We began the January workshop with a simple warm-up piece, a Gavotte Ton Double from Brittany and had fun taking turns in playing call and response with drones in a Breton-influenced manner with various high and low pitched whistles and flutes in D and a sonorous A flute. I have taught this previously and wrote about it here.
This led to a discussion and interest on playing parts against each other which led to Laridé de Portobello, a 9-part extended arrangement of mine of a 2-part traditional Breton tune. This page has some discussion and a version of it played by a FluteFling ensemble a few years back (via the Soundcloud widget). If you scroll down this page there is a bit more written about it, with some suggestions on how to play it, along with another recording of a performance. I haven’t yet recorded the parts separately for people to learn, so that’s one for the future.
Our main tune was an Irish march, The Rose in the Gap. I was surprised to learn that The Rose in The Gap is not widely known. I have heard it in Edinburgh sessions played by Dublin singer, whistler and fiddler Saidhbhin Bhreatnach. As I recall, she plays the version by Dónal O’Connor (fiddle) and John McSherry (uilleann pipes, whistles) on their Tripswitch CD:
If you haven’t heard this before, by the way, it is highly recommended, with some very fine arrangements and a stripped-down sound. Listen and more at John McSherry’s website.
Dónal is the son of Dundalk fiddler Gerry O’Connor and singer/ fluter Eithne Ní Uallacháin, who performed as La Lúgh, and a 4-part version of The Rose in the Gap appears on their CD Senex Puer (confusingly as The Rose in the Garden, but see below) as well as their Brighid’s Kiss album.
They popularised many tunes and songs from the Louth area, which has an often overlooked gaeltacht, Oirialla (Oriel in English). You can hear their version on the well-produced Oriel Arts website which is a mine of information and is well worth an explore. We listened to both versions in the workshop but focused on the Tripswitch one. The La Lúgh one is a little closer to the original source.
The ever-reliable Tune Archive website throws up some interesting links and origins for the tune. The Rose in the Garden is a different tune that contains phrases to be found in The Rose in the Gap, hence the confusing renaming on the La Lúgh recording.
The Rose in the Garden seems to be better known as The White Cockade, which is also known by other Scottish titles and some northern English ones too. The White Cockade appears in late 18thC/ early 19thC Scottish collections as well as being part of fifing traditions, Cape Breton, Old Timey and Morris traditions too. For me the connection underlies the ties between neighbouring traditions and how a good tune will always travel.
Resources for the January workshop can be found on the new Resources page for this year.
The next FluteFling workshop in Edinburgh will take place 23 February.