For my 40th birthday, my dad gave me his Triplett 34-string Celtic harp.  I have envied this beautiful instrument from the first time that he brought it home. At the time, I was also a little resentful that I had spent years learning the highland bagpipe and it seemed as if he had saved the most beautiful instrument for himself! (Besides, the harp was the instrument of heaven and the bagpipe was the instrument of hell, at least according to Gary Larson in a Farside comic from years ago.)

Standing there looking down on this instrument in its blue case, I could hardly believe it: he was handing over the keys to his harp to me! At his urging, I picked it up in its nylon and sheep's fleece case to carry it out to my car, but the instrument was so awkward that I faltered. But, he wanted me to carry down the hill and out to my car. I felt as though I had bunjee cords around my ankles. He couldn't be serious!

When I got home, I carefully brought it inside and took it out of its case. I just let it rest for a few days to get acclimated to its new home and occassionally strummed on its strings which were terribly out of tune. After I started trying to tune it, I broke several strings within a very short period of time. Suddenly, it seemed as though I had this magnificient instrument with almost infinite potential just laying musically dormant with its broken strings. I saw a connection between this beautiful harp that my dad had given me, and the body and life that my parents had given me some 40 years ago. What potential within my body was laying dormant before being fully effected by a change of strings and a tune-up?

2009 St. Louis Tionol

There must be a sentiment of amateur journalists that I would paraphrase as “If only I knew that I would be writing this article, then I would have taken better notes!” If not, then such is the feeling with which I enthusiastically yet humbly present the following overview of the 2009 Mississippi River Celtic Music Festival, also known as the St. Louis Tionól. Of particular interest to me this year was Peter Browne’s attendance. As a teenager, his uilleann piping on “The Gathering” was one of the first recordings that I heard of Irish music. So, the chance not only to meet Browne, but also to learn from him at the intermediate piping workshop as well as to attend both a Friday presentation about the history of broadcasting in Ireland and a Saturday presentation on the life of Willie Clancy was, indeed, a rare opportunity.

The Tionól
An annual highlight for Celtic music in the Midwest took place in St. Louis, Missouri on April 3rd - 5th, 2009. Now in its 12th year, the St. Louis Tionól has consistently drawn some of the best talent in the Irish music world for workshops, concerts and sessions. In addition to many talented teachers and musicians from both sides of the Atlantic (including Patrick Ourceau, John Skelton, Andrew O’Brien, Roger Landes and Ged Foley to name just a few), a 3-day reed-making workshop was taught by reed and pipe-maker, Jim Wenham on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to visit with several pipers who had crafted at least one chanter reed under Wenham’s guidance.

Friday Lecture
On Friday afternoon at Saint Louis University, Peter Browne gave a presentation on the history of broadcasting in Ireland. Browne, host of the RTÉ program The Rolling Wave ¬– as well as a student of the three gods of Irish piping, Seamus Ennis, Willie Clancy and Leo Rowsome – seems uniquely qualified to comment on technological and musical trends in traditional Irish music. Browne summarized the last 80+ years of broadcasting in Ireland and presented several examples from the early days of mobile recording in Ireland. Thank you to Mr. Browne for clarifying this cutting-edge technology (at least by 1940s standards!) later by email:

The Mobile Recording Unit (MRU) came to Raidió Éireann in 1947. It was the first time recordings were made by RÉ outside of the studio setting. The medium was acetate discs (like 78s but more fragile).

When magnetic tape eventually came to Ireland (from Germany) after the war, the fragile acetate discs were transferred onto the more durable medium. To do so, a collection of needles was needed to find the right match for the stylus that was originally used to cut the acetate. In other words, if the needle used in the transfer was too small, then the sound quality was diminished. On the other hand, if the needle used in the transfer was bigger than the one used to cut the acetate, it might damage the disc.

On an interesting side note, Browne commented that when traditional musicians were first brought from the countryside into the studio, mock farm scenes were constructed to help them feel more at ease with this alien environment!

Friday Concert
An evening concert was held at the Schlafly Taproom with performances by tionól teachers to whet the musical appetites of festival participants and Irish music fans from across the Midwest. A personal highlight for me was Skip Healy’s performance on flute. Boyish, charismatic and cowboy boot-wearing, Healy’s flute playing was vibrant and melodic with a driving rhythm. By an interesting coincidence, Healy had learned several tunes from Michael Cooney’s uncle while living in County Tipperary, Ireland. A native of Rhode Island, Healy explained that, at the time that he was living in Ireland, Michael was living in St. Louis so their paths did not cross until later. Of Course, Michael Cooney is one of the co-founders of the St. Louis Tionól along with Mike Mullins, patriarch of St. Louis Irish piping.

Saturday Class
In a classroom at Nerinx High School in Webster Groves, uilleann pipers from across the country gathered to glean musical wisdom from a consummate cadre of piping instructors including Michael Cooney, Peter Browne and Gay McKeon. In the intermediate workshop with Peter Browne, I made reference to a point from his Friday lecture. “Were you there?” he inquired. I dryly responded, “yes, I’ve been following you around for a few days!”

Browne was both scholarly and approachable, factual yet humorous and he spoke much as he played the pipes by condensing tightly packaged phrases with such precision and rapidity that it was difficult to fully digest everything that was heard. Much like a melody that is performed so quickly that the subtlety cannot be discerned upon first impresssion, Browne engaged and sometimes surprised the students with his musical insights and unexpected turns-of-phrases. It was for him, perhaps, the most efficient means of communicating a tremendous amount of musical and factual information into the finite format of the workshop. In just the morning session he taught a lovely double jig from Goodman’s collection Tunes of the Munster Pipers entitled “The Humors of Cloyne” and the slow air Casadh an tSúgáin or “The Twisting of the Hayrope.” According to Browne, he learned this slow air from a recording of Willie Clancy, who in turn had learned it from Leo Rowsome. Browne explained that the air was meant to commemorate a wily mother outsmarting her daughter’s suitor by having him hold one end of the straw cordage as she twisted a longer and longer piece of rope. When the rope was sufficiently long and the suitor was safely outside the house, she simply closed the door on him!

An important aspect of Browne’s approach to slow airs is that a basic knowledge of the lyrics (if there are any) can give the piper what he refers to as “a sense of the inner architecture” of the music. The idea is not that a slow air should be phrased exactly as a vocalist would sing the lyrics, but that knowing just a line or two of a song can provide the piper an “underlying structure” to approach slow air playing.
A presentation during the noon lunch break focused on the life of Willie Clancy. According to Browne, Clancy was a carpenter by trade and not only a piper, but also a singer, dancer and flute player. Willie’s father Gilbert was a close friend of Garret Barry; through this connection, the young Willie inherited much of Barry’s musical legacy in spite of the fact that Barry had passed away some twenty years before his birth. Several archival interviews of Clancy further colored the lines of what Browne had described that morning as a process of ‘sympathetic magic’: the more you know about a piper like Clancy, how he lived and other aspects of his life, the more your music will become imbued with his character.

During the afternoon session, we learned the second part of the slow air and started a reel with the interesting title “The Cat that Ate the Candle.”

Saturday Concert and Sessions
The Saturday concert was hosted this year for the first time at the Union Avenue Opera House; the new venue proved to be an intimate setting for a superb evening of acoustic performances by the tionól teachers. Step-dancers from St. Louis Irish Arts provided a colorful, dynamic dimension to the many excellent musical performances. After the concert, a return to the Schlafly Taproom spawned many joy-filled sessions that lasted into the wee hours of the morning.

Sunday At McGurk’s
John D. McGurk’s Irish Pub in Soulard provides the perfect conclusion to a weekend-long musical journey. Exuding a palpable Celtic character, McGurk’s is a structural homage to the artistic and literary contributions of the Irish. Within these walls, the cozy spaces unfold and provide a rich environment from which music seems to spring forth spontaneously like morel mushrooms in the various nooks and crannies of the pub. As I wandered from room to room seeing faces both old and new, I was reminded of the comfortable, familial feeling that Irish music invokes: a deep sense of connection. And even though I am not Irish by heritage, it is an honor to be a part of this extended family that comes from playing Irish traditional music.

© 2009 by J. Beau Buffington