Damn Music!

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Damn Music!

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Ron.M

Posts: 7051
Joined: Jul. 7 2003
From: Scotland

Damn Music!

I had been practising really hard from about 11 o'clock this morning and about 4 o'clock, I had to go up to the village shop to get some stuff.
When I walked to the top of the road, I could hear this bagpipe music playing...really good stuff...as I got closer I realised that this stuff was live...it was somebody practising in his garage....
Man...his tone and technique was totally fantastic!!
He played this really fast reel, which if you can imagine, playing the pipes is a bit like playing Bulerias...that is you can't really pause and take stock!
You can't with the bagpipe just suddenly stop and go back over a couple of fluffed notes.
Your on a roller coaster ride!
This guy was filling the street up with his music.

When I came back down towards home he was still playing.

It totally pissed me off as to the musicality of what he was doing as to what I had been doing all day...just perfect rhythm, tempo, tone...

I hurried down the road, lest the music would stop and the garage door open and I'd be confronted by some 16 year old boy or girl , really pissing my day off! LOL!

cheers

Ron

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 22 2005 20:10:55

gerundino63

Posts: 1743
Joined: Jul. 11 2003
From: The Netherlands

RE: Damn Music! (in reply to Ron.M)

Hi Ron!

Try to do some farucca with the kid!

I have heared Juan Martin do it too!

Peter

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 22 2005 21:01:37

Miguel de Maria

Posts: 3532
Joined: Oct. 20 2003
From: Phoenix, AZ

RE: Damn Music! (in reply to Ron.M)

Bagpipe is a good word. It's like if the guitar were called a stringbox.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 23 2005 4:17:15

flyeogh

Posts: 729
Joined: Oct. 13 2004

RE: Damn Music! (in reply to Ron.M)

Ron this is not like you. Rafa said just the other day what sort of guy you were

. I can only recommend 5 hours in Ma Camerons' to clear your head

. Then get over the hang over and start again. Or go buy some bagpipes

_____________________________

nigel (el raton de Watford - now Puerto de Santa Maria, Cadiz)

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 23 2005 6:26:09

Guest

RE: Damn Music! (in reply to Ron.M)

When I was in Ireland in 81, busking and playing for free drinks in the bars, I remember sitting near a football field in Galway or Clare watching some kids play football. When the game was over and they went home, one of the kids (around 11 - 12) took his penny whistle from one of his back pockets and played one of these really fast and difficult reels like the Bucks of Oranmore or the Dublin Reel. He sounded like he could be recording with whosoever. Maybe he is now. Blody f***ing amazing lad.

I loved it and loved Ireland as well.

A bit rainy though.

So say hello to mister bagpipe, and remember to enjoy it next time!!!!

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 23 2005 15:09:24

Thomas Whiteley

Posts: 786
Joined: Jul. 8 2003
From: San Francisco Bay Area

RE: Damn Music! (in reply to Ron.M)

Ron;

Where I grew up in San Francisco, we had a neighbor on the other side of the street three houses up that played the pipes. He was very good.

I have a cousin, Brian Walsh from Cork who plays the pipes and penny whistle professionally. He was in the movie Titanic.

The Celtic people came from Galicia, Spain, so the story goes. They brought the bagpipe from Spain to Ireland and Scotland. Do you know if the Welsh play the pipes? The Irish pipes are much like those still in use in Galicia (for folk music), and the pipes used in Scotland are much better developed.

During the 1845 period many young men and women would leave from Galway to the United States, and the people from Galway would take in these youngsters until their ship departed. When they marched the youngsters towards the ship about to depart they would play a specific jig, which was very happy and gay. As they approached the ship the pipers would play the same piece of music at a very slow speed. It sounded like a death march!

The reason the jig was played at a slow speed was the people of Galway were giving these young men and women a Wake, as they would never return to Ireland. There is much more to the story but I had better not continue least people become annoyed.

I have been to many Wakes and Memorial Church services where the pipes were played. It is so sad and mournful. I often wonder how the piper can play under the circumstances?

_____________________________

Tom
http://home.comcast.net/~flamencoguitar/flamenco.html

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 23 2005 23:18:40

Ron.M

Posts: 7051
Joined: Jul. 7 2003
From: Scotland

RE: Damn Music! (in reply to Thomas Whiteley)

Hi Tom,
I'm not an expert in Highland Bagpipe music, but it is pretty interesting stuff when you hear the real "pìobaireachd" players, (pronouced "peo-broch", with the ch like the sounding of the Spanish "j" as in "reloj").
The stuff that you hear in the pipe bands etc is pretty simple musically, but nevertheless has it's own particular emotion if you like the sound of the pipes.
Some massed bands have a sound that just brings tears to your eyes, the overall effect is just so stirring and moving.

Pìobaireachd is very different though..
It's played only by a solo piper, who starts with a very basic outline of the musical theme and then begins to embellish upon it, until it becomes very complex.
Rather like an Indian "Raga".
(It's said that the idea of the bagpipe started in India)
It is very profound to hear, as it has no "tune" to speak of.
The bagpipe is limited in notes and dynamics (obviously), but the main development seems to arise from the rhythm of the piece, the rhythmic accents being done by "bouncing" the finger on a particular note, that produces a strange and captivating sound and becomes the "signature" of a player.
The tone, feeling and execution of this "bouncing" technique is what makes a player expressive.

This is the kind of stuff I heard on Sunday...
On hearing just a few notes I just knew this person did not play for a massed band.
This guy was a musician!

cheers

Ron

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 24 2005 20:08:39

Thomas Whiteley

Posts: 786
Joined: Jul. 8 2003
From: San Francisco Bay Area

RE: Damn Music! (in reply to Ron.M)

Ron;

I know what you mean. That sounds like the neighbor I mentioned in San Francisco, and my cousin Brian Walsh. I have had my Penny Whistle’s for over 35 years and like to play. When Brian was playing the Penny Whistle, I said to him, “Oh now I know how to get that sound”! He got a bit angry for a second and then that was over and he laughed!

The sound I am referring to is that sound of sliding up or down scale on just one note much like a violin. You have to control the placement of the finger and gently and slowly slide the finger over a hole either upward or downward.

I would enjoy playing he pipes but I think I would annoy my neighbors. Gee, that would not be too bad! :)

Tom

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Tom
http://home.comcast.net/~flamencoguitar/flamenco.html

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 24 2005 22:54:28