Eccentricity and piping go pretty much hand in hand.
Throughout the years I've experienced sessions of many different styles, flavors, colors, attitudes, and a couple different countries. The social ITM session atmosphere is a unique experiment in human behavior on all levels. I really enjoy it, most sessions anyway. However, to be completely honest with myself and everyone, I must admit, without question, my favorite places to play my pipes are, in a canyon on a nice spring day in the shade by some little creek, or up on a cliff on a calm spring day overlooking the ocean. It's just the pipes, the tunes, the earth, the energy and me. There is a surreal mystery in that. It's impossible to share it with anyone. As soon as anyone shows up the magic is broken. I'm not saying that I don't like sessions, I love being around kind people and sharing tunes, learning new stuff, but, that's a different atmosphere altogether. The experience I'm talking about is probably best described as playing tunes in the womb of the awakening earth. Any other eccentrics out there who can relate?
Yep, most definitely. There is a real joy in playing to a beautiful spot ... as if you are praying or paying homage for the beauty. Personal and Inspirational, can't imagine anyone not doing it and sad for them because they are missing out on something primal.
Reading my own post back, I didn’t mean to sound so negative and judgmental. I just beg you to be considerate. I remember backpacking through Monument Valley in Utah, a place so quiet you can hear your own heartbeat, except for the idiots who’d humped in their gear for a &^%#! drum circle.
I can say I've experienced this, but back before I ever played ITM. Believe it or not, in the suburbs east of Los Angeles where I grew up, there are various hill ranges that are undeveloped, and on a clear day to the north there are fantastic views of the mountains. I used to take my acoustic guitar up into the hills (quite the hike actually) and just play by myself, just the music and the breeze and hawks circling over my head. Piping must be particularly magical in this setting. Now I live in the desert of Arizona where six months out of the year it is entirely too hot to consider such a thing, and I wouldn't do that to my instruments anyway. I will have to, weather permitting, do this again soon with my mandolin or when I can get this damned fiddle to stop making that awful squawking sound.
Fid you are so totally with it. When the pipes shut off is when the amazing fraction of beauty bursts. Those are moments of natures beauty in it's own music. We are but a tiny piece of that beauty with the tunes we have to offer. I don't hear negative in that comment of yours, I hear blending. The vast cosmos contains all and nothing at once. Hmmmmm............ponder.......ponder.........
When I lived in Chico back in 1981, I use to climb to the top of Castle Rock in Butte Creek Canyon. I must visit again and play pipes up there. I only played whistle and guitar back then. http://www.pbase.com/chawkins/image/34398547
I have enjoyed playing outdoors at times, but generally avoid it. There's no annoyance like a mosquito (or wasp) homing in on you when you can't defend yourself.
Awww....poor llig......maybe next lifetime you'll understand.
They say upper Butte creek cayon was the stomping grounds of Ishi. http://www.mohicanpress.com/mo08019.html
No less than Apollo would charm the astonishingly ignorant beasts and birds of the field with his lyre playing and his singing.
What say we all follow Apollo and Boatpiper's examples? Bring that instrument of yours into the wild. Buck naked, so the animals won't be frightened by garish color displays. And so they will know you hide no slingshot in a back pocket. The beasts will gather, and yes, the mockingbirds will reply.
I think I may have mentioned this before on here, but I went on a rock-climbing trip to Lundy Island several years ago. Lundy is a remote little island in the Bristol Channel between England and Wales. Lundy has a population of approx 12-14 people. Great sea cliff climbing. We stayed in a refurbished lighthouse. I had brought my flute. Fantastic echoing acoustics playing inside the lighthouse. A bit different to Boatpiper's thing but I did get the Lonesome Touch then.
Again, please think twice about playing music in remote wilderness locations. Noise pollution seriously messes with wildlife. Animals don’t “get” music – you’re just a loud and aggressive human to them. Birds use song to mark territory, attract mates and socialize in ways we’re just starting to understand. Not to mention, you might well be selfishly imposing your idea of tranquility on other people. Think about the radius of audible sound around you. That’s the space you’re taking up. Sorry to harsh your mellow.
