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FluteFling at Stonehaven Folk Festival

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The FluteFling Collection book launch and workshops 9 July 2022

Return to in-person events

John Crawford, Euan Reid, Kenny Hadden and Sharon Creasey at an outdoor session at Stonehaven. (c) Gordon Turnbull

Getting back into in-person events was never going to be easy, but we knew we had to launch the tunebook at some point. We couldn’t have chosen a better way, than at the 33rd Stonehaven Folk Festival. Just south of Aberdeen, it is a long established landmark festival in Scotland. With a number of artists appearing that included the flute or whistle — Flook, Rura and Deira from Asturias, it was definitely a good match.

Sharon Creasey, Kenny Hadden and myself, with John Crawford and Peter Saunders, had begun thinking about this last year but found it tricky with Covid levels being so unpredictable. Thinking about how we might have to manage an in-person event in such a climate was difficult. When I looked in January, there were still restrictions on room capacity and requirements for mitigation. The rules changed but could have changed again by the time we had responded. FluteFling is run in people’s spare time and there were organisations with full time staff who struggled, so it wasn’t going to be simple.

On top of that, we were collectively no longer used to playing in sessions, performing and teaching. I think I hadn’t taught for 2 years and certainly hadn’t played on stage for 3 or 4 years. There were steep relearning curves whichever way we looked. So Kenny approached Stonehaven organisers Charlie West and Meg Findlay knowing that we needed a bit of help.

To their credit, they understood the situation and used their experience to make it straightforward. The festival was only just returning after having to cancel the last two years and the performers that weekend were rebooked from the 2020 weekend that didn’t run. Clearly, trying to get back to the things that matter to us was a theme of the weekend.

John Crawford completed the necessary risk assessments for the workshops and he and Pete Saunders were volunteering, so we were well looked after and it was less to think about.

Setting up

Two men and a woman selling books by a display

Kenny Hadden, Coralie Mills and John Crawford ready to sell copies of the book. (c) Gordon Turnbull

The weekend was set to be a sunny one and we set our stall and new banners up in the hot and sometimes busy bar in the Town Hall on the Friday evening. Coralie Mills had kindly volunteered to run the stall, the new banners drew attention and the contactless machine was soon doing its business as we drew some friendly attention and began selling our first copies.

Having worked on this for over a year, largely in lockdown, it was difficult to gauge what kind of response the book might have. Sharon in particular had shaped it with the contributors and we could see a value in it that we hoped others would recognise. So it was gratifying to see the response from all musicians, not just flute and whistle players. Thank you to everyone who took the time to speak to us about it over the weekend.

The stall was in the bar upstairs from the concert hall and we able to quietly nip in and out to the balcony and watch some of the performances in between catching up with each friends we hadn’t seen in person for a while.

Flook performing at Stonehaven Folk Festival (c) Gordon Turnbull

Flook were in fine energetic form and, as expected, extraordinarily tight and focused. We had put up a signed copy of the tunebook as a raffle prize and were bowled over to discover that the whole band had supported us by adding their signatures. Somebody walked away that evening with quite a special prize.

 

 

Fèis and chips

A man demonstrates playing the flute

Gordon teaching a flute workshop at Stonehaven (c) David Fernandez

The Saturday workshops at Dunottar Primary School were low key and with a friendly and helpful Janny and volunteers we were quickly set up. The morning workshops were beginner flute (Kenny Hadden) and beginner whistle (myself and Sharon Creasey). It was the first time that we had tried two tutors in one workshop, but it meant that Sharon and I could address individual issues and compare notes as we went along — it’s always good to hear different perspectives on the same subject.

In the afternoon, Sharon took an advanced whistle class while I took the flute class. Everyone was at different stages of returning to playing music again — some had not played for months, some had not been in sessions, others had happily been playing away in person or online. It was tricky to get the balance right, but we all had to begin somewhere.

Returning to teaching after a gap of 2 years was also a personal challenge. There was lots of talk and questions and in the back of my mind, I could hear Hammy Hamilton’s comment from Cruinniú na Bhfliúit, that he was always happy to hear talk coming from a room because it meant that people were discussing questions rather than simply learning tunes. As David Fednandez said, he was just happy to be back with others again playing the flute.

Two men play the flute in a marquee

Kenny Hadden and Gordon Turnbull perform at Stonehaven Folk Festival (c) Martin Duckworth

Straight after the workshops, Kenny and I did a performance spot in the marquee in the square. We played some of our tunes from the book, including a duet. As many musicians elsewhere had said, it was good to get back to performing. Some of it felt familiar, other parts a bit alien after the last few years, but the sound was good and the audience enjoyed it.

The Asturian band Deira followed us on stage and were complimentary. As we dashed across the road to the book launch, their amazing sound rang out across the square and I made a mental note to try and hear more of them.

