Mary Bergin and Gen whistles, dude.
- AlonE
- Posts: 272
- Joined: Sun Feb 11, 2007 5:58 am
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
- Location: Copiapo, Chile
Mary Bergin and Gen whistles, dude.
Is obviously that Mary Bergin loved Generation whistles, but, she play a "Tweaked Generation" or normal generation?
- anniemcu
- Posts: 8024
- Joined: Thu Sep 11, 2003 8:42 pm
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 10
- Location: A little left of center, and 100 miles from St. Louis
- Contact:
The only reasonable conclusion to the question of the worth of a whistle is that in the hands of a great player, even the lowliest of whistles will sound great, and in the hands of the least capable player, even the best whistle in the world will sound pretty bad. Better to work on the playing than to argue the worth of a whistle.
anniemcu
---
"You are what you do, not what you claim to believe." -Gene A. Statler
---
"Olé to you, none-the-less!" - Elizabeth Gilbert
---
http://www.sassafrassgrove.com
---
"You are what you do, not what you claim to believe." -Gene A. Statler
---
"Olé to you, none-the-less!" - Elizabeth Gilbert
---
http://www.sassafrassgrove.com
- s1m0n
- Posts: 10069
- Joined: Wed Oct 06, 2004 12:17 am
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 10
- Location: The Inside Passage
Neither; I suspect Mary was doing what everyone did back then: gleaning the one great gen out of a stack of so-so and more or less unplayable generation.
And now there was no doubt that the trees were really moving - moving in and out through one another as if in a complicated country dance. ('And I suppose,' thought Lucy, 'when trees dance, it must be a very, very country dance indeed.')
C.S. Lewis
C.S. Lewis
- pancelticpiper
- Posts: 5336
- Joined: Mon Jul 10, 2006 7:25 am
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
- Tell us something.: Playing Scottish and Irish music in California for 45 years.
These days many discussions are migrating to Facebook but I prefer the online chat forum format. - Location: WV to the OC
- free-feet
- Posts: 173
- Joined: Sat Nov 03, 2007 3:55 pm
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
- Location: The Beautiful South Coast of Devon
- Contact:
Or maybe she just had the old style gens which were better whistles than the new ones. Just like the MK1 Feadog head is far superior to the ones that followed it (MK1 tubes were crap but the heads come of easily and fit most standard tubes - i have mine on a Gen Eb tube and it's a delightful whistle without any tweaking on the head). I also have an old style Gen Eb, and it's much nicer than any contemporary Gen i've played - and i've played a few.
- swizzlestick
- Posts: 670
- Joined: Sun Jul 31, 2005 5:34 pm
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 1
- Location: Boulder, Colorado
- anniemcu
- Posts: 8024
- Joined: Thu Sep 11, 2003 8:42 pm
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 10
- Location: A little left of center, and 100 miles from St. Louis
- Contact:
She certainly became famous, and well earned it, with Generations. As did others.
anniemcu
---
"You are what you do, not what you claim to believe." -Gene A. Statler
---
"Olé to you, none-the-less!" - Elizabeth Gilbert
---
http://www.sassafrassgrove.com
---
"You are what you do, not what you claim to believe." -Gene A. Statler
---
"Olé to you, none-the-less!" - Elizabeth Gilbert
---
http://www.sassafrassgrove.com
Re: Mary Bergin and Gen whistles, dude.
Yes.AlonE wrote:[did] she play a "Tweaked Generation" or normal generation?
- Bothrops
- Posts: 753
- Joined: Sat Sep 08, 2007 11:51 pm
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 1
- Location: Israel
Re: Mary Bergin and Gen whistles, dude.
That's just fine, but maybe he wanted to ask: "Does she play a "Tweaked Generation or a normal Generation?". It's another possibility.Guinness wrote:Yes.AlonE wrote:[did] she play a "Tweaked Generation" or normal generation?
By the way, in the title: "Mary Bergin and Gen whistles, dude".. it's not "dude", but "doubt". In spanish doubt = duda. He made a mistake!
Now, answering the main question.. I don't know, but I think that she plays un-tweaked Generations (it's just a supposition).
- s1m0n
- Posts: 10069
- Joined: Wed Oct 06, 2004 12:17 am
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 10
- Location: The Inside Passage
I haven't bought any of the new gens, but the old ones were *highly* variable in quality, and I greatly doubt that the new ones are worse.free-feet wrote:Or maybe she just had the old style gens which were better whistles than the new ones.
