Irish Music Test 2

Free Reed Instruments

All appeared - first half of the 19th century.

Sounded by reed / metal tongue which is

fastened over an aperture - it vibrates when air

pressure is applied to it. BB – FMDI

Reeds grouped in pairs, and air is admitted to

each pair by depressing the appropriate key or

button. BB

Two Types: Double / Single Action

Single Action (preferred by Irish Traditional

Musicians): one note sounds on the press and

a different note sounds on the draw

Double Action: the same note sounds both on

(smoother sound) the press and on the draw

Single action instruments: melodeon, button

accordion, some concertinas.

Double action: piano accordion, some

concertinas.

Melodeon

Ten buttons sound 20 notes (one on the press

and one on the draw)

Two diatonic octaves.

Simple bass – provided by

two spoon shaped keys.

Bass - Tonic note and its

chord on the draw.

Bass - Dominant note

and its chord on the draw

The Uilleann Pipes Parts:

Bag

Bellows

Chanter

3 drones

3 regulators

 Stock - houses drones

and regulators.

 Stock has switch to turn

off drones.

The Bag Pipes

First mentioned - 5th century Irish Brehon

Laws

Bag - blowpipe - chanter

Primarily outdoor instrument

1st drone added 13th

century.

2nd drone added by

1581.

9 note range.

 Played at funerals,

weddings, christenings –

family events, later battles.

The Uilleann Pipes

Invented early to mid 18th century

Invention coincided with Penal Laws.

Indoor instrument.

(i) Bellows blown.

(ii) Two octave range - 15 notes.

(iii) Three drones and three regulators

(keyed chanters).

 Played in seated position.

The doran’s, what style they played in?

Open or legato style.

Who recorded Johnny Doran’s music? 

Through the foresight of fiddle player John Kelly, Johnny’s music recorded

in 1947 by Kevin Danagher of the Folklore Commission.

These recordings form the basis of the album ‘The Bunch of Keys’ –

released almost forty years after his death.

Ten tracks of music recorded – 17 tunes and two repeats.

All recorded at the same session.

They include:

8 reels, 3 hornpipes, 2 jigs,

2 slow airs, 2 set dances.

Concert pitched Leo Rowsome set for the recording.

Johnny Doran - Regulators

Virtuoso on the regulators.

Keeps regulators going almost constantly.

Very wide repertoire of rhythms – never boring.

Compositions for Pipes

The Fox Chase – programmatic piece – composed by

Edward Keating-Hyland (1799)

The Brendan Voyage – Uilleann Pipes and Orchestra by

Shaun Davey (1980):

Flowansionnamare – Uilleann Pipes, Percussion

(bodhrán), Piano & String Orchestra by Mícheál Ó

Súilleabháin (1990)

Eoin Ó Riabhaigh – Bluegrass in the Backwoods

Pipes at different stages

Practice set: bag, bellows, chanter

Half Set: bag, bellows, chanter, plus three

drones (tenor, baritone, bass)

Full Set: bag, bellows, chanter, three

drones, plus three regulators (tenor, baritone,

bass)

Tuning: Drones and Regulators

Three drones:

1. tenor

2. baritone

3. bass

 Tuned in octaves to the

D or A of the chanter.

 Regulators:

1. tenor,

2. baritone and

3. bass

 Tuning: G below mid C

to the C above mid C

Concertina

Invented by Charles Wheatstone in 1829 in

England.

Hexagonal shape

No bass but possible to play chords

Keyboard extends over both ends of instrument.

Can be both single and double action – Irish musicians prefer the single action instrument.

Good strong sound. Niall Vallely

Johnny Doran

John Cash – was his maternal great grand-father. He was the well known 19th century travelling Wexford piper (born in1832) profiled in O’Neill’s Minstrels and

Musicians.

Great friends of Samuel Rowsome and

the Rowsome family of Wexford & Dublin.

Cash’s daughter Maggie was Johnny

Doran’s grandmother.

Maggie’s brother James Cash –celebrated piper.

Johnny Doran - Life Continued

His Early 20’s embarked on life as a horse dealer – travelled all around the country.

His travels were curtailed during the war years 1939 – ’45.

January 1948 - accident just opposite Christchurch Cathedral, Dublin.

Re-entered hospital in October 1949.

◦ Died there on January 19th 1950 at the tragically young age of 42.

◦ Buried in Rathnew cemetery.

Concertina Composition

Niall Vallely – Reels – The Old Bush & Col. Frazers

More on Doran

Enormous influence on traditional music - piping

in particular 20th century

Usual barriers between traveller and settled communities broken down.

Born in Rathnew, Co.Wicklow in 1908.

Button Accordion compositions

Jackie Daly - (C#/D style) - New Market Polkas:

Jackie Daly & Seamus Creagh – Polkas:

Sharon Shannon – Reels

Johnny Doran - Regulators

Plays:

◦ on and off beats,

◦ syncopation,

◦ complicated short – long groupings,

◦ Uses percussive effects against legato passages on the chanter.

◦ Pedal point (i.e. holds chords or single notes over a number of notes or bars –

giving an effect similar to pedal point on an organ with the melody on the

chanter producing consonances and dissonances over the held notes of the

regs.

The three regulators are beautifully balanced as he was a great reed maker.

Paddy Keenen – Some Techniques

E flat on the upper octave

Treble high D: The Wild Irishman Reel