Fid, Let's not forget that we all live here. We are part of nature too. I've had times when birds fly over to perch on a branch then begin to sing. I'll turn the pipes off and have a listen. Some have stayed for quite a while at times. That's cool man. I believe that nature loves the human mammals music as much as any Lion, Elk, Eagle, Lark or Waterbuffalo's music. By the way. I think drums and Highland pipes and "Banjo" sounds great in nature too. I'd love to hear you play sometime.
Natural habitats are finely balanced systems, easily upset by non indigenous species. There are very few natural habitats left. Humans and their machines are not a part of any of them.
Well, fidkid, you have a point, that's undeniable. I can see where going to remote locations where the encroachment of human presence is damaging should be discouraged, but to locations that are less secluded, that is, where human presence via hiking, camping, etc is prevalent, I don't see how the sound of an acoustic instrument would be much different than the sound of humans tramping their way about as they tend to do.
I always like to remind people, Americans in particular, of the mass extinction of large mammal species across the continent of North America that coincided with the arrival of humans.
Jimmy B – I agree. In campgrounds and suburban parks most of the really sensitive species have already been driven away. Play at will.
I also agree that we’re all a part of nature. But a part of nature that’s run amok like a cancer. Thankfully, and with hope, we’re a part of nature with the unique capacity to reason, to realize mistakes and make comprehensive changes in our behavior.
I play in the woods and valleys all the time, whenever I can. Creatures of the woods, I find, are charmed. Fidkid knows the 8 mile-Telegraph area. Deer always approach when they hear me there, and in a few moments discover I am no threat, so they stay and graze. One Sunday morning an 8 point buck spent a good half hour with me as I played. Birds come from all over, too. I have walked to work along I-275 and have had birds follow me from tree to tree. most of these locations are pretty noisy with traffic nearby, and rarely a human passes there, so I guess the place is already disturbed and would unlikely bather anyone in those areas.
I was playing on a high hill in a local park (hines drive) and a bunch of tie chee folks joined me and did their thing while I played. That was wierd. Another time I was walking out of a woods (Rotary Park) when someone stopped me to discuss the wonderful music they oftimes hear as they stroll thru the woods, having no idea that I was the one! I probed to discover how they felt about the noise and they loved it.
With pipe and flute the rustic Pan
Of old made music sweet for man;
And wonder hushed the warbling bird,
And closer drew the calm-eyed herd,—
The rolling river slowlier ran.
Ah! would,—ah! would, a little span,
Some air of Arcady could fan
This age of ours, too seldom stirred
With pipe and flute!
But now for gold we plot and plan;
And, from Beersheba unto Dan,
Apollo´s self might pass unheard,
Or find the night-jar´s note preferred;—
Not so it fared, when time began,
With pipe and flute!
and
Puffed up with luring to her knees
The rabbits from the blackberries,
Quaint little satyrs, and shy and mute,
That limped reluctant to the flute,
She needs must seek the forest´s womb
And pipe up tigers from green gloom.
Grouped round the dreaming oaten quill
Those sumptuous savages were still,
Rich spectral beasts that feared to stir,
And haughty and wistful gazed on her,
And swayed their sleepy masks in time
And growled a drowsy under-rhyme.
Maybe flute-like things were around since the dawn of time and so are just a part of the natural environment as the bee and bird, fish, fowl and fauna.
Time of start of major extinction episodes
(years before present)
Africa and S.E. Asia 50,000
Australia 50,000
North Eurasia 13,000
North America 11,000
South America 10,000
West Indies 4,000
New Zealand 900
Madagascar 800
And don't you love the daft notion that if a bird comes down to listen to you, they are listening to and enjoying your music. As opposed to keeping an eye on you to make sure you are not a danger.
Feardearg, your playing definitely has the capacity to enchant, but the deer along 8 Mile and Telegraph Road are about as wild as Irish Setters. You could bag one with a hammer.
A boy in my school orchestra who played the clarinet used to practice it sometimes in woodland in the school grounds before school started. Sure enough, a resident in the area wrote to the local paper that they'd heard an unusually early cuckoo that year!
Well, I discovered that the wrens that rode the breeze over head were actually buzzards, 8 and telegraph apparently being a handy place to dump bodies.
