This is my little set of tunes “Sir Charles Coote” and “Miss Murphy” by O’Carolan.
https://youtu.be/P83xoV8M-g8
Toomas Rannu
Flat-backed mandolin, crafted by Viljar Kuusk in 2008 (Tallinn, Estonia).
This is my little set of tunes “Sir Charles Coote” and “Miss Murphy” by O’Carolan.
https://youtu.be/P83xoV8M-g8
Toomas Rannu
Flat-backed mandolin, crafted by Viljar Kuusk in 2008 (Tallinn, Estonia).
Nice playing Toomas, I enjoyed that and it looks like a tricky set for the left hand. Interesting to see you using pick and fingers to pluck the strings too. I think that is quite rare on the mandolin but it seems to work well for you although I'm no mandolin teacher!
That was beautiful. I’ve never heard anyone make a mandolin sound like a harp before, but you managed to do it. Well done!
...
Beautifully played. It's nice to hear O'Carolan's tunes given space to breathe.
Thank you! I was looking for an airy and harp-like sound and found that O’Carolan's music is exactly what to test it on. Somehow this playing technique gives more individuality to the sounds, opens the harmony inside the melody without adding a single sound for accompaniment, and helps to draw an emotional and characteristic picture of the person to whom the music is dedicated.
A fine departure from your usual offerings, Toomas, and a lovely sound with that picking technique.
For those who have not heard Toomas's playing before, he has an excellent YT channel where he specialises in folk material from Europe and plays with the fingers of his right hand rather than a pick, creating harmonies as he plays.
Last edited by John Kelly; Feb-18-2021 at 11:56am. Reason: typo
I'm playing all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order. - Eric Morecambe
http://www.youtube.com/user/TheOldBores
I like this, I can't give any technical reason why, I just like this. well done.
Thanks Toomas, nice tunes and playing. By the way, musicians of the past weren't always very careful to match the people to whom they dedicated the tunes with the music. A letter exists from a very fine late 18thC Scottish fiddle composer called William Marshall to his music publisher, which says something to the effect of: 'You may notice that I have published 30 of these tunes before under different names, but the dedicatees (names of the tunes) being deceased, I don't think they will mind'. The implication is that he had renamed those tunes after people on the list to buy his 'new' tune collection. I'm sure Turlough O'Carolan would never do anything like that...
Thank you! It is interesting to think that if music speaks, so what it says? Or if it describes something in sounds, could we draw a picture according to that description? Or if we draw a picture in sounds, would there be any hope that different people would perceive it similarly? Or what a blind harpist imagined when he created his songs?
Bookmarks