Uillean Piping..O'Flynn Vs Kennan

Subject: Uillean Piping..O'Flynn Vs Kennan
From: Colin The Whistler (inactive)
Date: 16 Apr 99 - 08:09 PM

Right....what about this !!!

Legatto & Staggato Piping (forgive the spelling). Argue the difference between the both..Is it style, Is it ability, is it what you've been taught in your area ?, maybe its a different approach to the speed & stlye of music in general. Tell me the diffrence between Liam O Flynn & Paddy Kennan. Planxty & The Bothy Band, Willie Clancy and leo Rowlesome....

Here's my ten bobs worth !! Keenan's style is fast just like Davey spillane..but O Flynn's is more relaxed matured.. Your can here the roll or Cran approaching you during the tune and its dileverance is timely and excuted without faulter to every section of the grace note. To the untrained ear, Keenan and Spillane excute their deliverance in a more rushed, but yet exciting fasion. I can here their excellance, but it's there and gone to quick...Like a Long Pint of Guiness..it should be there to be savoured and drolled upon.

I was taught the better side of whistle by two people..Billy Mc Cormack (Piper Kilfenora Co. Clare Ex Belfast)and Leslie Bingham (Belfast). I won an Ulster Championship at 17 and never feel I matured to my full potential (life's other commitments.) Having played and sung in several groups I always maintain the fundamentals that these two people shared with me. Do it ..do it right..Spend 2 years perfecting your rolls , Crans and triplets wityhout learning a tune and your playing will be so much improved.. For me it's O'Flynn..hands down. He's a god to all I was taught.. only wish I could even match half of him !!

What Do YA Think ? Yea or Nea

Colin Ballygally

Subject: RE: Uillean Piping..O'Flynn Vs Kennan
From: The Shambles
Date: 17 Apr 99 - 06:09 AM

I don't know enough about playing the instrument to take sides, but my admiration for is ANYONE who can take that combination of used plumbing and dead animals and make anything resembling music out of it.

It may not sound like it but it is my favourite instrument and one that can really move me to tears. You seem to hear it with your heart, rather than your ears, but how you actually play the thing is a mystery to me.

Subject: RE: Uillean Piping..O'Flynn Vs Kennan
From: Alice
Date: 17 Apr 99 - 09:35 AM

The way O'Flynn plays makes the sound very much like singing. Love it.

Alice Flynn in montana

Subject: RE: Uillean Piping..O'Flynn Vs Kennan
From: Big Mick
Date: 17 Apr 99 - 11:14 AM

O'Flynn, hands down.

Mick

Subject: RE: Uillean Piping..O'Flynn Vs Kennan
From: PIPER AT THE GATE OF DAWN
Date: 17 Apr 99 - 01:13 PM

PADDY KEENAN IS AT HIS BEST WHEN PLAYING TO THE CROWD HE WHO PAYS THE PIPER CALLS THE TUNE THEY ARE BOTH BRILLIANT AND ONE SHOULD NOT COMPARE IF I WAS HALF AS GOOD AS EITHER OF THEM I WOULD NT COMPLAIN REGARDS PATGOD

Subject: RE: Uillean Piping..O'Flynn Vs Kennan
From: Big Mick
Date: 17 Apr 99 - 03:05 PM

HEY PIPER AT THE GATE OF DAWN, QUIT YER BLOODY YELLIN' WOULDYA.........IT HURTS MY EARS!!!!!!!!!!!!! When you type in all caps on line it is considered yelling. And your point is well taken, but I still say it's O'Flynn hands down.

Mick

Subject: RE: Uillean Piping..O'Flynn Vs Kennan
From: Sam Pirt
Date: 18 Apr 99 - 03:03 PM

O'flynn is probably of a calmer nature than Keenan, but both play music with feeling, life and verve.

Bye, Sam

Subject: RE: Uillean Piping..O'Flynn Vs Kennan
From: The Sandman
Date: 19 Nov 11 - 04:45 PM

as i understand it one plays closed style the other open style

Subject: RE: Uillean Piping..O'Flynn Vs Kennan
From: The Sandman
Date: 19 Nov 11 - 04:52 PM

Paddy's flowing, open-fingered style of playing can be traced directly from the style of such great Travelling pipers as Johnny Doran; both Paddy's father and grandfather played in the same style. Although often compared to Doran, Paddy was 19 or 20 when he first heard a tape of Doran's playing; his own style is a direct result of his father's tutelage and influence.
liam o flynn;
"I always imagine," Liam says, "that it must have been extraordinary when the pipes were first developed in the eighteenth century - a whole new instrument and here's a fellow coming around to the local fair with this amazing instrument with extraordinary sounds and inbuilt accompaniment. It became an 'in' instrument that very quickly occupied prime position in the tradition and people of all stations took to it. The big houses took to the instrument and they had their own resident pipers. Then you had the traveling pipers who played at all sorts of outdoor happenings and they evolved a different style that was very immediate and quite open and spectacular. I suppose the whole idea of power was attached to people who played such an extraordinary instrument."

Subject: RE: Uillean Piping..O'Flynn Vs Kennan
From: michaelr
Date: 19 Nov 11 - 10:01 PM

It's a difference of temperament: Liam O'Flynn is a schoolteacher; Paddy Keenan is a hippie traveller. Liam's quote (above, from GSS) says it perfectly.

They're both of them great, and so is Davy Spillane.

Subject: RE: Uillean Piping..O'Flynn Vs Kennan
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 20 Nov 11 - 03:22 AM

Not sure why people feel they have to make comparisons of musicians.. You have your own preference.. get on with your appreciation and allow others to get on with theirs I say! Does it matter who is best... they both have a place!!!

Subject: RE: Uillean Piping..O'Flynn Vs Kennan
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 20 Nov 11 - 04:15 AM

' Comparisons are odious '

both are great pipers, and so are Paddy Moloney, Fin Furey, Ronan Brown and many many more.

Dave H

Subject: RE: Uillean Piping..O'Flynn Vs Kennan
From: Morris-ey
Date: 20 Nov 11 - 05:31 AM

I think Paddy's use of the regulators is pre-eminent. If I had to choose (and I like both) it wuld have to be Paddy Keenan.

Subject: RE: Uillean Piping..O'Flynn Vs Kennan
From: The Sandman
Date: 20 Nov 11 - 06:26 AM

I am more interested in discussing the difference between open playing and closed playing and its immediacy or lack of immediacy.
i get the impression that the open style has a strong immediate dynamic effect, and was used outside by travellers busking.
i like them both too.
perhaps a piper could explain the technical differences between open and closed playing,it would be useful info i could pass on to a student who needs to know more about traditional irish styles for a music exam.

Subject: RE: Uillean Piping..O'Flynn Vs Kennan
From: Jim Martin
Date: 20 Nov 11 - 07:42 AM

I'm sure you'll find something on the subject here:

http://forums.chiffandfipple.com/viewforum.php?f=6