Airs played by non-Irish pipers

[nemethmik]

I've learned an important thing from our host, Donie, when in Miltown Malbay this summer. He himself is a father of nine children, plays the whistle, sings a lot of Irish traditional songs, and very nice man.
I combined a simple set from the tunes I've learned starting with an air followed by a slip jig and then a reel, and I was practicing this set in a morning. Later that day Donie came to me and told me that what I did is typical mistake all non-Irish makes when playing Irish music: after an air you should not play another tune. An air moves the heart of the listeners and when the song is finished the listerens are still under the influence of the tune. Then I understood immediately why is this. For us non-Irish an air is just another tune, we do not know the text and for us it's just a beautiful melody. What I was thinking how could we learn more about the airs we are playing. On the NPU instructional videos, for example, the airs are played beautifully but there is no singing, nor text.

[Kinry]

Few instruments can compare with the uilleann pipes for rendering the human voice, and this is really the aim of slow air playing. This, for me, really is the pinnacle of uilleann pipe playing, showing the pipes at their best, with all the tonal range that they're capable of.

It's my opinion that one should not attempt an air unless one is familiar with the oral song, if not in gaelic then atleast in english (Seamus Ennis believed that one should at least know a verse).

I've heard airs played with no regard to how they would be sung, and whilst the melody remains beautiful, the rhythm and phrasing is often lacking.

The best way to learn an air, i think, is to listen to it being sung, preferably in gaelic. Understanding all the words isn't important, as long as you have an idea of what the song is about.

The important thing is getting the rhythm and phrasing etc. of the vocal performance.

J.

[PJ]

I don't see anything wrong with playing a dance tune after a slow air (as long as you're not playing at a funeral). Many well respected pipers and players of other instruments have done it. Seamus Ennis certainly did, as did Leo Rowsome.

[Uilliam]

nemethmik

Couple o things spring to mind.

A set is in Irish Music, commonly, a number of tunes of the same genre.ie.A set of two or three Reels or two or three Jigs or two or three Hornpipes.
They are not normally mixed as this would have been impractical for dancers.
If ye are in your own wee space and playing for fun then ye can o course play whit ye like.

Slow Airs deserve to be played properly and will, if so done,invariably move both player and audience to moods of melancholic reverence for the piece.
I say player 1st because if'n the player hasnae got it then the audience ,(if thats who ye are trying to impress) certainly won't have it.

Now then ye have the choice wi the pipes, of leaving the thus subdued and mournful punters in a state of reflective sadness ,not perhaps the best way to end as ye might see them hanging by the neck frae lamp posts as ye wander hame afterwards.
Or,ye can gently bring them back to gaiety and life wi a hornpipe for example and listen to the toes tapping or the hands clapping.

The difference between playing and singing is ye can do that.Irish or no,doesnae make a blind bit o difference.

The singer if a good Seán Nos performer will be exhausted and not up to singing another immediately ,nor would the audience.(Besides it would be a bit Burlesque to sing Paddy McGintys Goat straight after Sliabh nBan...)

I play the Airs to suite my mood. Sometimes I do not do another (if'n I want to leave the punters suicidal ) at other times I do.

I do not think feel or look any less Irish for doing so.

Slán Go Foill
Uilliam

edited to correct some grammatical errors.

[tommykleen]

In performance I once played two airs (that I felt shared an affinity*) together: Port na bPúcaí and Trathann an Taoide. Because I wanted to. No follow up reel or anything. I think it made for an interesting, larger "piece".

t

*There's some say that the first air was written by Seán O'Riada. Peadar O'Riada wrote the second air.

[Nanohedron]

...after an air you should not play another tune.

Somebody'd better tell Mick O'Brien, Larry Nugent, and other Irish musicians about that, then.

I'm guessing your host's opinion comes from a particular school of thought on the matter, but it's demonstrably by no means universal.

Anyone have any goods on whether or not the following of an air with a dance tune or two is a relatively more recent practice?

Just to mention I'll do it either way myself, depending on what I feel is right for the time.

[Patrick D'Arcy]

...after an air you should not play another tune.

The opposite would actually be the case in my experience.

Pat.

[The Sporting Pitchfork]

Certainly, the vast majority of native Irish musicians currently active (say, maybe, I don't know, 99%) would be guilty of this grave offense. I'm sure your man meant no harm; he was just expressing his opinion and maybe choosing to ignore that the practice of playing dance tunes after airs is just as common among native Irish musicians as among non-native heathen interlopers.

That said, I happen to agree with him--for the most part, anyway. It depends on the tunes involved, the setting you're playing in, the mood.

As for the bit about playing two airs in a row, I heard Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh do this when I saw him play earlier this year, and it was absolutely riveting. He could have played airs all night long and I would have been completely rapt with attention. A friend that was with me who had never heard Irish music performed live before agreed.

[MTGuru]

Donie came to me and told me that what I did is typical mistake all non-Irish makes when playing Irish music: after an air you should not play another tune.

Are you sure he didn't mean "After that air, you should not play another tune ... ever."

Seriously, could he have been just waxing eloquent about a personal ideal that he wishes were true, but is not so in practice? Or just engaging in the gentle art of Blarney, as the Irish have been known to practice on visitors?

[tommykleen]

He was probably referring to art/music forms such as sean nós where the song is it in itself.

t

[s1m0n]

The slow air + set dance (or hornpipe) combination is as traditional as you like, and works well. I suppose the best known is the Blackbird/Blackbird set, but that's not the only one you can hear. There's another well known pair that ends with Job of Journeywork, but I'm drawing a blank on the air i've often heard in front of it.

I've found that playing a slow air I learned from a 70s recording of Richard Hughes, The Banks of the Lee (I've heard it as a song, but I don't know anyone else who's recorded it as an air) makes a nice lead-in to The King of the Fairies

Scottish, Cape Breton & Shetland fiddle traditions also play sets that go air/march/strathspey/reel.

[s1m0n]

I'd refrain from deciding that the gentleman was a crackpot; I suspect that either he was somewhat excitedly overstating, or you were over interpreting a core of solid advice.

It's a bit like the 'rules' that english composition teachers hammer into young heads about never writing a comma splice or starting a sentence with "Because..", etc. They teach these as if they're grammar rules, but they're really style rules. Once you're an accomplished writer, you can and should freely ignore these and dozens of other style rules. Until then, however, a little goes a very long way.

[Brazenkane]

I've hear (fiddler) James Kelly play both ways... solo Air, or Air to another tune....

[Uilliam]

Soooo there ye have it .
Donie was talking a loada bollax to ye,well not quite a loada bollax but enough to confuse ye.

Seán Nós as I said earlier if done correctly is emotionaly tiring on both singer and audience so doesnae need anything else.
He is talking as a singer, on songs presumably, and not as a piper.

Something that seems to have slipped into disuse since I was wee is the playing of drones only with the Seán Nós but now ye would get the look o Satan frae the singer if ye tried to embelish the air.
I bet he didnae know that
I think it is because the Seán Nós has pushed itself to the fore as an art form beyond its original intention.
A mini opera if ye like,with the virtuoso performers holding court to a mesmerised audience,usually of tourists who havnae a scooby what the singer is on aboot.
He or She could be singing any old tosh for all they knew but they will sit motionless ,eyes closed or swaying gently entranced and thus the mutual playlet is enacted over and over again.
Some o ye will remember my heartrending playing of Skippy the Bush Kangaroo in a Seán Nós style...I do it every now and again for the audience here in Glasgow and look wi glee for the closed eyes etc

Fact is the Seán Nós was a continuation of the Bardic storytelling tradition and was usually but not always done by oor elders who had heard it frae theirs ad infinitum.
Now then, their voices were seldom up to singing and they certainly did not do it to entertain but to inform.
There is the difference.
Most people wanted to listen and gave them peace to do so hence the silence ,this was also partly respect for oor elders who had after all trod the path o life afore us and could guide us if we asked.

Nowadays it seems common that the singer demands quiet whilst they sing and entertain,often incomprehensible lyrics,without even the hint of a mini translation for the audience which is quite a different kettle o fish.Also the singer is often considerably younger than the well heeled tourists or into the same middle age as them which leaves the original concept of storytelling and guidance a bit topsy turvy. This is I think in part the fault of Comhaltas introducing Seán Nós as a competition at the the Fleadhs.

I imagine them constantly rehearsing in front of the mirror to give the perfect look to their virtuoso performance...for the life o me I cannot imagine my elders having done that.For a start they probably didna have mirrors
Now then I have absolutely nothing against singers doing there thing and times move on ,that is the way o life,good luck to them etc etc...but when they start telling ye how to play the pipes... well whoa there,hold on a bit that is really a bridge too far.


"Bombs away Skippy er...Skipper"
"OK Chaps lets get to hell out of here..."

Slán Go Foill
Uilliam

edited to correct some grammatical errors.

[rorybbellows]

If you think of it as taking your listener on a journey,it would be inconsiderate to leave them lingering in the melancholy of the air you just played ,so you rescue them by playing something uplifting.
The best thing to do, and to not cause your audience to go into some kind of emotional shock is to hold the last note of the air for slightly longer than normal to increase the anticipation ,and than start the dance tune at a slower pace for about a bar and then come up to playing speed. This will usually cause the crowd to yelp and bark like a pack of giddy wolves and you will be rewarded with loads of free pints.


RORY