Mick & Aoife O'Brien & Emer Mayock
More Tunes from The Goodman Manuscripts
This is the second recording from Mick O’Brien (uilleann pipes/flute/whistle), Emer Mayock (flute/whistle/pipes) and Aoife Ní Bhriain (fiddle, viola, concertina) of music collected by James Goodman (1828-96) in the southwest of Ireland in the mid-nineteenth century.
The manuscripts, held at Trinity College Dublin and now published in two volumes by the Irish Traditional Music Archive are of great significance because they preserve much of the traditional music of the south of Ireland as it was sung and played in the years before traditional culture there was devastated by the Great Famine of the 1840s.
This recording draws primarily from the second published volume while occasionally revisiting the previously explored initial volume. The manuscripts continue to reward repeated visits and provide new possibilities when viewed anew and in a different light.
What the trio present on this new recording is a compelling selection from over one thousand tunes in the distilled edition exemplifying the range of material contained there while including some more unusual items unearthed this time around.
Having received a TG4 Gradam Ceoil Award in 2014 for their collaborative role in the revival of the music of the Goodman manuscripts, this recording marks a development in the trio’s musical approach, at times enlarging the instrumental palette and adding layers or paring things right back. The resulting sound is in places quite different from the previous recording having continued to develop through live performance for a number of years now.
Audio
Track 1: Lady O'Brien
Track 2: Coffee & Tea
Track 3: Reel / Polka
Track 4: Split the Whisker (the new)/The Black Joke
Track Listing
- Johnny is gone to France / Highlanderʼs Kneebuckle / Lady OʼBrien 04:09
- Coffee and Tea / OʼSullivanʼs Fancy 03:25
- Ceann Dubh Dileas (My dark-haired darling) 04:22
- The Cup of Tea / The Kerry Lassie 03:09
- Pádruig, Píobaire (Patrick the Piper) / Quadrille 02:51
- Jig. SG / Cailleach an Dilisg / Glanmorgan House 03:58
- Siobhán Mhór, or The Eagleʼs Whistle 05:25
- The Wash-woman / The Aberdeen Reel / The Merry Time of Easter 03:18
- ʻRaithinneach, a Bhean Bheagʼ / Greggʼs Pipes 04:21
- Bonny Anne / Iʼm Over Young to Marry Yet / The Drummond Lasses 02:50
- Humours of Glynn 06:28
- Polkas: Reel / Polka 02:50
- ʻSplit the Whiskerʼ (The new) / The Black Joke 03:27
Watch the trio perform on our Copperplate Channel on You Tube
Also available from Copperplate and featuring Mick O'Brien
May Morning Dew
Kitty Lie Over With Caoimhin O'Raghallaigh
Deadly Buzz with Caoimhin O'Raghallaigh
Tunes from the Goooman Manuscripts
Press Reviews
More Tunes from the Goodman Manuscripts is the second album from the virtuoso trio of Mick O’Brien (uilleann pipes/flute/whistle), Emer Mayock (flute/whistle/pipes) and Aoife Ní Bhriain (fiddle, viola, concertina). This exciting new recording showcases a compelling selection from over one thousand tunes notated by James Goodman (1828-96) in the mid-19th century.
'This second collection is a repository of enormous beauty and depth as it turns its attention to some of the more unusual Goodman tunes, and revels in their diversity. Every note and ornamentation is precisely judged' - Siobhán Long, The Irish Times
Having received a TG4 Gradam Ceoil Award in 2014 for their debut musical collaboration, Tunes from the Goodman Manuscripts, the trio returns once more to this iconic collection for inspiration. This time however, there has been a development in their musical approach. The resulting sound is, in places, quite different from the previous recording. Some more unusual items have been unearthed this time around and the musical arrangements vary in scale and complexity.
Like its predecessor, More Tunes from the Goodman Manuscripts offers further insight into the traditional music of Pre-Famine Ireland. Containing everything from lesser known versions of tunes in the modern repertoire, to tunes unique to the Goodman Collection this album is a must-listen for any Traditional Irish Music enthusiast.
This album is intended for the serious listener of Irish traditional music. But happily, it can be enjoyed by just about everyone else too. The playing from each of the three artists is absolutely top notch... - TradConnect
The melodic playing of Emer Mayock has placed her at the forefront of traditional Irish music. - AllMusic
[Mick O'Brien's] traditional style shows great delicacy and subtlety, strong in rhythm and enlivened by his unique inflections and nuances, his performances always throw new light on even the most familiar tune. - East Coast Pipers
www.folkradiouk.co.uk
Every now and then some music turns up that exemplifies everything that is wondrous and uplifting about the kind of music you love, and you have immediately to tell everyone who might appreciate it quite how necessary it is for them to have it in their life. More Tunes from the Goodman Manuscripts is one of those albums, in this case in the world of instrumental Irish traditional music.
