Calum Stewart - Scotland

[mahanpots]

Thanks for that Jem. I listened the other day to a bit of the first tune, and thought it was very nice, but didn't go further. Seeing your comment made me go back and listen again.

Are you familiar with that type of playing. I've not heard it before. I dare say, lots of folks in this forum would say too much tonguing. I'm making no judgements, just saying I'm unfamiliar with it. I'd like to hear some more.

Michael

[jemtheflute]

No. I've never heard anything quite like it before! I don't think (but have no real expertise so may well be wrong) there is any long standing specifically Scottish style of or approach to flute playing in traditional music. I think the increased popularity of the flute in relatively recent times has affected the Scots much as it did the Bretons, with an adoption of it, a partial appropriation of Irish ways of playing and a partial adaptation of existing native styles on other instruments. The native classical nature of both Highland Piping and Scottish fiddle playing is quite well known, and the fiddle tradition has always had strong Classical links and very highly technically accomplished performance standards. It has a very different feel from Irish fiddling. For my money, what Calum is doing is taking those factors and working with them on the flute. His use of tonguing does not remind me of Brian Finnegan &co, nor strike me as gimmicky like that, but more of Classical technique applied to traditonal music in an idiomatically appropriate way that reflects established approaches to and technical demands of Scottish music when played on other instruments, especially fiddle. It feels to me to be integrated, necessary and natural, not just a tack-on special effect or bit of virtuosity for its own sake. I like it!

I don't think the "too much tonguing" argument is pertinent here. This is not ITM, but STM. The Scots play the other main folk instruments rather differently to the Irish, and get a very different feel to their music, even the jigs and reels (generally smoother, faster and less ornamented than Irish styles, but that is a crude generalisation), without going into more distinctive national forms like the strathspey. When the Donegal fiddlers adopted a lot of strathspeys, they smoothed them out, Irishified them and called them "Highlands"! The complexities of advanced Scottish fiddle arrangements transferred to flute may well call quite naturally for fancy tonguing just as they may call for fancy bowing that Irish players might view as Classical on fiddle.

[LorenzoFlute]

Thanks for that Jem.

hey i was the first that refered to that tune!

[jemtheflute]

Thanks for that Jem.

hey i was the first that refered to that tune!

You were indeed, and I'm very glad you did! I just came back to add to my last that perhaps some of our Scots members could comment in a better informed way about the flute and flute technique in STM? Kenny, Pandscarr, where are you?

[Chris The Wakes]

Does anyone know what flute Calum is playing? Can't see clearly from the pics on his mySpace page, but I think it's a Rudall style. has a great sound in his hands, whatever it is.

Is this the make of flute he is using on the recording? Cracking looking flutes!

It's especially well recorded and played on his Holmes McNaughton flute. I think you can preview tracks on his website also see;

www.holmesmcnaughton.com

[boyd]

Calum is still a pretty young guy and his style continues to develop. He has played highland smallpipes of some sort, whistles, and he had a D set of uilleann pipes, then a Rogge set in B (which he sold),
I can't quite remember if he plays the fiddle at all but it wouldnt surprise me.
I do remember that when he was away studying in Newcastle, he was flying over to Belfast to get piping lessons from Robbie Hannan!

So there's a huge melting pot of influences in there quite apart from his flute gurus. I really like the way he sounds different and unique.
Maybe he'll be for Scottish flute playing what Tommy Potts was for Irish fiddle playing.

I remember him saying how the narrow bore flute was so much responsive than the Pratten style, and he could get a great deal more grace notes and ornaments and breath effects as he wasnt investing so much effort in filling the flute or covering big holes.



I'd say the flute is very much in the ascendancy here in Scotland. People like Nuala Kennedy have come over to live here in Scotland (she lives about 20miles from this keyboard) and young players like Hamish (comes from the road where I now live) Napier are totally Scottish.
kenny on this forum has been playing flute in Scotland for several decades
Whether there's any one style that will be "scottish"...I doubt it. But the instrument is very definitely being adopted and adapted in Scotland at the moment.

B

[kkrell]

Does anyone know what flute Calum is playing? Can't see clearly from the pics on his mySpace page, but I think it's a Rudall style. has a great sound in his hands, whatever it is.

Is this the make of flute he is using on the recording? Cracking looking flutes!

