An impromptu reel: Jenny Picking Cockles

Posted on May 2, 2015 by Gordon

So there I was ready with a couple of reels for the week’s class and this reel popped into my head instead. Inspired by Rieke’s trip to Barra to pick cockles, we did Jenny Picking Cockles — I hope that the weather was good!

Jenny Picking Cockles is an Irish reel with a few variants and titles. In D mixolydian (it has C naturals instead of sharps), some versions have F naturals in the second part, which possibly borrows from a very similar three part reel called Jenny’s Welcome to Charlie. The version we did lifts and slides the C naturals in the second part through what was once termed “C supernatural” in online message boards to C# as it the tune transitions from C natural to D.

There is a suggestion that this reel may be associated with the north of Ireland and my own personal feeling is that “Jenny” tune titles also betray a Scottish connection, both Jenny and Jock(y) appearing in many earlier Scottish tune titles as generic female and male names.

It’s just an observation however and I have no other evidence for this wild assertion. More information on the origins over at Tune Archive. Different settings of the tune can be found over on The Session website. Our version can be found on the Resources page.

Here’s Eric, Hugh and Colm Healy, Noel O’Donoghue, Seán McGrath playing Jenny Picking Cockles, George Whites, Jenny’s Wedding:

Photo: Barra Cockle Beach by Fiona Cownie, some rights reserved.

FluteFling Summer Term details

Posted on April 21, 2015 by Gordon

Flute players at the FluteFling workshops. (c) Ros Gasson

It’s shaping up to be a busy and exciting term. The second FluteFling Scottish Flute Day takes place on 9th of May, with workshops, sessions, a talk and concerts also taking place.

More is also being planned, so do make sure you don’t miss out on one of the flute events of the year.

Regular FluteFling classes also resume this week on Thursday 23rd April, with 5 fortnightly classes for two groups, taking us into the end of June.

Do come along and explore different techniques and expand on your repertoire of music from Scotland, Ireland and beyond. Open to wooden and metal Boehm system flutes, whistles and low whistles. Full details on the Diary and Booking pages.

There is additional good news about our regular venue of St James’s Church Halls in Portobello as the situation remains unchanged for this term at least.

Photo of FluteFling workshop particpants: (c) Ros Gasson

Lucy Farr’s Barndance plus one

Posted on March 6, 2015 by Gordon

This week we caught up with some of Amble’s tunes from when she took the class. Our main focus was Lucy Farr’s Barndance and we followed this with another, Where in the World Would we be Without Women?

Lucy Farr was a fiddle player from east Galway, who ended up living in London. She featured on the influential 1968 recording Paddy in the Smoke, which was a live recording from the London session scene of the time. There is a great profile of Lucy Farr here. Fetch a cup of tea to have while reading that one as it is as detailed as it is fascinating.

Our barndance is one of two associated with Lucy Farr, who called it The Kilnamona Barndance according to flute player Niall Kenny on this lengthy discussion on The Session. There is also some discussion about it’s identity as a German (Northern Irish dance form) and a 7-step dance (also German, possibly the same dance). I know little about this dance form other than it has a similar musical feel to a barndance, which in itself feels like a little like hornpipe.

Once in a session in Sandy Bell’s, someone from the Western Isles sang in Gaelic to this tune when I played it and told me it was well known and that the song translated as I Saw the Cat. It is worth checking out the recording by fiddler Martin Hayes, from neighbouring east Clare, of a much-slowed down and meditative version of this simple but effective tune.

If We Hadn’t Any Women in the World is a barndance that could follow Lucy’ Farr’s quite nicely. Harry Bradley recorded this on As I Carelessly Did Stray…, but he cites Hammy Hamilton’s recording on Moneymusk as the source. I believe that I may have heard this on an early cassette version of that recording (and have misremembered the title slightly too — Where in the World Would We Be Without Women?). Hammy Hamilton’s fine version is freely available online and I note that he freely switches phrases around, which may also account for my own fluid setting of the tune. Again, many versions and much discussion on The Session website. The tune was first recorded by James Morrison in 1928 according to the sleeve notes.