Yes to that pain too, as when some twit in a snowmobile came screaming out of nowhere and in passing also damaged one peson's cross country skis. If I had my druthers with the wilderness, it would be to resist, or to mute the instrument and use it rarely. There does seem to be music all about anyway, and a music that reaches deep. But, I have escaped with an instrument to remote realms before, but find, while I can enjoy it, I rarely find myself playing and instead doing what we keep repeating here ~ listening...
How thrilled, really, can animals be with our instruments? Skins, bones, guts, tails, leather, eggs (shakey..do they count?)... They truely are a part of our music!
Composers for centuries have been referring to the sounds of nature in their compositions, in particular bird song. Some composers that immediately come to mind are Beethoven ("Pastoral" symphony), Messiaen (who was also an ornithologist), Kodaly (2nd movement of his cello sonata Op. 8), and Vivaldi ("The Four Seasons" - along with a probable several others of his known output of 253 violin concertos).
I wouldn't be surprised if there are a few Irish tunes that could remind the listener of bird song.
I like wild things. I like watching and listening in wild places. I do it as aften as I can. Watching, listening learning. Slowly creeping about, laying low, quiet, patient.
I like playing diddley music too. In the pub with my mates.
Playing music outside probably came before playing music inside, for what it's worth.
Music a transient thing, unlike trophy homes in the mountains, dirt bike trails, invasive weeds, and old sofas dumped in the woods. Animals that I encounter don't look impressed one way or the other, so they tolerate me and I don't go out of my way to annoy them. I don't yell at the coyotes for making a racket at night and they don't say much about my diddley music. I do yell at the deer for eating my tomatoes, but they just smirk.
In the greater scheme of things, us hippies are probably a little easier on the neighborhood than the family down the road that never comes outside, but has five cars in the driveway and 2 giant trash dumpers out every garbage day. So I'll embrace my whistle-playing in the woods, granola-crunching, bike-riding nonsense and not over-analyze it.
I like a nice pastoral setting as much as the next traditional rural dance music enthusiast. Farm, copse, hedgerow -- all lovely, inspiring venues. I’m really talking about the deep wild, places that may not even be what this discussion is originally about. Animal populations are rarely endangered by hunting, it’s the loss of natural habitat that screws with them. Music is not a natural part of that habitat.
Wiped out Neanderthals my arse. You've clearly never been to Cornwall or Wales. And that isn't racist - I love the Cornish dearly, and even the Welsh just a little, and I'm of stocky build and hairy back myself.
There's wild and there's not so wild. Actually, it's easier to watch and listen for wildlife in really wild places. Creatures have not developed their sense of fear of humans.
But some of the most rewarding wildlife observations can be had in the places that are not really wild at all. Be still, be patient, be quiet. And observe things that happen when the people are away. Or squeeze yer feckin bag pipes and ruin it.
The Mustard board is just like one of nature's primal booby traps.
It should really be called "The Hornet's Nest"
That kinda reminds me of how the pipes fit in the natural enviornmental scheme of things like "The Buzzing Hive of Bees"
It's recommended that you whistle, sing or hang a bell on your pack to alert bears that you are there so you don't happen upon them unexpectedly. Many people die of mauling by bear for being too quiet in the woods. Big cats can be really dangerous too. They don't care how noisy or quiet you are, they smell you no matter what you do. It's best to carry a gun when hiking in big cat country. Or at the least pepper spray.
Birds sh*tt all over my car with absolutely no consideration for me at all. F 'em. I'm taking the banjo and the whistle to the stream in the woods on the mountain. I've no illusions about 'communing' with nature. I just like it as far from the crowds as I can get these days....
I once found a bagpiper in the middle of a forest, thought I had found the gate to Brigadoon or something. I thought he was out there to commune with nature, but when I asked him, he said it was the only place he could practice without people complaining!
fidkid~
"Birds use song to mark territory, attract mates and socialize in ways we’re just starting to understand."
So you're saying that if I were to go out into remote natural forest setting and play the pipes, I might actually be performing a mating call to Sasquatch/Bigfoot?
now that bigfoot and I are friends, he comes along with me to sessions and I can go to sessions in the dodgier parts of town and never worry about being mugged!
