CP: It's Amazing

[killthemessenger]

I'll still with the labels of educated/uneducated. Here's my two cents. Educated music is pretty predictable. You know what's going to happen, you bought tickets, you wore your best clothes. It's great music. I would love tickets. Uneducated music can happen at homes, gin joints, churches, country bars (sometimes with dirt floors) fields, farms, and campfires. Musicians aren't obligated to play in a predictable manner. They can express their own spirit of the moment. You don't know what you're really going to get, and you can get into an adventure or trouble with uneducated music. What's not to like?

Of course, it's great. I wouldn't say (indeed, I'd fiercely dispute!) that concert music is predictable, though - I remember listening to performances (recorded or live) by Glenn Gould, Niklaus Harnoncourt, Frans Bruggen, Brendel, Savall, among so many others, for the first time and being completely amazed by what they'd done with pieces I thought I knew backwards. The same is true of whistle music or anything else. If it's predictable, then most likely you aren't listening closely enough.

[benhall.1]

I'll still with the labes of educated/uneducated. Here's my two cents. Educated music is pretty predictable. You know what's going to happen, you bought tickets, you wore your best clothes. It's great music. I would love tickets. Uneducated music can happen at homes, gin joints, churches, counry bars (sometimes with dirt floors) fields, farms, and campfires. Musicians aren't obligated to play in a predictable manner. They can express their own spirit of the moment. You don't know what you're really going to get, and you can get into an adventure or trouble with uneducated music. What's not to like?

OK. I'm going to take the opposite viewpoint to ktm for a moment. Which curiously seems to back up what he's saying. By your definition, as I understand it there, mutie, a great deal of trad Irish music is "educated". It's "predictable", at least as much as with classical music; there's no "expres[sing] [the] spirit of the moment" in that you play the tune being played; and you pretty much know what you're going to get - it's going to be something recognisable from within a finite, if large, repertoire. A bit like classical music, then.

[Doug_Tipple]

My wife and I attended a concert last night. For the past few years we have been attending monthly concerts called the "folk series" at the Unitarian Church in our neighborhood. The "folk series" is a good mixture of all types of folk music, and last night it was a blues singer from Chicago.I won't mention his name. I can't say that I enjoyed the concert much. My wife liked it, though. As the performer was tuning up before the concert, I had the distinct impression that he really didn't know what in-tune was and is, and he played through the whole concert with both guitars obviously out of tune. I guess that really doesn't matter much for the blues, as the music was very well-received by the audience. Maybe I am a little prudish when it comes to music.

[mutepointe]

Killthemessenger and benhall.1 make some interesting points which go to show how varied music is and very difficult to label.

[maki]

My wife and I attended a concert last night. For the past few years we have been attending monthly concerts called the "folk series" at the Unitarian Church in our neighborhood. The "folk series" is a good mixture of all types of folk music, and last night it was a blues singer from Chicago.I won't mention his name. I can't say that I enjoyed the concert much. My wife liked it, though. As the performer was tuning up before the concert, I had the distinct impression that he really didn't know what in-tune was and is, and he played through the whole concert with both guitars obviously out of tune. I guess that really doesn't matter much for the blues, as the music was very well-received by the audience. Maybe I am a little prudish when it comes to music.

Or maybe what is attractive about 'folk music' to people who don't know music is that if the player is deemed authentic, then the music is correct.
One of the great thing about ITM (for me at least) is the very high standards of most of those who listen and play, these folks don't mind telling you if you're out of tune, have poor rhythm, missed notes, or if you're ornamentation is mushy.
Not that ITM people are mean, just unafraid to say it as they see it.

I'm disinclined swallow hog wash and call it an apple smoothie.

[Doug_Tipple]

To say that the flute is loved by people in every culture all around the world is an understatement. Today, Favian Ee in the Republic of Singapore sent me a link to his youtube video. He uses my low C flute to play music at church. Nice playing, Favian.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0SyAvk ... r_embedded

[Terry McGee]

Yesterday, a friend coincidentally passed on a web link which returns us briefly to the question of links to communism in the early folk revival period (nyet, nyet, you groan....).

The link is to the Association for Cultural Equity, itself I think a name wonderfully loaded with revolutionary zeal. Its founder, folklorist Alan Lomax, was under investigation for 37 years by the FBI (800 pages of files). MI5 too, but they could never really pin anything on him. According to Wikipedia:

An FBI report dated July 23, 1943, describes Lomax as possessing "an erratic, artistic temperament" and a "bohemian attitude." It says: "He has a tendency to neglect his work over a period of time and then just before a deadline he produces excellent results." The file quotes one informant who said that "Lomax was a very peculiar individual, that he seemed to be very absent-minded and that he paid practically no attention to his personal appearance." This same source adds that he suspected Lomax's peculiarity and poor grooming habits came from associating with the hillbillies who provided him with folk tunes".

Damning stuff, eh? I think I probably resemble those remarks!

Anyway, returning to the ACE, there's some Irish content (though no flutes immediately apparent) at:
http://research.culturalequity.org/get- ... sortBy=abc



Other stuff can be found via:
http://research.culturalequity.org/rc-b ... -guide.jsp

I did find a fife being used in the American context, played by Ed Young. Easiest way to find that seems to be Browse by Artist.



Getting back to Ben's Degrees of Separations, I'm not sure I've met Lomax, though I spent some time where he worked at the Library of Congress. I have met heaps of the people he worked with over the years - Seamus Ennis, Peter Kennedy, Hamish Henderson, to name a few. And his one-time lover, Shirley Collins, came to my place once to borrow a banjo!

"I've danced with a man, who's danced with a girl, who's danced with the Prince of Wales". (1927)

Terry

[maki]

Well Terry, if that is your real name, you are obviously part of the vast mumble, mumble conspiracy.
Nonconformist? Check.
Long haired? Check.
Artistic tempermant? Check.
Musically inclined? Double check!
Yep, you're clearly subsersive to the blankty, blank, blank, blank.

[Steve Bliven]

Plus, he admits to having possessed a banjo...

Best wishes.

Steve

[Denny]

I think I probably resemble those remarks!

I know that I do...

[Terry McGee]

Plus, he admits to having possessed a banjo...

Having helped make the banjo, actually. It was one of those Appalachian style ones as seen in the Hobart Smith image above, but fretted. (I'm not that brave!) I was expecting Shirley to recoil in horror when she saw it, but that was before I knew of the Lomax connection. Silly me. Should have checked her FBI file...

Terry

[Doug_Tipple]

There are no banjos in my house, I'm proud to say, but there are two mandolins. I just got feedback from a customer who is used to playing the silver concert flute. She wrote,
"These flutes make me laugh! They're ridiculously light and I just want to go around bopping people on the head with them." I called my lawyer, and she recommends liability insurance, just in case.

[mutepointe]

That's one of the nice thing about your flutes and pvc flutes in general. They take musical instruments into places that even serious musicians would not think to take any of their other instruments. Who is going to go hiking or floating in a pool or bop people on the head with any other type of flute? Making a pvc flute yourself brings musical instruments to people who could not otherwise afford to play an instrument or casually give away most any other instrument.

[Doug_Tipple]

Since this is a CP, I got this review tonight from Russia:
Hello Doug!

I’ve received my flute! It’s really good. I played several tunes, and find its voice similar to voices that well-known flutists extract from their instruments. My new flute’s sound is very loud and distinctive, that as I wanted. Due to wide range of loudness and simplicity of its regulation, I can perform the expressive play. Large finger holes are also helpful with that. Slides are great, prolonged and flexible, so I can effectively accent some moments in tunes. Lightly producing cuts and strikes make the ornamentation more ergonomic. Little weight of the instrument prevents hands from premature fatigue.
The fingering is most similar to that, I accustomed to use, except note C in second octave. It’s a little bit complicated to set for the first time, because you need to use three fingers except one (like in whistle’s fingering).
Different head joins open the wide field for experiments with sound, so you can compare and decide, what is more suitable to play favorite tunes: traditional ways (head joint without lip plate) or innovation (head joint with lip plate). From my point of view, traditional head joint is perfect to play reels, jigs and hornpipes, and innovative one is more for airs and slow variations.
Black faux rings and white plastic perform a pleasant contrast for eyes. All the holes are cleanly cut, what also adds the list of the instrument advantages. The joint slides are properly regulated, but still, as you said in the instruction, it’s necessary to lubricate the foot joint, which tight a bit.
Separately from all that already said, I want to define the easiness in performing the vibratos. You need a small amount of air to produce throat vibrato, and extend it as long as need. Conveniently constructed embouchures help to play vibratos properly.
At the end of the testimonial, it’s necessary to say that it’s pleasant to have the instrument with good voice and of common materials. Plastic is a perfect decision in the matter of saving rare trees, and your skill of making flutes from such material helps it greatly. Thank you very much!
P.S. I’ll put the video with my playing on your YouTube channel, as soon as I accustom with my new flute.