Dots, ABCs and recordings for both tunes can be found in the Resources section.

Photo of Lucy Farr via Mustrad.

The Legacy: a rolling Irish jig

Posted on January 30, 2015 by Gordon

The first two classes of the term have separately focused on technique for flute and whistle ( breathing, tone, phrasing and ornamentation in particular). Both of these lead into the first tune of the year, an Irish jig called The Legacy.

The tune is based on chord structures in G and has a contrasting Em B part before resolving itself back to G. It’s strong and distinctive and offers some opportunity to vary the melody with rolls in a variety of places (G, B, E, D and A). I have attempted to show some of this in the resources that accompany the tune.

I was surprised to discover that not a great deal is known about the tune. It is associated with Irish-American fiddler Larry Redican (more on him here) and bore his name on some recordings, notably by Bobby Casey (1959) and the Coen brothers’ The Branch Line. No, not the movie makers, but Jack and Charlie from east Galway, playing flute and concertina.

It was first published as The Legacy in Bulmer and Sharpleys’ mid-1970s collections of Irish tunes, but did appear in O’Neill’s Music of Ireland (1903) and also Kerr’s Merrie Melodies (1880s) under other titles (Skiver the Quilt, The Tailor’s Wedding). More detail can be found over at The Fiddler’s Companion website.

I have seen an assertion online that it may be a Scottish tune originally, but no evidence to date, other than the earlier publication date for Kerr’s, which includes Irish and other tunes anyway. Having said that, the strong chordal construction of the jig wouldn’t be out of place in the Scottish repertoire.

By the way, for some ABC settings of the old collections, check out this website.

Chief O’Neill’s Hornpipe: a fluter’s favourite

Posted on December 12, 2014 by Gordon

The final tune of the term is Chief O’Neill’s Favourite, named after the influential collector and publisher of Irish traditional music who was also the Chief of the Chicago police force.

He played flute, pipes and fiddle and not only wrote about his collecting activities but has been the subject of books and even a play. More on him on Wikipedia. This particular tune came from fiddler Edward Cronin of County Tipperary who had no name for it so dedicated it to O’Neill.

Shifting modes and keys

I was confused about the version that I know, which contains some F naturals in the B part and swings between C# and C natural throughout. O’Neill’s original version has two sharps throughout but Geraldine Cotter’s has some C naturals and sharps, but with the F always sharp. The version we looked at is a mixture between Geraldine Cotter’s and one published in Music for the Sets — the yellow book*. Be aware that people may play this one way or the other, critically in the opening of the B part, so it’s good to confirm beforehand.

(*The Session.org has some discussion on this series of excellently played music for set dancing and the cassettes and books that came from them. It may be possible to download copies of the tapes from this site.)

Resources

The notation is now up for this tune and the recording will follow.
Various recordings of the tune at Irishtune.info
Discussion of the C naturals at the Chiff and Fipple forum.
A history of the tune at TuneArchive.

So how to play that F natural?

On a keyed flute it is fairly straightforward, although maybe not with a short F key. The lead-in notes are D and E. To play the F natural short key, you’ll need to move the E finger out of position to access the key and in so doing you’ll play F#. This is why the long F natural key was developed.

To get around the problem, you’ll have to tongue or stop the E a little short to allow you to swiftly move the finger without playing a note. Alternatively, skip the E altogether and take a breath there while moving your finger into position.

For whistles and keyless flutes it is much more of a problem and requires advanced teachnique. The standard ways of flattening a note are to “half hole” or veil the hole. Experiment finding the best way of doing this with a tuner. In the class we found the large hole needed to be maybe 80-90% covered by the E finger. You can rock the finger sideways or slightly draw it back. Either way it is not a strong note and nor is it accurate.

You could try flattening the F# a few more percentage points by leaving the D finger down in position, but it is still not satisfactory. You will have to experiment with both of these approaches and find the best compromise. On the fly, either option is hard to execute and takes practice.

Image: Francis O’Neill, via Wikipedia, some rights reserved.

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traditional flutes and whistles in Scotland

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