Mick O’Brien, Emer Mayock and Aoife Ní Bhriain play with a rare level of deft, loving care and infectious exuberance. They are three musicians with serious pedigrees. Mick (uilleann pipes/flute/ whistle), is primarily known as a piper, has made a much-commended solo album, May Morning Dew (1996), and two indispensable albums with Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh – Kitty Lie Over and The Deadly Buzz (the latter reviewed here). Emer (flute/ whistle/pipes) has two solo albums to her name, Merry Bits of Timber (1996), and Playground (2001), has been a member of Afro Celt Sound System since Further In Time (2001), and plays on Rhiannon Gidden’s and Francesco Turrisi’s forthcoming album They’re Calling Me Home. Aoife (fiddle, viola, concertina) has played in Riverdance and other stage shows, a member of the avant garde string quintet Wooden Elephant, collaborated with Martin Hayes, guested on Julie Fowlis’s alterum (2017) and on Birkin Tree’s Five Seasons album (2019), and had a gorgeous track from her pending debut solo album included on the excellent Raelach Records compilation from last year (reviewed here).
This is the second recording from the trio of music collected by James Goodman (1828-1896) in the southwest of Ireland in the mid-nineteenth century. In his later years, Goodman was a canon of the Church of Ireland and Professor of Irish at Trinity College Dublin. In separate RTÉ podcasts, recorded to coincide with the release of the album, Mick and Emer both make the point that as a music collector Goodman lived in the community where he did most of his collecting and that, as a player himself (was an uilleann piper and may have also played flute), he understood the tunes he set out to capture. It is interesting to note that, although the region Goodman did most of his collecting in perhaps now better known for polkas and slides, it seems (if we judge from the trios selections – for both albums) that the manuscripts include a good number of reels, jigs and airs.
By 1866 Goodman had compiled an exceptional manuscript collection of some 2,300 mainly traditional tunes. After his death the collection was held in the Library of Trinity College Dublin and only published by the Irish Traditional Music Archive (ITMA) in two volumes put together by Hugh & Lisa Shields in 1998 and 2013, with both volumes now fully accessible on the ITMA website (omitting those tunes copied from printed sources). The first album of tunes from manuscripts by the trio (same title without the More), which is itself highly recommended, was made in 2012.
The combination of instrumentation that featured significantly on the earlier album, of pipes (Mick), flute (Emer) and fiddle (Aoife), is used here to stirring effect on a number of cheerful sets of reels and jigs, and also on an outstanding air, Ceann Dubh Dileas (My dark-haired darling). The air begins with Emer playing flute the melody over a drone on pipes, and gradually builds throughout, with fiddle and then the pipes picking up the tune; it’s a simple but very effective and haunting arrangement.
The album also though marks a departure from the first album, with a wider range of arrangements, at times adding different instruments in varied combinations or sometimes, conversely, paring things right back. The resulting sound is a rich palette that is compelling and shines a fresh light on these great traditional tunes. On The Cup of Tea / The Kerry Lassie, a set of reels, the first of which bears resemblance to The Copperplate which is a widely played tune (though inevitably there is more than one tune with the same name), I hear Aoife’s viola adding low rhythmic counterpoint to fiddle, flute and maybe also whistle bouncing off it. On Siobhán Mhór, or The Eagle’s Whistle, another tune recorded by others in a different version (as the title track of founding Chieftain’s fiddle player Michael Tubridy’s 1978 solo album, by Boys of the Lough and by Tim Edey, both with Frankie Gavin and Rick Eping, and on his 2019 Being Myself), Aoife takes the floor more or less solo, probing this lovely waltz through a captivating interpretation, which in places has viola providing a drone to the fiddle.
Pádruig, Píobaire (Patrick the Piper), is a delightfully simple slow jig in a set played as a whistle duet, underpinned by a drone on the pipes and maybe also viola. The set picks up pace with the contrasting Quadrille, a decidedly Galician sounding tune (credit to a musician friend for pointing that out), begging the intriguing question as to how that tune made its way to Ireland. We are also treated another duet, this on the pipes, on a set of powerful reels – The Wash-woman / The Aberdeen Reel / The Merry Time of Easter. And to more than amply demonstrate the trio’s versatility, Bonny Anne / I’m Over Young to Marry Yet / The Drummond Lasses is a lively set of reels, with dual flutes, bringing to mind a pair of swallows chasing each other here, carried on a current of foot-tapping fiddle playing.