Kenny Hadden giving a talk at Stonehaven on the revival of the flute in Scottish traditional music (c) Gordon Turnbull

In the function room of No. 44, around 50 people had gathered to hear Kenny, who had set himself up to give an illustrated talk on the revival of the flute in traditional Scottish music.

With a big display screen and good sound, his meticulous trawl through the archives was an expansion on his essay in The FluteFling Collection that had people talking afterwards.

I think most people learned something new and to others it was a complete revelation. There were good questions from an engaged audience afterwards and I hope that there will be other chances to hear Kenny present this again.

Kenny, Sharon and myself followed the talk with a short recital of our own contributions to The FluteFling Collection. Peter Saunders was there and you can hear some of the performance on Peter’s YouTube channel:

An Aberdeen-based Polish whistler and David Fernandez at the book launch session. (c) Gordon Turnbull

There was a short session afterwards and friends were able to catch up with each other. Somehow, there’s never enough time to do everything we would like to do.

We were fortunate in that the Festival had donated the space to us and provided a sound technician to help set us up. With pubs and bars filled with music across the town, we also our own space to play and could hear each other.

The bookstall still needed manning and people were getting hungry after a long day

 

 

 

Deira performing at Stonehaven Folk Festival (c) Gordon Turnbull

I managed to catch Deira perform after the launch. The trio have a tight and driving sound that reminds me of Rura, but playing traditional Asturian and original tunes with a creative use of live loops and effects.

It’s easy to see how they went down well at Celtic Connections just before the pandemic and I recommend checking them out.

 

Kenny Hadden and Sharon Creasey on whistles at Stonehaven. (c) Gordon Turnbull

We ended up taking fish suppers to the splendid boardwalk that runs along the shore. A tune was soon struck up and we were joined by the Paddy Buchanan Band who had done a great performance on the Friday night. It was a fine evening to cap a fine day.

 

 

 

Easy like Sunday lunchtime

Gordon, Sharon and Kenny (c) David Fernandez

On Sunday, we took some time to tie up the loose ends, drink coffee and reflect on the launch, thinking of what happens next.

There was such a buzz from being with people again, many of whom we hadn’t seen for a couple of years, and playing music together. The support and goodwill towards FluteFling was overwhelming, so thank you to everyone who helped to make it happen and to those who managed to attend.

Our thanks go to the organisers for accommodating us and making us feel so welcome. This was most certainly a case of a bigger organisation being true to their roots and seeing the opportunity to give a helping hand to a smaller organisation such as ourselves to get going again in the post-lockdown world. We were able to provide workshops in return and so the benefit was mutual and we would consider similar arrangements in future.

Our thanks too, for Tasgadh for the grant and support that enabled the publication of the book in the first place and to the amazing contributors who were so keen to be part of this project. To order your own copy of The FluteFling Collection in Print or eBook format, visit the FluteFling Shop.

It was a memorable weekend and we resolved to have a similar event in Edinburgh. Covid and personal circumstances have delayed this, but we all look forward to the next one. Sign up to the newsletter to hear about it first.

 

Aberdeen weekend report

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The farewell session at Ma Cameron’s. (c) John Crawford

Well, what a weekend we had in Aberdeen in November! This was the second annual event in the Granite City and was again based upon a day of flute and whistle workshops. This year we had three tutors — Dougie Pincock, Sharon Creasey and Gordon Turnbull — with a very strong turn-out to the classes and sessions and lots of positive feedback.

Sharon Creasey and Kenny Hadden on whistles. (c) John Crawford

Thanks to everyone who attended and to Kenny Hadden and the supporters for helping it run so well on the ground. A big thank you too to Inchgarth Community Centre for looking after us and to the Blue Lamp and Ma Cameron’s for their hospitality with the sessions.

Dougie’s workshop (c) John Crawford

One pleasing comment that stood out referred to the unified thread of musicality running through the workshops, of going beyond the notes and into phrasing and rhythm. While this wasn’t consciously planned, all of the tutors and those involved in organising FluteFling events do have a clear idea of what good traditional flute and whistle playing sounds like and there are many ways to achieve this.

Gordon’s workshop (c) John Crawford

By having different tutors with different approaches and experiences, we do hope that this opens up possibilities for others. And let’s face it, we are all learning and continue to learn from each other — tutors included — which is why these events are always a joy and an inspiration to everyone involved.

Tunes taught on the day included repertoire from Aberdeen, highland pipe tunes and others with technical challenges, and port-a-beul.

Sharon Creasey and Kenny Hadden listen to Dougie Pincock talk about his experiences and thoughts on playing the flute and whistle. (c) John Crawford

The Saturday afternoon ended with Dougie Pincock in conversation with Kenny Hadden. Dougie is full of entertaining anecdotes about his early experiences learning the pipes, entering the Glasgow folk and session scene and learning to play the flute. It was an hour but it flew by and we could have all listened to many more.

