Flute players and leadership roles

[pipersgrip]

I was just thinking today, and I realized that most of the big Irish bands out there have the flute player as their leader.

Matt Molloy
Joanie Madden
Kevin Crawford
Michael McGoldrick
Alan Doherty
Brian Finnegan
Liam Kelly?
Sylvain Barou

I know there are more that I am forgetting and will remember tonight right before I go to sleep, but many of the big bands have the flute player as the leader/driving force of the band. Is it just a coincidence, or is there something behind a person's personality choosing the flute to play?

[Blackwood]

it's because they carry a big stick...

[pipersgrip]

I just almost choked on my dinner by reading that.

[s1m0n]

By Matt Molloy do you mean the Chieftains? That's Paddy Moloney's band, surely.

[Juan Pablo Plata]

By Matt Molloy do you mean the Chieftains? That's Paddy Moloney's band, surely.

Paddy X 10000000

[pipersgrip]

By Matt Molloy do you mean the Chieftains? That's Paddy Moloney's band, surely.

I was thinking more of the Bothy Band(I could be wrong). But, Matt has the most solos and he is the wow guy in the Chieftains. You are right though, that is Paddy's band. He plays the whistle though....close to the flute.

[crookedtune]

Sarah Palin plays the flute, in a manner of speaking. Surely, you don't think.........

[s1m0n]

He plays the whistle though....close to the flute.

I'm willing to speculate that they all play the whistle, or at least could if the price of a pint depended upon doing so.

[talasiga]

.......
Is it just a coincidence, or is there something behind a person's personality choosing the flute to play?

Perhaps its something like this:-


The flute (and whistle)
1, is the exclusively melodic instrument in ITM instrumentation, and
2. the one that innately invites solo virtuosity, and
3. is easily drowned out

Therefore, to enable justice to her voice the flute needs a courageous flute player who can lead the band or be a rudder for it.

[Aanvil]

Sarah Palin plays the flute, in a manner of speaking. Surely, you don't think.........

Awww Yeaaah!

[s1m0n]

In Hammy's book he says pretty bluntly that he thinks Matt Molloy almost single-handedly elevated the flute into the first rank of instruments, (ie, with prestige equal to that of the fiddle & pipes) in ITM.

[Denny]

Sarah Palin plays the flute, in a manner of speaking. Surely, you don't think.........

Awww Yeaaah!

oh, why not!

if yer gonna go, ya might as well go big

I'll be in me hand basket...

[pipersgrip]

In Hammy's book he says pretty bluntly that he thinks Matt Molloy almost single-handedly elevated the flute into the first rank of instruments, (ie, with prestige equal to that of the fiddle & pipes) in ITM.

I believe it. He really changed the style as well.

[Terry McGee]

In Hammy's book he says pretty bluntly that he thinks Matt Molloy almost single-handedly elevated the flute into the first rank of instruments, (ie, with prestige equal to that of the fiddle & pipes) in ITM.

Hmmm, interesting concept. It doesn't resonate for me, as I don't think I became aware of Matt until well after I became flute-obsessed. But I wonder what others think? I guess it prompts a few questions:

- did the flute need elevating - what "hierarchy" pre-existed?
- for that matter, now that it's been elevated, what "hierarchy" now presides?
- in whose minds did it need elevating - the general public, ITM listeners, ITM players, other?
- is there another contender for Chief Elevator honours?

I wonder if we might all have answered the question differently. Perhaps depending on where and when? Who for us elevated the flute into our consciousness? For me, it was probably Michael Hand and Seamus Tansey.

Terry

[s1m0n]

- did the flute need elevating - what "hierarchy" pre-existed?
- for that matter, now that it's been elevated, what "hierarchy" now presides?
- in whose minds did it need elevating - the general public, ITM listeners, ITM players, other?
- is there another contender for Chief Elevator honours?

I passed my copy on to another chiffer a few years back, so I'm going by memory, but what I recall is that he posited that the three instruments already mentioned (flute, pipes, fiddle) occupy the top tier, with others like banjo, box(es), & concertina one shelf down - still respected, but not to the same degree. Backup instruments like bouzouki, bodhran & guitar might come next (here I'm putting words in his mouth; he doesn't say this) and after them might come instruments like harmonica or Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill's harpsichord, which are seen as a bit (or a lot) unusual. Harmonica giants are seen to some degree as having transcended their instrument. This was certainly the reaction that greeted Brendan Powers' New Irish Harmonica. Pre Mary Bergin, that's also where the whistle belonged, despite the fact that it's likely the commonest instrument in ITM. Feadoga Stain initially aroused the same reaction, but wouldn't these days.