More likely to my mind is that the forces of musical evolution over the years have kept you from running into many of the really bad old gens; those were thrown out, stuck in a drawer and forgotten, or tweaked into better health or complete destruction. leaving only the better ones and the fixed ones in circulation today.
And now there was no doubt that the trees were really moving - moving in and out through one another as if in a complicated country dance. ('And I suppose,' thought Lucy, 'when trees dance, it must be a very, very country dance indeed.')
C.S. Lewis
C.S. Lewis
- MTGuru
- Posts: 18663
- Joined: Sat Sep 30, 2006 12:45 pm
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
- Location: San Diego, CA
Can someone here ring her and ask? I'm serious. It's not as if she's really past tense, despite the question. Or lives in a cave (well OK, I'm not positive about that).
This 1999 interview from the Irish Times via IRTRAD-L probably goes most of the way to answering the question:
This 1999 interview from the Irish Times via IRTRAD-L probably goes most of the way to answering the question:
So s1m0n and pancelt are basically right. Selected then tweaked - by her. The way it was done then. And still done now.She showed me her own instruments in a little wooden box like a backgammon case: an endearing and unheroic looking jumble of English-made Generation whistles, or whistles made by John Sindt, Pat O'Riordan and Michael Copeland, and one wooden one with three metal keys, found on a dusty shelf in the old nearby gate lodge of Lord Killanin, where she lived for a decade.
The whistles looked injured, with tape pasted over parts of the holes "to bring them into tune with themselves". She laughed. "That's my career in a box, look at the state of it. I'm as bad as Tommy Peoples going round to the Church Street sessions with a fiddle in a brown paper bag at one stage."
Vivat diabolus in musica! MTGuru's (old) GG Clips / Blackbird Clips
Joel Barish: Is there any risk of brain damage?
Dr. Mierzwiak: Well, technically speaking, the procedure is brain damage.
Joel Barish: Is there any risk of brain damage?
Dr. Mierzwiak: Well, technically speaking, the procedure is brain damage.
- AlonE
- Posts: 272
- Joined: Sun Feb 11, 2007 5:58 am
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
- Location: Copiapo, Chile
WOW!! MTguru you are my Hero!!!!!!!MTGuru wrote:Can someone here ring her and ask? I'm serious. It's not as if she's really past tense, despite the question. Or lives in a cave (well OK, I'm not positive about that).
This 1999 interview from the Irish Times via IRTRAD-L probably goes most of the way to answering the question:
So s1m0n and pancelt are basically right. Selected then tweaked - by her. The way it was done then. And still done now.She showed me her own instruments in a little wooden box like a backgammon case: an endearing and unheroic looking jumble of English-made Generation whistles, or whistles made by John Sindt, Pat O'Riordan and Michael Copeland, and one wooden one with three metal keys, found on a dusty shelf in the old nearby gate lodge of Lord Killanin, where she lived for a decade.
The whistles looked injured, with tape pasted over parts of the holes "to bring them into tune with themselves". She laughed. "That's my career in a box, look at the state of it. I'm as bad as Tommy Peoples going round to the Church Street sessions with a fiddle in a brown paper bag at one stage."
Thanks!!
- anniemcu
- Posts: 8024
- Joined: Thu Sep 11, 2003 8:42 pm
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 10
- Location: A little left of center, and 100 miles from St. Louis
- Contact:
Excellent! Thanks MT!MTGuru wrote:... This 1999 interview from the Irish Times via IRTRAD-L probably goes most of the way to answering the question:
So s1m0n and pancelt are basically right. Selected then tweaked - by her. The way it was done then. And still done now.She showed me her own instruments in a little wooden box like a backgammon case: an endearing and unheroic looking jumble of English-made Generation whistles, or whistles made by John Sindt, Pat O'Riordan and Michael Copeland, and one wooden one with three metal keys, found on a dusty shelf in the old nearby gate lodge of Lord Killanin, where she lived for a decade.
The whistles looked injured, with tape pasted over parts of the holes "to bring them into tune with themselves". She laughed. "That's my career in a box, look at the state of it. I'm as bad as Tommy Peoples going round to the Church Street sessions with a fiddle in a brown paper bag at one stage."
anniemcu
---
"You are what you do, not what you claim to believe." -Gene A. Statler
---
"Olé to you, none-the-less!" - Elizabeth Gilbert
---
http://www.sassafrassgrove.com
---
"You are what you do, not what you claim to believe." -Gene A. Statler
---
"Olé to you, none-the-less!" - Elizabeth Gilbert
---
http://www.sassafrassgrove.com