"deep" and "full" irish music?

Joseph E. Smith · Post by **Joseph E. Smith** » Sun Jun 18, 2006 4:41 am

Perhaps Lunasa.

SteveK · Post by **SteveK** » Sun Jun 18, 2006 5:33 am

I was listening to a CD of recently composed old time type tunes yesterday. Some of the tunes have a bass (plucked) and some have cello, either pluced or bowed. The tunes with the bowed cello sound fuller than any others. He was playing fairly long sustained notes but not a continuous drone on one note. A very nice effect. It makes the melody sort of "float" on a deep undercurrent.

djm · Post by **djm** » Sun Jun 18, 2006 8:07 am

The "drone" that Baglady refers to is a synthesizer. This person is looking for ITM with a big bass synthesizer "enhancement".

djm

Cynth · Post by **Cynth** » Sun Jun 18, 2006 8:18 am

SteveK wrote:I was listening to a CD of recently composed old time type tunes yesterday. Some of the tunes have a bass (plucked) and some have cello, either pluced or bowed. The tunes with the bowed cello sound fuller than any others. He was playing fairly long sustained notes but not a continuous drone on one note. A very nice effect. It makes the melody sort of "float" on a deep undercurrent.

And the name of that CD is ___________________.

...................................................Fill in the blank!

PallasAthena · Post by **PallasAthena** » Sun Jun 18, 2006 1:08 pm

I can't say I know exactly what you're looking for as I've never heard the peices you are using as examples, but I thought I'd mention something anyway. Have you listened to much Scottish trad (I don't necessarily mean pipebands, but bands with multiple kinds of instruments as well)? In my experience (albeit limited experience) Scottish trad has a darker tone than Irish trad, or at least that is true of the Tanahill Weavers, where I first noticed the difference.

Baglady · Post by **Baglady** » Sun Jun 18, 2006 2:12 pm

talasiga wrote:
Baglady wrote:It’s the drone. It is electronically enhanced on the Pipers Call CD but that is what you are hearing. Irish music, and much other traditional music, developed against a drone. That influenced the scales used. As the music moved from the pipes and harp the drone was lost and you don’t hear it much in the music today. A great loss in my opinion. Paddy Maloney didn’t play his drones or regulators through the first years of the Chieftains, and I have to admit I don’t listen much now so I don’t know if he plays them more now, but Paddy Keenan played his drones and you can hear quite a difference. I find it surprising that many musicians today find the drone annoying and don’t know how to listen to it.
What a surprising post indeed!

What's the surprise?

Il Friscaletto · Post by **Il Friscaletto** » Mon Jun 19, 2006 6:36 am

Hi Gabriel,

I personally think bass and percussion do have a place in contemporary ITM (oxymoron?). Although, an overall bassy sound my be a bit of a departure.

I recommend Josephine Marsh's album 'I Can Hear You Smiling'. It features double bass on most tracks. The sound is rich and current, yet undeniably trad. Besides, JM should be a part of every Irish music collection.

:)

SteveK · Post by **SteveK** » Mon Jun 19, 2006 6:47 am

Cynth wrote:
SteveK wrote:I was listening to a CD of recently composed old time type tunes yesterday. Some of the tunes have a bass (plucked) and some have cello, either pluced or bowed. The tunes with the bowed cello sound fuller than any others. He was playing fairly long sustained notes but not a continuous drone on one note. A very nice effect. It makes the melody sort of "float" on a deep undercurrent.
And the name of that CD is ___________________.
...................................................Fill in the blank!

Sweet Nell. Do I win a prize? I guess you like fill in the blank exams rather than multiple choice. Here's a link. The bass plays on most tracks and the cello relatively few.

http://cdbaby.com/cd/adlerco

fiddleronvermouth · Post by **fiddleronvermouth** » Mon Jun 19, 2006 7:06 am

You might like the Riverdance soundtrack.

Click on that picture - there are MP3 samples at amazon.

Baglady · Post by **Baglady** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 6:59 am

See what I mean?

Wombat · Post by **Wombat** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 7:13 am

You might like the Nomos album Set You Free. Then again, you might not.

I don't think this is what you want but Moving Hearts had an awesome bass player. Perhaps you should at least listen to their more Irish moments even if you don't like their jazzier stuff.

Baglady · Post by **Baglady** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 8:39 am

For proper full drone sound listen to this:

http://www.gnipc.org/tionol/2005/David_Powers.ram

fiddleronvermouth · Post by **fiddleronvermouth** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 2:34 pm

Where can I get a set like this?

Post by **Nanohedron** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 5:26 pm

fiddleronvermouth wrote:Where can I get a set like this?

It's very "dairy".

TheSpoonMan · Post by **TheSpoonMan** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 6:11 pm

SteveK wrote:I was listening to a CD of recently composed old time type tunes yesterday. Some of the tunes have a bass (plucked) and some have cello, either pluced or bowed. The tunes with the bowed cello sound fuller than any others. He was playing fairly long sustained notes but not a continuous drone on one note. A very nice effect. It makes the melody sort of "float" on a deep undercurrent.

Yes! My band, we often do that with whistle/flute or whistle/whistle duets- droning tonics and fifths with occasional flourishes, rather than an actual bass line- and it works very well. Gives a powerful sound to the music (even if it's just whistle/whistle with some percussion in the background). If someyear I ever manage to get myself a cello (those come after the bagpipes

), we'll apply that and see how it turns out.