Видео 39
Просмотров 25 904

1:33

Coleman Tunes: The Divils of Dublin, on Thompson D Flute.

1:20

Coleman Tunes: The Boys of the Lough, on D Thompson Flute.

1:19

Coleman Tunes: Lord McDonald

1:20

Apples in Winter, D Flute.

1:10

Statia Donnelly's, E flat Flute

1:11

Coleman Tunes: O'Neill's Hornpipe

This is the one Michael Coleman recorded after The Liverpool.
It's also known as Pretty Maggie Morrisey and was collected by Francis O'Neill from John McFadden:
"Chicago fiddler John McFadden, originally from County Mayo, of whom O’Neill said: “The airy style of his playing, the clear crispness of his tones, and the rhythmic swing of his tunes, left nothing to be desired…” (Fiddler's Companion)
Coleman's version differs a bit from the standard version I hear played about today, although I don't hear hornpipes played as much in sessions as I used to, generally speaking.
It's a nice melody. Fintan Vallely included a setting of it in his tutor for Irish traditional flute....

Видео

1:33

Coleman Tunes: The Liverpool Hornpipe

Просмотров 420День назад

The Fiddler's Companion notes that this tune fell foul of Irish music's early intelligentsia: "The Irish musicologist Father Henebry criticized this piece for its "purposeless vapidity," though it has been printed endlessly in collections since the mid-19th century and evidently has been quite popular with fiddlers and fifers." Purposeless vapidity aside for a moment (might make a great name fo...

Coleman Tunes: The Divils of Dublin, on Thompson D Flute.

1:20

Coleman Tunes: The Divils of Dublin, on Thompson D Flute.

Просмотров 57414 дней назад

Well, what could be more halloweeny that playing the music of a dead man, and talk of divils? This is the reel Michael Coleman put after The Boys of the Lough on one of his most iconic and influential recordings. Again, it would be hard to settle on a standard version of the melody he's playing on the track as he's putting in so many intelligent twists and turns and variations. Great stuff. Thi...

Coleman Tunes: The Boys of the Lough, on D Thompson Flute.

1:19

Coleman Tunes: The Boys of the Lough, on D Thompson Flute.

Просмотров 55514 дней назад

Michael Coleman greatly varies the melody in his playing of this, so much so that it's hard to settle on a single 'standard' setting of each phrase. Maybe this is why everyone plays it a bit differently...? It's one of the great recordings, and the fluency and imagination and musicianship on display is remarkable. I'm just back from Coleman Country having had some keys put on the flute... none ...

1:20

Coleman Tunes: Lord McDonald

Просмотров 1,4 тыс.Месяц назад

I said I'd put up some flutey takes on Michael Coleman tunes. The Fiddlers' Companion relates how this one is said to originate from some phoney 'Lord' or other.... "Macdonald, who was the 9th Baronet of Sleat, was created in 1776 Baron Macdonald of Slate in the County of Antrim in the Peerage of Ireland; a pretence, as the territorial designation was Sleat on the Isle of Skye, County Inverness...

1:10

Apples in Winter, D Flute.

Просмотров 652Месяц назад

This is a venerable old jig, with collected versions and variations of it dating back to O'Farrell's Pocket Companion for the Irish or Union Pipes, circa 1805. There's a four-part version from Kerry, and a nice three-part version that goes to G major in the third part. I must try to dig it out. I was reminded of this one via a RUclips video of James and John Kelly playing a great take on it.

1:11

Statia Donnelly's, E flat Flute

Просмотров 387Месяц назад

I think I might have heard this first from Waterford pipes maestro Jimmy O'Brien Moran. It's a jig rendering of the popular old Irish song An Páistín Fionn, and it suits the chanter very well. I seem to recall that there's some story of how it got the above title, but it escapes me now. Anyone not affected too much by encroaching old age might feel like enlightening us in the comments section a...

2:00

Bunker Hill, D flute.

Просмотров 718Месяц назад

This was a big session tune in the heady days of the 1990s, and I always liked it. It poses the question on the flute, however, of what to do to ornament the very conspicuous C naturals (a note not generally rolled on flute) in the 2nd part. The intrepid flutador can do breath triplets (they never sounded particularly nice to me), or a sort of fakey roll by venting the C natural key and playing...

1:04

The Cavan Reel, D flute.

Просмотров 740Месяц назад

I'd completely forgotten this tune until I heard fluter Deirdre Hurley play it in London last year. It's a nice one. The Kilfenora Ceili Band recorded it early on, and Frankie Gavin recorded it too. An alternative title on it is "Mike Flanagan's" presumably after the member of the famous Irish-US 78 record era act The Flanagan Brothers.

'Belly Breathing' for Addressing Musicians' Hand Dystonia.

10:20

'Belly Breathing' for Addressing Musicians' Hand Dystonia.

Просмотров 781Месяц назад

A video for people interested in using the breath to address the hand cramping associated with musicians' focal dystonia of the hand. Main points: 1. Learn abdominal breathing or 'belly breathing', a few minutes several times per day, elongating the outbreath, until it becomes natural and relaxed. 2. Do belly breathing while holding a hand movement that evokes a mild dystonic response until the...

1:19

Paddy Mills', Thompson D flute.

Просмотров 774Месяц назад

Speaking of Desi Wilkinson's album put me in mind of this one. It was always a treat to meet the late, great Paddy Mills at fleadhs and summer festivals in Leitrim, Sligo, Galway and further afield. He must have been a solid forty years older than the rest of us (outwardly a well-dressed country gent), but he was mad for the craic and the music and often sat in to play rakes of tunes with us yo...

1:21

The Cocktail, on D flute.

Просмотров 663Месяц назад

This great Fermanagh reel is one of my favourites to hear played on the flute. I first heard it as recorded, full of life and gusto, by Desi Wilkinson on his album The Three Piece Flute (an unsung classic of traditional flute recordings). I've always heard it associated with the Fermanagh fluter Eddie Duffy, and have heard Cathal McConnell and others influenced by him play it. It often featured...

1:06

Mama's Pet, D flute.

Просмотров 418Месяц назад

Eddie Moloney can be heard playing this on that great CD Eddie Moloney: Master Musician (highly recommended). He plays the second part in and around G major. This way of it however, that goes into A minor in the second part, is closer to the version collected by O'Neill. I heard it first, I think, on the eclectic Topic LP Breeze from Erin. Seamus Tansey plays it there, and a lovely, atmospheric...

The Priest in His Boots (vers II), on E flat Flute.

1:07

The Priest in His Boots (vers II), on E flat Flute.

Просмотров 453Месяц назад

Our old pal the great Dublin singer, dance teacher and rehabilitated uilleann piper Jerry O'Reilly points out that Michael Tubridy recorded the dance associated with this tune in his 1998 book A Selection of Irish Traditional Step Dances. Michael's source for the dance, as Róisín pointed out, was Dan Furey. And the first bars of the tune, with distinctive long notes that so lend themselves to a...

1:05

Over the Bridge to Bessie

Просмотров 4462 месяца назад

I first heard this great tune from County Down musician Nigel Boullier. It was while on a 'You and Yours' music tour of the north organised by then NI Traditional Arts Officer Ciaran Carson. One memorable scene from that excursion was our playing to a small but pleasant audience in Portadown Town Hall, which at the time (early 90s) was almost entirely draped in a glut of very large and vivid bu...