Chiff and Fipple Forums

Heres a quote from a youtube clip , link below.

It just occurred to me on listening to this again that those have got to be Seamus Ennis's old Coyne pipes Liam is using on this track. Quite a bit sharp of C nat which would correlate. Nice to hear them in a very different setting and still played by a master piper.

Do you agree with the quote ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nz1TLTR8hgo

RORY

the only thing that is certain is that it is a C# chanter.

I dunno, Rory. I wuz thinking there were a lot of old wounds surrounding that Coyne set and what its current condition is. . .


Bob

that chanter had its tonsils done, from the bell to the throat. Before the most recent operation it had already been messed with, apparently some by Seamus amongst others. NPU and Sean Reid society have written a code of practice, partly as a result of this case, to cover how to deal with old and/or iconic instruments. Best to make a copy and mess with that than carve into the old stick. Lovely piping from LOF.

LOF plays a C# chanter on the last track of "Out to another side", Sean O Duibhir a Ghleanna. He doesn't mention who made the instruments he plays in the liner notes.

I've only heard 2 recordings of LOF playing the Coyne - Drones and Chanters Vol 2 and in an RTE broadcast of The Late Session from december 2002 (available via D'Arcy's site).

He played them on 'The fine art of piping', they're on the cover of that one too.

I have seen him play them on a number of occasions. On one occasion he let several people, including myself have a go.

On the Pipers call video ,during the interview section ,he plays the Coyne set with his father on the fiddle.
My first impression on hearing the Youtube clip was that its sounds nothing like Seamus's pipes, but then the way the clip was recorded could account for that.

RORY

And then there's LOF saying in an interview that Ennis played his (Flynn's) pipes and 'there was the unmistakeable Ennis sound'. Funny how that works isn't it?

And then there's Clancy playing Flynn's pipes during the early sixties. Sounding like, well, Clancy, and nothing like the other two.

As far as I know Ennis bequeathed the C sharp set to LOF.

Ballygo.

It goes without saying that Liam O'Flynn sounds like Liam O'Flynn when hes playing a set of pipes ,afterall the piper plays the pipes not the other way round. But the tonal characteristics of the instrument will still come through.
When I first heard the clip I thought it was his David Quinn C chanter. I know its a different pitch but tonally they sound similar.

RORY

But the tonal characteristics of the instrument will still come through

Other than hearing a general Rowsome-type sound do you really feel you'd recognise the pipes played here as the same one Flynn plays? Really?

Well, actually yes I can hear some tonal similarities. You also have to bear in mind the recording method and situation.
Can you deny that a good set of pipes will not have some influence on how a good piper plays them ? It probably takes some time for the piper to get the best from a set of pipes, just picking up someones pipes and having a go doesn't give you time to form a relationship with your pipes . I would think that in part Liam O'Flynn's style comes from his long term playing of his Rowsome set.
But apart from that a set of pipes will have its own inherent sound.

RORY

But would you have noticed if you hadn't been told it was the same set?

You're right ofcourse about all that stuff, I was having a little poke at you there.

In fact when we were playing in the church for Martin Rochford's funeral I was sitting in the pew behind Liam O Flynn, a few feet away from the pipes. At some point during the mass he played Buachaill Caol Dubh and it struck me there his regs did have a certain honk (for want of a better word) off them that you never notice on any of his recordings, very similar to what Clancy is getting there.

I have also taught a girl who played a Rowsome chanter that was hand picked by Seán Reid for it's former owner and she could get some of the exact same sounds out off that chanter that Flynn gets. Quite nice ly actually.

So yes, that's to an extend the pipes speaking.

On the other hand I remember Geoff used to get calls from people asking if they would sound 'like your man Gumby' if they ordered a C set. Geoff always told them a firm 'No'. Not sure that would be a source of relief or disappointment to them though.

There was also the occasion in Cloghanmore when Maire ni came to collect her C set. We swapped around C set, my 1986 C, Maire's new one and the Harrington. Each of us sounding distinctly different from the two other pipers and distinctly like ourselves on each set of pipes.

On another occasion one of Ronan Browne's Harringtons was passed around and I distinctly remember Ronan coming up to me when one person was playing them and asking tell him they did't sound like that when he played them. Well no they didn't, far from it.


It's complex stuff, a piper with an open ear will be guided by his/her pipes to get the best out of them and the sound will be part pipes and part what the piper brings, each influencing the other. But it's far from straight forward. Interesting stuff though.

Didn't Nick Adams or someone make new squeakers for that Coyne, before LO'F recorded TFART? TFAOSP, I mean. Heh, wasn't that a funk instrumental from the 1970s?

And Froment or someone later made yet another batch of reeds - which we hear on D+C2? That clip sounds like the Ennis pipes, eerily so in fact; the solo album doesn't. Still sounded lovely, of course, but different. Nice motorboat bottom D. Come on, Liam, hit the gym, dude. Work those armbuster reeds.

Also remembering PLGumby telling us how the original drone reeds were waxed in place, and so black with age people weren't sure if they were cane or elder.

Hi Guys
I think you may find the chanter played on the u-tube clip is actually a B chanter and not the old Coyne C# chanter, just a thought.
cheers,
stew.