Mick O’Brien said in the RTE Rolling Wave podcast that Goodman wrote down only the basic melody of the tunes, so musicians reading the tunes are given no directions as to rhythms or variations. For the trio that is a distinct opportunity rather than a constraint. On a set of reels – Raithinneach, a Bhean Bheag’ / Gregg’s Pipes – the first tune, which starts charmingly, if unexpectedly, on concertina, and then flute, joined by a drone from the pipes, has an almost march like quality to it. Reel / Polka is, somewhat confusingly, a set of polkas. Despite its title, it seems that the notation of the first tune suggested a character closer to a polka, and as Emer explained to RTE, ‘we don’t know how the tunes were played in the nineteenth century’.
The importance of the role of collectors in making a written record of traditional music, whilst often contested, is self-evident. What is exceptional about James Goodman, in addition to the point about him not coming in from outside the place where the music was played and being himself a participant, was that he did most of his collecting in the period before the famine in Ireland in the mid-1800s. The manuscripts therefore provide a unique glimpse into traditional music in Ireland before the immense loss of life and displacement that the famine caused, with the attendant substantial impact on the oral transmission of the music. Goodman wrote about his intention in the following terms (of his time, assuming pipers to be men; Emer’s role in these recordings is fittingly of our own time):
The labour of writing has been rendered easy by my desire to preserve the music of my native province, which is fast becoming extinct, and should this work come into the hands of anyone desirous of becoming a proficient on the Irish pipes, he will have without any trouble, a supply of suitable music which it cost me some years to collect and set down in this form. James Goodman, 1861 (quoted on the ITMA website)
The trio it seems took great pleasure in sifting through the 2,000 or so tunes in the manuscripts, firstly identifying tunes that they all liked, and then exploring which tunes might go together to makes up the sets for the album. Emer Mayock talked about them not trying to faithfully replicate how the tunes might have sounded over 150 years ago but rather playing ‘our interpretation of what works for us’. As the listener you get a sense of being taken on that journey of discovery with the trio, and of sharing in the fun they had taking the notes on the page and turning them into these bright, appealing and varied arrangements.
More Tunes from the Goodman Manuscripts has the intimacy and warmth of a pub session (remember those?), as these three intrepid, adroit musicians inhabit the tunes they have excavated with an inspired enthusiasm. The album pulls you in and has you expectant for what melodic delights and mix of instrumentation are coming next. I’m sure James Goodman would have found as much joy in listening to Mick O’Brien, Emer Mayock and Aoife Ní Bhriain’s exceptional offerings from his historic collection as you will. Dave McNally
| THE LIVING TRADITION MICK O'BRIEN, EMER MAYOCK & AOIFE NÍ BHRIAIN - More Tunes From The Goodman Manuscripts Is Mise Records ISMISE004 |
| A second helping of music collected by James Goodman, a Protestant canon and uilleann piper who transcribed tunes “from the Munster pipers” in the mid-1800s, providing one of the best records of the Irish tradition before the disastrous loss of life and culture during the famine years of the 1840s: this CD presents some of the more unusual tunes in Goodman's manuscripts, not just the core jigs and reels but also slow airs and other pieces for listening. With Mick O'Brien and Emer Mayock wielding pipes, flutes and whistles, rounded out by Mick's daughter Aoife on fiddles and concertina, the music here is melody-heavy as it would have been, brilliant and varied with a depth of harmony and variation which is probably not typical of County Kerry in the 1800s. The solo whistle which opens Patrick The Piper is likely to be more historically accurate, and intriguingly the Quadrille which follows could come from any recent recording of Northern Spanish piping: I wonder if anyone has cross-matched the repertoires and verified an exchange of tunes during the Napoleonic wars.Older or less common versions of many pieces are to be found on this CD. Cailleach An Dilisg is similar to the version I know, while The Eagle's Whistle is quite different. The Cup Of Tea and Johnny's Gone To France resemble the versions currently played in sessions but have some surprising twists. Several other pieces are quite unfamiliar to me but well worth learning: The Highlander's Kneebuckle, The Aberdeen Reel and The Kerry Lassie stand out, partly because of their Scots-influenced titles. The final track pairs a version of the big piping jig, The Frieze Britches, with a close approximation to the crooked English dance tune, Black Joke, making me want to explore musical cross-overs between England and Ireland at this time. So many threads, so much to unravel, and so engagingly played: More Tunes From The Goodman Manuscripts is a fine feast indeed. Alex Monaghan |
