .... But I do remember being impressed by those Generations (in fact, Galway's playing Generations was one of my longest-running self-arguments for not caving in and spending any more than $20 on a whistle for myself -- after the #1 argument, which is, convolutedly, not being good enough to deserve a better one!)

I remember Muramatsu originally setting out to compete with Haynes and Powell (we're talking the 80s, here) -- just for curiosity, what is their cheapest model?

Anyway, hope I cleared that up.

cat.

I believe it's the EX, goes for $2,750

in contrast if you wanted their 14K gold flute with split E and fully engraved it runs almost $30,000. they make a platinum flute too but they don't list the price anywhere, I guess they figure that if you have to ask then you probably can't afford it anyway.

doh, I just looked at their used instruments list and I could have gotten a used EX for a little more than I paid for my gemeinhardt...

illuminatus99 · Post by **illuminatus99** » Wed Dec 24, 2003 6:12 pm

fancypiper wrote:James Galway is no Mary Bergin, Paddy Maloney or any kind of good whistler. He is a classical musician and it shows.

I was surprised that James Galway would lend his name to a whistle (I used to have one and it was a pretty good whistle, btw) where Paddy declined to put his name on a whistle.

just FYI, galway's first instrument was the whistle before he switched to flute.

fancypiper · Post by **fancypiper** » Wed Dec 24, 2003 6:38 pm

illuminatus99 wrote:just FYI, galway's first instrument was the whistle before he switched to flute.

I didn't know that. Even so, give me the choice to buy a ticket to a Galway tinwhistle concert or a Mary Bergin tinwhistle concert, I would spring for Mary Bergin.

It seems like lots of folk can never master their first instrument.

Our harper/fluter was classically trained and her flute playing is finally sounding almost right now (after 6 years). Some of her rolls still tend to sound almost like a turn and she still has a tendency for vibrato when she loses her concentration.