There's more to folk than Fairport

Just a short squeak on my practice chanter this evening as I was late back from work and then it's band night. The fan helped me with learning the second part of the Whistle. My main problem is that the high A sounds awful on the chanter - something not quite right with the reed - and it's very off-putting.

Anyway, I’m finally getting around to the promised post on my increased interest in traditional music. I suppose the general thrust of the first post was that this is nothing new: traditional music, in one form or another, has always been part of my life. Music has always been part of my life – both listening and playing. The general thrust of this post is about why traditional music bears exploration and re-listening, and also the change – or maybe just an addition to – the ways in which I listen to music.

Traditional music, like a lot of labels for things in the arts, is a very generic term covering a very large range. Such generic labels are often used by those who aren’t familiar with the genre and give rise to comments such as “I’m not interested in classical music” or “I don’t like modern art”. The term “classical music” isn’t actually very helpful. It covers everything from short, light, tinkly bits of piano (you can keep Chopin, as far as I am concerned) to endless hours of Wagnerian opera. Even if you narrow down to just opera there’s a world of difference between a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta and Wagner, or between Mozart and Verdi. Even within the single composer of opera it’s possible to love every second of La Traviata and yet to feel that it would be perfectly possible to live a full and happy life without ever hearing another note of Nabucco. And that’s before you even start on different singers, performances, conductors...

My family generally refer to traditional music as “hey nonny-nonny” or “plinky-plunk” music. I know what they mean and there are definitely bits that could be characterised in one way or another. To the casual listener – as to the casual listener for any genre – it may well “all sound the same”. The more I’ve listened to traditional music the more I have come to understand that it’s a very broad church. The simplest split is between Irish and Scots although plenty of tunes move between the two traditions (I’m ignoring English folk here, because I don’t generally listen to it). There’s the dance music end (Teada), right through to a more orchestral (Duncan Chisholm) or even chamber music (Ian Mcinnes, Deadly Buzz, Martin Hayes) sound, with a single instrument or a handful of carefully chosen instruments. As with the orchestral tradition there is a roughly defined group of instruments that are likely to be involved (pipes of various kinds, fiddles, various stringed instruments, boxes of all sorts, whistles) and instruments that you don’t expect, but which somehow work very well (harpsichord, harmonium, horns). Then there is all the crossover of traditions – Irish and Swedish, Irish and Galician, or folk rock or electric folk. Even a single instrument can be used in lots of different ways.

Traditional music, on other words, is not just River Dance or the Morris or the highland fling. It is a whole world of music and if you spent your whole life listening only to that you wouldn't lack musical variety. And as with any music the more you listen the more you hear the nuances, the differences.

 

Hm. So I think this was part two - "there's a lot more to folk music than Fairport". Part three, when I get round to it, will cover how I am learning to listen to music differently.

 

Rereading the blog recently I spotted my pledge to play every day in February, which I had totally forgotten! February starts soon, and I must try to record as often as I can. I will keep blogging to a minimum so that spare time goes on piping.