The weekend sessions featured strathspeys, marches, slow airs, jigs, reels, Border hornpipes and tunes old and new. One particularly memorable moment was Sharon and Dougie duetting on piccolos, which is not something you see every day!

Upcoming in 2019

Participants and tutors continue to have ideas to develop our weekends together and we will try an implement them as and when we can. The Aberdeen weekend will return in November 2019.

The next weekend will be in Edinburgh April 26-28th. Dates and details for other events will appear on the website very shortly, so look out for those.

Scotch Mary and Peter Pan

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A danger of running an event on the third weekend of the month is that eventually you get to December and meet Christmas head-on. When that happens, it’s hard to know what to expect. So when Kenny Hadden said he would come down that weekend, I jumped at the chance to get him to also do some teaching alongside me and it became something bigger than usual.

Flutes at The Dalriada: (l-r) John Corbett, Malcolm Reavell, Sean Paul Newman, Kenny Hadden, John Crawford. (c) Gordon Turnbull

John Crawford and Malcolm Reavell were also there, also from Aberdeen, and we went for a flutey session afterwards at The Dalriada with Sean Paul Newman welcoming as usual and providing accompaniment. Later that evening Sharon Creasey came along with Cathal McConnell  to play at The Captain’s Bar. All in all a bit of a mini flute festival.

Sharon Creasey and Cathal McConnell at The Captain’s Bar, Edinburgh

The workshop began with a slow tune to warm up: Caol Muile (The Sound of Mull), the air to a Gaelic song (Youtube link to a version sung at Plockton School). I have a version with some harmony parts and added another myself, so we had some fun trying them out. Grace notes and breathing came up as we added expression.

I followed this up with a reel that seems to be from Donegal and presented problems in pinning down a definitive version. We had one for the day and Kenny and I also had some variations. Scotch Mary can be found in various collections and with various titles. Irish Molly is one, Ireland Green is a title given by PJ Hayes and Martin Hayes too. Flute players John Skelton and Kieran O’Hare recorded it on whistles on their great CD Double Barrelled (link has a clip of the music).

The tune actually exists in three main versions, as two parts: A+B, B+C or three parts: A+B+C. To confuse things, the A and C parts are similar, there are different changes in other versions and key shifts too. The version I taught includes elements of these. Here’s a closely related Donegal version on Youtube played by Paddy, Seamus and Kevin Glackin. It’s the second tune in the set.

Kenny Hadden with others walking and feeling the rhythm while playing at the December FluteFling workshop.

Kenny took over after the break and kept the festive theme by teaching and sharing some tunes by Johnny Cunningham that were originally for a musical theatre performance on Peter Pan. Johnny and brother Phil studied at local Portobello High School so it was doubly apt for the location.

The first tune, Two is the Beginning of the End, not only had a strange title, but was in an enigmatic scale that served as a useful warm-up piece to get the ears tuned in. As it has actually been a good while since I found myself learning a tune by ear in a workshop, it was good to have the tables turned and be reminded of the experience.

The second tune Kenny introduced was more traditional, but recorded by Johnny Cunningham. The Celtic Society’s Quickstep (music and background can be round at the Traditional Tune Archive) is a dance tune first published in Kerr’s Merrie Melodies of the 1880s, but in existence since at least 1820. A delightful tune with some interesting jumps and straightforward runs that can be played with some bounce. It doesn’t seem to be played very much and could benefit from more exposure.

Resources for the tunes are to be found on the resources page for 2017. Two is the Beginning of the End doesn’t feature for copyright reasons, but those who attended will have something to work with. I will add The Celtic Society’s Quickstep very shortly.

Here’s Johnny’s version of The Celtic Society’s Quickstep, as recorded on Fair Warning:

Kenny has a YouTube channel with some rare archive video and TV footage, particularly of music from Scotland, that is worth exploring.

Finally, a wee plug for the Scottish Flute channel on YouTube, which has evolved out of the FluteFling workshops and sessions. Set up and run by volunteers and supporters in the Aberdeen area, there is some footage from the Aberdeen weekend in November and more can expected both from the archive and as more events occur.

 

Mullindhu: an ambiguous tune

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September’s workshop looked at a version of Mullindhu, which translates as The Black Mill. A Scottish tune with Highland origins, there are a few different versions and spellings about in the main collections (Skye, Fraser and Athole are ones I regularly refer to). A reel in A Dorian, our version is slow and stately, more like a march, and was recorded by Jock Tamson’s Bairns.

Resources for this and the two other tunes we looked at (PDF, ABC and MP3 formats) have been added to the Resources Page.

Alba Low whistle in D (c) Gordon Turnbull

The story I originally heard about this melody from Edinburgh fiddler Doug Patience (now in County Clare) was that the mill in question stood on disputed land between two rival families and was burnt down by one of the sides. The composer was local and diplomatically wrote a tune that could be seen as either celebratory or in lament, depending on the point of view of the listener.

