Just a couple of lines following on from a PM I got which put this into a better perspective for me. I hope the originator doesn't mind. Perhaps we are discussing the wrong aspect here. Maybe it is the way it is described that matters. "Traditional piping" or "modern piping" both have a place as many have agreed. Maybe the folly is to mix their descriptions when playing or broadcasting. Playing a modern tune (say a current number one) on a crumhorn or rebec for instance. Early music? Traditional? Pop? Playing in a modern style on a traditional instrument doesn't make it traditional does it? Surely it's the style and the music that makes it traditional and not just the instrument. Remember, that "traditional" Morris instrument the concertina isn't that old but the style of playing the tunes is. Maybe that's the issue that angers/outrages? Just a thought. Colin Hill ----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, May 15, 2006 10:58 PM Subject: *** SPAM *** [NSP] Re: Penguin cafe n' that
> I write here from a lengthy observation of the Northumbrian piping world and its growing pains over the last 32 years. My interest began in the early 1970's.Billy Pigg was 4 years dead.Jack Armstrong was unable to play through ill health.The 3 shepherds were exactly that, although much appreciated in their own remote(then )locality.No-one then made pipes professionally. The era then was very much that of the gentlemen amateurs, and I look back on it with affection.Much of what is now the subject of learned(?)debate remained to be rediscovered.In those early years anyone who could play the pipes to a reasonable standard was made welcome and the young tigers of those times were revered no matter what their style of playing.Just being able to get through a set of variations was enough in those days.We only had the NPS 1, and Charlton tunebooks.This modern fundamentalism is a relatively recent phenomenon and i think has arisen because of the wider availability of the instrument! > and its detatchment from its cultural roots.However, there is a strength in it in that it helps to define a style which an individual may modify to himself.Also Northumberland pipes have a fingering system that is unique to them and not to at least attempt to play with some clarity of articulation will lead to them simply becoming another instrument, like a fiddle or a flute.We now condemn "choyting" but it is only wth the advent of the millenium that we were told we were doing wrong! > Having said this most of us in the early days did not seek to emulate ocasional visitors who had obvious highland roots in their playing.However,the strongly codified militaristic highland traditon has kept that instrument thriving, to the pont that their revisonists feel able to take liberties with it and so it goes on.Have fun. > Steve Barwick > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [email protected] > Sent: Mon, 15 May 2006 11:10:17 +0200 > Subject: [NSP] Re: Penguin cafe n' that > > > Yup, why limit the instrument? > > What's the "proper" way to play the fiddle/violin? Fritz kreisler, andrew > manze, grappelly, clarence gatemouth brown, shlomo minz, martin hayes, harry > cox? > I have my preferences among this handful (and kreisler is not one of them). > > Chirs > > P.s. all the members of Apocalyptica q.v. can play their instruments > "properly" if required to. > c > > -----Original Message----- > From: Colin [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Monday, May 15, 2006 12:22 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: [NSP] Re: Penguin cafe n' that > > > At the risk of getting my head bitten off, it isn't a piping competition is > it. > Fair enough, if it was there would be justification in complaining but, as > it isn't, there isn't apart from a personal "I don't like it". > There is no right or wrong way to play an instrument. There is a set way to > play for competitions or exams. > (I seem to recall a rock 'n' roller playing the piano keys with both hands a > foot?). > Yes, you need to get the notes right but for anything else that's up to the > player. It's called personal style. > Yes, it does sound like a cross between NSP and SSP but I thought it sounded > quite good. I wouldn't be buying it because it's not quite what I like. > Different yes but still a reasonable listen. > I think I am right in saying that she has actually proven that she can play > in "traditional" style as well. > We'll be getting into the "what is folk music" sphere here if we are not > careful. > I think the guitar reference was rather good. > Unless, of course, we all want to stick to playing Buttered Peas? > Colin Hill > ----- Original Message ----- > From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[email protected]> > Sent: Sunday, May 14, 2006 10:41 PM > Subject: [NSP] Penguin cafe n' that > > > > Hi All, > > > > Pigeons......................CAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! > > > > Who are these people who seem to think they can tell everyone else how to > > play their pipes? Who decides what is and isn't traditional? Billy Pigg > was an > > excellent piper and was very good at all that staccatto stuff. However if > you > > don't happen to like music that always seems to sound like a fairground > machine > > then you may not like his style. There are many different ways to play > pipes > > and Kathryn seems to do them all very well. We often forget that > imagination > > and innovation are the oldest traditions we have. Without these we would > not > > have ..... ahem.... Northumbrian smallpipes. > > > > Where did all these piping Nazis come from that think they can tell other > > pipers how they should and shouldn't play? > > > > Dave W. > > > > -- > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > > > > > > -- > >
