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Post by yankeeclipper on Apr 6, 2009 13:12:24 GMT
Recovering from a weekend 'Tartan Day' celebration was easier this year, thanks to electronic technology. Anticipating the effects of the Macalester College Pipe band playing in a low-ceilinged pub, I brought and wore the Sennheiser noise-canceling headphones that I normally use on extended air travel. They worked a charm, virtually eliminating the drones and reducing the piercing squall of the chanters to a fairly painless level. Noise-cancelling also helped a lot when one of the Celtic rock musicians brought out a mic'ed and amplified bodhran! Only drawback was, the national college basketball championship was on the radio that night, and people kept asking me for the score... Meanwhile, I maintain my position that indoor piping should be restricted to water and sewage.
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Post by David Corner on Apr 6, 2009 15:50:08 GMT
Meanwhile, I maintain my position that indoor piping should be restricted to water and sewage. The highland bagpipe should definitely be played outdoors, but there are other types of bagpipe. The Lowland pipe is undergoing a revival in Scotland. Being bellows blown, they are known as "Cauld Wind Pipes" and are much gentler in tone, and being usually tuned in D, are friendlier for concertina players to play along with. Then there's the Northumbrian pipes, in my opinion the sweetest sounding of bagpipes.
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Post by Dick Glasgow on Apr 7, 2009 8:24:05 GMT
Yes Yankee I agree. The playing of the Great Highland Pipes should never be inflicted on the public in a small Public Bar.
However, I am a great lover of certain forms of indoor Bagpipe.
Each week I am very lucky to be able to play with four different pipers & they each play different Pipes.
Northumbrian Pipes, Border Pipes, Scottish Smallpipes & Uillean Pipes & they all sound absolutely brilliant in small Pubs.
Cheers Dick
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Post by yankeeclipper on Apr 7, 2009 13:54:08 GMT
Ah, yes, my rant was aimed only at piob mhor, the great blood-curdling war pipes that should echo in the glens and corries - not the sweet melodious small pipes of Northumbria and elsewhere.
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Post by Dick Glasgow on Apr 7, 2009 14:05:30 GMT
Of course, the big ones can be SWEET!
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Post by guran on Apr 9, 2009 6:53:44 GMT
I apologize for being a bit off the topic, but if anyone has experienced a hurdygurdy been played indoors you will know what particular music lovers may expose themselves to...or can it... along with certain piping...possibly be part of some astray kind of manhood rite?? To be fair I have met similar opinions about concertinas being played both indoors and outside...so there may be a risk we(?) are somewhat biased here...:-) Goran
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Post by A Coulter on Apr 25, 2009 21:28:28 GMT
;DI love the sound of the Great Highland Pipes played anywhere, I'm drawn like a moth to the flame at the sound of them. The saddest story I've ever heard involved the great pipes being played indoors, the father of a man I used to work with had been a bonny piper, always in demand for dances and local do's, and had gone to war (WW1) as a regimental piper. He was one of the few from his regiment who survived and would never play the pipes in public again as all he could remember when he did was playing his friends to their deaths as they went over the top. The only times he'd get the pipes out after the war was when he got really depressed then he'd lock himself in the wee room and play laments to his lost friends, the street would come out to listen and weep with him.
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Post by guran on Apr 27, 2009 18:30:32 GMT
Hmm...If this is the place for stories I can't resist adding one. Here in Uppsala April 30 is the biggest feast of the year, particularly for academics of all kinds. When I was a student there was a Scotsman here, a guest scientist, known at the institution for being utterly correct with white collar, neck tie, and a constant "stiff upper lip". April 30th he was invited to a student home party but didn't turn up as expected at around 7pm bringing a bottle of wine but did arrive around 11pm with a bottle of whisky. At around 2am he had finished it himself -without saying much during the procedure- while the party started to fade out.He disappeared but came back shortly - bringing his pipes -went out in the garden and started marching in a circle, piping with full throttle and kept on with this occupation without any rest till about noon the next day, keeping roughly 5000 students in the area awake... The only factor keeping himself alive meanwhile must have been the drunken misjudgement among all the 5000 trusting that someone else certainly would send the piper off to Heavenly Highlands within a minute. Next work day the Scotsman turned up at the institution wearing his tie and stiff upper lip as usual ... not commenting the party....