On The Session.org, a discussion on the tune quotes a story from Cape Breton Island about the Mill as a clandestine rendezvous for romance that similarly divides opinion:

Apparently, on Cape Breton Island the tune/song was not allowed to be played in certain parts because it was so closely associated with the MacDougalls of Margaree, who apparently were extremely touchy about hearing it played within their earshot! It appears that one line of a stanza of the puirt a beul set to the melody goes “Tha nead circe fraoiche ‘s a’ mhuilean dubh.” (In the black mill is the heather-hen’s nest). The offense to the Margaree MacDougalls was due to a joke that was told about hens at the expense of the clan, and they were so sensitive to any reference to the joke that they could not tolerate mention of poultry of any kind, and took the playing of the tune to be a veiled insult against the clan.

More on the tune background and stories can be found at the Fiddler’s Companion, including one story that includes devilish dealings.

I was pleasantly surprised that a bit of playing about with the tune reveals it to be a version of The Oyster Wives’ Rant, a reel I have known for many years but not often played. We also had a look at this in the workshop. The Fiddler’s Companion informs us that the earliest printed version is in Bremner’s Collection of 1775 and that it is part of a family of tunes and variants from Scotland to England and Ireland — so our Mullin Dhu connection is no surprise.

In searching about for a possible companion piece, I came across the distinctively titled An Oidhche Bha Na Gabhair Againn (The Night We Had the Goats) in the Athole Collection, a book which handily orders the tunes by key. This is in the relatively rare G major and I have adapted it slightly to my playing style. We didn’t have time to look at it properly, but it bounces nicely off the Ds and Gs and lends itself to short sharp spiky rolls. Interestingly, it resolves on to A, which lends it a whistful, inconclusive feel to my ears.

While it is described as a pipe tune, and printed versions may go back to 1795, the origins may be in puirt-à-beul. The odd title might be explained by another translation, The Night the Goats Came Home.

Here’s a version played a few years ago by then 17 year olds Hannah Stockley and Brad Murphy at the Gaelic Society in Sydney, Cape Breton.

After the workshop, myself and Malcolm Reavell rounded off the day by walking along to the Dalriada in Joppa and joined in the regular Saturday afternoon session for a couple of hours. Thanks to Sean Paul Newman (guitar) and Robert Chalmers (concertina) for their hospitality.

Reminder: FluteFling workshops take a break in October, but goes on the road in November with a big Aberdeen weekend featuring tutors Davy Maguire, Sharon Creasey, with a concert and sessions. And to keep the momentum going, regular Edinburgh workshops resume in November and December.

FluteFling Aberdeen Weekend 3-5 November

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FluteFling goes on the road this November as traditional flute playing in Scotland focuses on Aberdeen. Following 4 years in Edinburgh, the successful format of weekend workshops, concert and informal sessions over 3-5 November will give you and your music a boost ahead of the winter months. Come and join us on the excursion to the first FluteFling Aberdeen Weekend and be part of the traditional flute revival in Scotland!

The weekend’s tutors will be Davy Maguire from Belfast and Sharon Creasey from Dumbarton. Davy has a wealth of music from Ireland, including the northern tunes that cross over into Scotland and music from the distinctive Breton tradition.

Davy is in great demand as a teacher, from Belfast to Brittany and Italy — he will arrive immediately after teaching and playing in Brittany — while Sharon is one of the foremost exponents of traditional music on the Boehm flute in Scotland and returns with her Fermanagh, Irish and Scottish repertoire. Regardless of the type of flute you play, you will be in excellent hands.

A concert on the Saturday evening will be headlined by Davy Maguire with support from many others including Kenny Hadden, Sharon Creasey, Malcolm Reavell and Gordon Turnbull. And there will be plenty more music too with sessions on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday — a great opportunity to let your hair down and catch up with everyone. We hope to see you there.

Tickets for the weekend and the concert will go on sale in the next day or two. The event’s web page has further details, including links to tickets.

Davy Maguire has taught with Belfast Trad since its inception and teaches and performs regularly both in Ireland and abroad with various groups and as a solo performer. A frequent visitor to Brittany, Davy has toured and played at the Festival Interceltic de Lorient and the Festival de Cornouaille in Quimper with several different line-ups, including Dealán Dartha and Commonalty as well as in duo with Jamie McMenemy. In Ireland he has been adjudicator for several county Fleadhanna Cheoil and has recorded a CD of music for traditional set dancing along with the cream of Northern musicians.

As a taster, here he is (extreme right hand side) with Harry Bradley, Michael Clarkson, Tara Diamond and Brendan O’Hare at the Gradam Ceoil Irish Traditional Musician of the Year Award 2014: