Eoin Dillon on RTE

[tompipes]

Check out this very enjoyable interview with Dublin piper Eoin Dillon

http://www.rte.ie/arts/2006/0802/rattlebag.html

Tommy

[djm]

I tried ordering this on-line, but it doesn't seem to have been delivered yet. Has anyone heard the whole thing? What do you think of it? It seems to me from the snippets I've heard that he likes to go into weirder modes that can be a bit difficult to listen to. Worth listening to to study, but not necessarily for enjoyment IMHO.

djm

[gregorygraham]

Tommy,

Thanks for posting that. As I've said before on this forum, I think Mr. Dillon is exceptional. His recent album "Third Twin" is really what uilleann piping needs more of. Original compositions which are well executed. Of course there will always be a need for close adherence to the tradition, but we need to balance the strict trad stuff with some modern composers, don't you think?

DJM,

I ordered the "Third Twin" album from the Kila site online and it arrived really quickly, and also managed to avoid the Canada Customs Nazis.

Give Eoin a chance, you won't regret it.

[Ballygo]

I really like Eoin and this new album . It is refreshing to hear a piping album of original material giving us new possibilities to consider . The tunes are very interesting and melodic , as-well as a great contribution by the other players on the album. I love traditional piping and its different styles which will always be the source of inspiration . Im sure Eoin comes from that tradition and his efforts to stretch the scope of piping a little further are welcome in my book. Thanks for a great album Eoin.

Ballygo

[snoogie]

... his efforts to stretch the scope of piping a little further are welcome in my book. Thanks for a great album Eoin.

Ballygo

After listening to his new tunes on the interview, I would agree. Very nice, may have to order the CD.

As far tradition goes, in my view, creating and integrating new tunes is a part of traditional music, as is keeping the old tunes alive. If a tune is one which is picked up and learned/passed around, then over time it becomes part of the tradition.

Thanks for posting the link Tommy.

-gary

[Ballygo]

As far tradition goes, in my view, creating and integrating new tunes is a part of traditional music, as is keeping the old tunes alive. If a tune is one which is picked up and learned/passed around, then over time it becomes part of the tradition.

I agree with all that

Ballygo

[uilleannfinlander]

all u who like Dillon,....check Calico, Calico, Calico. ...Cella nova square+Song dogs cd's ..great new compositions...good taste of piping

[elbogo]

This is a really fine recording, with wonderful tunes that seem to have been around for a long time, and masterful piping. A must have for any collection.

Jeff

[fgibbons]

all u who like Dillon,....check Calico, Calico, Calico. ...Cella nova square+Song dogs cd's ..great new compositions...good taste of piping

Can't speak to Dillon's CD, since haven't heard any of his music. But I do want to agree about Calico: lots of innovative, newly composed stuff (the Bucks of Oranmore is a great tune, but how many more recordings of it do we need?), and tasty piping from Diarmaid Moynihan. I prefer Celanova Square to Songdogs, mostly because I find the singing kinda lame on the latter. But the instrumental music is top-notch. Can't understand why they're not better known.

<soapbox>
This leads me to the larger point that, with so many full-time professional musicians in ITM these days, where are the new tunes? Honestly, some of these guys spend all day every day playing tunes, and the best they can come up with on stage is a bunch of stuff I can play myself? Sure they play it better than I ever could, but is that it? Charlie Lennon wrote a stack of tunes with a full-time job and a family. Sure, not everyone can do it, and it comes much easier to some than others, but I do think there's a dearth of new music in ITM these days - at least I'm not hearing it. I think it's worth supporting the people (like Calico, and apparently Dillon) who keep the tradition alive by continuing to produce new music in that tradition.
</soapbox>

-Frank

[billh]

The "old" tunes are a shared vocabulary, the 'T' in ITM. They are vital to keeping Irish Traditional Music "on the rails".

"Newly composed tunes are to be avoided". Peadar O'Loughlin

While I am not sure I would apply PO'L's formula strictly, nor in all situations (for instance I am quite fond of some of the new Celanova Square tunes mentioned above), I think there are loads of reasons for being slow to embrace new tunes.

For one thing, face it, like new businesses, most newly composed tunes just don't make it past the first year. As an artist, by recording newly composed tunes you are making a sort of gamble with long odds. Recording traditional tunes allows you to tap in to that shared vocabulary in a meaningful way. True, you can make the 'opposite' mistake of recording something that's currently overplayed, and if you're recording the Bucks you had better have something special going on to avoid 'ho-hum'.