It's especially well recorded and played on his Holmes McNaughton flute. I think you can preview tracks on his website also see;

www.holmesmcnaughton.com

Calum Stewart's newest CD is recorded with the Holmes-Naughton. His original EP was on his Rudall. He claims they sound the same (other than for recording and engineering differences), with better (easier) tuning with the new one. He also had played it for the BBC Young Traditional Musician of the Year competition. I believe him to be heavily influenced by the Scottish fiddle traditions. He had been offering his Rudall for sale on an earlier C&F thread http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=50441 .

There will be some Scottish players and tunes on WFO4, hopefully including Calum.

[whistleboy]

Why isn't there an emoticon for drool?

Here's one Jayhawk http://www.c4rlh.com/emoticons/drooling.gif

[tin tin]

Groovy playing. It brings to mind some of Chris Norman's playing of Scottish music, particularly on the very fine album The Caledonian Flute. There's a track of Highland Dances from that album on WFO2.

[jemtheflute]

Does anyone know what flute Calum is playing? Can't see clearly from the pics on his mySpace page, but I think it's a Rudall style. has a great sound in his hands, whatever it is.

Is this the make of flute he is using on the recording? Cracking looking flutes!

It's especially well recorded and played on his Holmes McNaughton flute. I think you can preview tracks on his website also see;

www.holmesmcnaughton.com

DUH!!! That was where this thread started, wasn't it? I had read it yesterday or the day before, and had somehow completely forgotten and wasn't associating the latter stages of the thread with that beginning!

Boyd, thanks for the background on Calum - kinda fits in with my thoughts. Of course, I wasn't trying to say the flute is completely new in Scots music or had no historic presence. I can certainly remember Phil Smillie of Tannahill Weavers playing wooden 8-key back in the 1970s and certainly sounding thoroughly Scottish - in fact, it was seeing/hearing him and whoever the flute player was who stood in for Matt Molloy in Bothy Band when Matt was off with TB that turned my thoughts towards wanting to play simple system. I think Cathal McConnel's membership of Boys of the Lough was probably also very influential in Scotland way back. But that none of that amounts to a significant Scottish flute tradition to match the fiddle one going back into the C18th.

[mahanpots]

Othannen wrote:

hey i was the first that refered to that tune!

Thanks Othannen!

Michael

[LorenzoFlute]

Thanks Othannen!

[kkrell]

Of course, I wasn't trying to say the flute is completely new in Scots music or had no historic presence. I can certainly remember Phil Smillie of Tannahill Weavers playing wooden 8-key back in the 1970s and certainly sounding thoroughly Scottish - in fact, it was seeing/hearing him and whoever the flute player was who stood in for Matt Molloy in Bothy Band when Matt was off with TB that turned my thoughts towards wanting to play simple system. I think Cathal McConnel's membership of Boys of the Lough was probably also very influential in Scotland way back. But that none of that amounts to a significant Scottish flute tradition to match the fiddle one going back into the C18th.

Phil Smillie is also on WFO4, with tunes composed by Finlay MacRae and Phil Cunningham. Also Niall Kenny with a strathspey and some reels.

Kevin Krell

[jim stone]

Does anyone know what flute Calum is playing? Can't see clearly from the pics on his mySpace page, but I think it's a Rudall style. has a great sound in his hands, whatever it is.

Is this the make of flute he is using on the recording? Cracking looking flutes!

It's especially well recorded and played on his Holmes McNaughton flute. I think you can preview tracks on his website also see;

www.holmesmcnaughton.com

Calum Stewart's newest CD is recorded with the Holmes-Naughton. His original EP was on his Rudall. He claims they sound the same (other than for recording and engineering differences), with better (easier) tuning with the new one. He also had played it for the BBC Young Traditional Musician of the Year competition.

This rather goes to my question in that earlier thread where
Calum was wanting to sell his Rudall. I wanted to know
how the originals compare to contemporary copies.

[kkrell]

This rather goes to my question in that earlier thread where Calum was wanting to sell his Rudall. I wanted to know
how the originals compare to contemporary copies.

Good enough for him to be willing to sell his Rudall, and for me to place an order for a Holmes-McNaughton.

The H-M Calum has is modeled on a later Rudall than his. His comment was that it was much easier to play in tune, thus less effort for him when gigging.

Kevin Krell