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Post by yankeeclipper on Apr 28, 2009 0:58:16 GMT
Found another good use for electronic noise-cancelling technology last night. I went to a concert by Scots Gaelic singer Julie Fowlis at a local folk club (against my better judgment, as this venue over-amplifies everything). Sure enough, there were twice as many mikes on stage as there were performers, and the wee lassie's voice was boosted to shake the rafters. Halfway into the first song, I donned the Sennheiser headphones in self-defense. Admittedly, the technology knocked a bit off the edges of the music, but at least I managed to enjoy the rest of the concert below the threshold of pain. I think the problem is that the goons who manage sound boards at most concerts have already trashed their own hearing, and boost the amplification to compensate for their own impairment. And most of the folks in the audience live in an mp3 non-stop, overcranked audio environment, and don't know how to actually listen to music.
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Post by Dick Glasgow on Apr 28, 2009 5:03:16 GMT
A friend of mine went to see the great Scottish Folk singer Dick Gaughan in Belfast recently & was very disappointed, because the sound level was boosted so high, that he couldn't actually hear many of the words!
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Post by yankeeclipper on Apr 28, 2009 13:02:58 GMT
A friend of mine went to see the great Scottish Folk singer Dick Gaughan in Belfast recently &...he couldn't actually hear many of the words! So what did he expect? After all, it was Dick Gaughan! I recall an evening in Peebles twenty-some years ago, when Eric Bogle sang a very funny song about "singing like Bob Dylan" - and it was a perfect send-up of Dick Gaughan's singing at that time! ;D Giving credit where due, Bob Dylan's nasal, mumbling singing style is his own unique invention; it has no relationship to the local dialect where he grew up. Gaughan's style - at least, in the '80s - seemed more derivative of Dylan than of Scotland.
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Post by Dick Glasgow on Apr 28, 2009 13:44:06 GMT
Oooooooooh that sounds like fighting talk to me!
Wait till I tell Dick! ;D
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Post by yankeeclipper on Apr 29, 2009 12:49:02 GMT
'Authenticity' once was a hallmark of folk music. Singers made their names with authentic voices - voices of miners, fishermen, tillers of the soil, working people who knew and lived the traditions of which they sang. In the 'folk music' world today, too many singers affect nasal twangs, slurred speech, bad grammar and unnatural accents to fake an impression of authenticity. Bob Dylan is a brilliant poet, musician and songwriter who has shaped much of the music we enjoy today...but for anyone familiar with the Minnesota Iron Range, where Dylan grew up in a solidly middle-class home, his imitation Okie accents are laughable. ;D Does anyone in Scotland actually speak the way Dick Gaughan sings?
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Post by Dick Glasgow on Apr 29, 2009 15:59:09 GMT
I used to see Dick in Sessions in the 70s, in Sandy Bells & Coconut Tams & anytime I heard him speak, he sounded just the same as he does when he is singing. e.g.: Both Sides the TweedHe was born in Leith, which of course, is just outside Edinburgh where I was reared, so I don't hear anything strange in his accent. As for putting on accents when folk sing. I wish I'd a £1 for every time I've heard someone copying a Dubliner's accent when singing a Dubliner's song. I know those put on accents often grate, but I suppose to be fair, I guess singing is an art form of sorts, so perhaps we should allow singers a little poetic license, shouldn't we? One of my favourite Scottish singers, John Martyn, certainly adopted or should I say developed, a very unusual singing style. He tended to slur his words together, but to my ears it sounds absolutely magical & suits his bluesy music. Sweet Little MysteryCheers Dick
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Post by yankeeclipper on Apr 29, 2009 16:24:08 GMT
Chacun á son goût. I enjoyed the link to John Martyn, probably because the singing comes from his vocal chords rather than his adenoids.
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