And since there are so many old tunes threatened with obliteration or virtually unknown, if you want to offer ears something 'new' you could go the route of pulling some ancient tunes from oblivion as Brian Macnamara does. That's risky too I suppose, but even if the tunes in question don't gain a new following, a contribution to continuity and a rediscovery of old roots has been offered. That has an intrinsic value that's slightly different from the value (real though it may be) of a newly-proffered tune.

Yes, of course new tunes have always been happening in our tradition - look at Gorman's 'The Mountain Road' which relatively few people realize is "new", or Piper Jackson... or the harp tradition. But the median age of tunes in our repertoire is pretty old, and I think this is a good thing. Let the new tunes percolate through the tradition for awhile before being put into commercial circulation.

I'm not suggesting that it's wrong for a composer to record his or her new tunes. But I'm acknowledging that it's a risky proposition. It's especially tricky for relatively young or new instrumentalists, and doubly so for those relatively new to the tradition. Irish Traditional Music (perhaps piping especially) is a delicate balance between personal expression (it is an intensely personal activity) and tradition (in which case one aims to be a conduit for the tradition, and thus the performer might ideally be invisible except as a vessel).

I dunno. Like most people I have occasionally found myself playing notes that didn't come from any page or from conscious memory. I've made up a few tunes (which I don't play in public). Maybe someday I will, but it seems to me that it needs to be an activity secondary to, or a 'natural' consequence of playing the "traditional" repertoire, seeking to express in the present moment something with a long legacy.

It's a shared musical space we operate in, and I like to think we are sharing it with musicians of the past as well as 'each other'.

Bill

p.s. added to say: I don't mean this as a direct response to Eoin's album (and its newly composed tunes, only one or two of which I've heard), but rather to the general discussion about new vs old. Eoin certainly has earned his stripes regarding the tradition. In that respect he's well qualified to send a few new melodies out into the world to seek their fortunes.

[Joseph E. Smith]

Old tunes used to be new tunes. Avoiding new tunes, IMHO, could lead to a stagnant art. What is new today, could have a tradition all of it's own someday.

The tunes we consider traditional weren't composed in a single day, week, month or year or any fixed point in time and then considered traditional. They were added to the tradition over a course of several centuries... each one of them being a new tune at one point.

Just a thought.

[djm]

Doesn't it come down to personal taste? There are lots of newer tunes, but just like the old tunes, not all of them are to everyone's tastes. I am seeing a bit of a trend in the newer tunes of mixing modes, of being more and more complicated. These tunes seem to really attract the younger fiddle players, who have been learning the old tunes since they were in diapers. But to listen to these new tunes, I find it hard to keep paying attention due to the complexity and lack of clearly defined internal rhythm, or even to recognize when they've changed tunes, unless the key changes as well.

I think what we will choose to play is what stikes each of our ears as "right". Playing in a group or session might force you to go beyond your own personal borders sometimes, but that can't be all bad, either.

What is old, or "trad", today sounds good to the ear, has stood the test of time and the use of a thousand players to have survived this long. Let the new tunes try to compete. At best the new tunes will survive to become part of the tradition. At worst, they will disappear into a collection somewhere, only to be revived by some bored piper a hundred years from now.

djm

[Joseph E. Smith]

At best the new tunes will survive to become part of the tradition. At worst, they will disappear into a collection somewhere, only to be revived by some bored piper a hundred years from now.

djm

... or rewritten. Makes me wonder if it's possible to run out of ideas for composition.

[Ballygo]

As a piper I am always interested in tunes that stretch the scope of the chanter , for instance using the keys ( four in my case) and tunes that go outside the G and D scales . I know there are plenty of old tunes that do , but the more recent compositions seem to embrace this challenge and I for one am grateful for their efforts. The beauty about Diarmuid Moynihan is that his tunes already sound as if they have been around forever , his music is full of beauty and has an instant appeal. He is a class act.

Ballygo

[djm]

I'm not finding samples of this group Calico in the places I normally look. Suggestions?

Hmm, maybe not. I've found some reviews that say Calico are strongly Breton influenced. I don't care for Breton stuff at all.

djm