Also he sits next to me at the session and the smell keeps the bodhran players over on the far side of the circle away from the musicians
Seriously, nature communicates if we but listen. The wintergreen that hides its tastey fruit teaches humility. The dandilion teaches generosity. The ant and bee teach industry. The grasshopper joy in the moment. The mallard tells of faithfulness. Bigfoot rhythm.
Oh well, there we have it I guess. All the Indigenous peoples of the world had it absolutely wrong then, hey? ... for tens of thousands of years. They should have divorced their music and dance from nature and made buildings to take it inside? ... as if humans are somehow divorced from nature ... yikes! ... I hate to break it to you, but we're just another species, way way too cocky for words, and our instruments ... well, we're not the only ones to communicate and to use sticks and stones for our own ends and to create micro-environments ... bowerbirds do it ... most animals do ... and as for disturbing things, well, at least for Central Australia where the human pop density is somewhere in the region of 0.02 people / sq km. If you are the only person in an area of 3 thousand sq miles, playing solo in the bush is hardly disruptive to anyone or to anything. Building roads, flying planes, bringing domestic animals to wreck the native habitat and destroy natural waterholes, mining for uranium, introducing pests and weeds, bussing loads of tourists in, driving cars through the bush etc etc ... far more damaging than a solitary acoustic musician playing to a beautiful spot. The trees don't mind and the birds keep singing ... around here, rest assured, nature doesn't mind one little teency bit. It isn't pollution if there is nobody to hear it ... sheeze! Sounds like a lot of bunkum going down here as usual.
This really is an excellent discussion. I was going to make a point similar to Clear Drops, but he beat me to the punch. I was going to say, with sarcasm abound, that it's a damned good thing that Europeans went to places like the Americas and Australia and Africa and made those heathen natives stop playing their flutes and drums and such forced music indoors.
But seriously, I appreciate fidkid's point. But llig, despite the respect I hold for you, I hope you are not comparing a solitary acoustic player to an automobile or a factory. That's just silly. And I'm nearly as far from a hippie as you can get. My few forays in playing by myself outdoors have less to do with communing with nature than with placating a selfish desire for a moment of peace, but I acknowldedge fidkid's assessment that it is important to keep our intrusion on nature to a minumum.
llig leahcim is, of course, expressing sour grapes. He lives in Edinburgh, a place notorious even in the UK for its stupefying climatic harshness at all times of the year. He probably has to play his music in a burrow somewhere. Living in burrows has been, I believe, a traditional way of life there.
when clear drops speaks of playing in the bush, or driving through the bush in a vehicle, I am sure she is referring to the outback, rather than a tree...just to clarify that for our indoor musicians in colder climes.
Wasn't it Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh who said that Irish music is drawn from the land through the people who live there? Just like all indigenous music I would have thought.
It doesn't come from bar room beer taps. Even in England.
Does it?
hey, clear, do you know if any of the indigenous people out that way play Irish music. Gee, I'd say they'd be gun players of this, if they got on to it.
I truly am eccentric, let me explain, yes, I'm an old hippie, also full of nonsense. I eat granola with fruits and nuts. I eat rattlesnake. I eat hagis. I'll do CPR on you (you too llig) if your heart's not working. I hug trees. I cut dead tree's down for firewood and building things. I forage wild lobster mushrooms. I surf in 50'F water. I kayak in 35'F degree water. I play bagpipes on cliff tops, in river canyons and in caves. I'll run into your burning house to save your kids while my friends pull you out, then we'll put the fire out if we can. I'll give you a blanket if your cold. I'll help extricate you from your crushed car and get you to a hospital. Put me down if you want to, I won't hold it against you and I'll still help you out if I can. When I talk about wild places, I mean wild places, places where most people don't go. The reason they don't go? They can't get there. Only I and a chosen few are even interested in the hazards of these places. I'm not afraid to die. I look forward to that adventure. Maybe I'll see you next time around. I've been on adventures where my companions and I haven't seen another person for days and days on end. I like it that way. If you dislike me, well, tough luck, your loss. I like me and that's all that matters. B-)
No disrespect, but I'm with fidkid here on the notion of playing in the deep wild. I know you are a hippie and mean no harm, but that doesn't mean you're not causing any. My last post was a bit of a wind-up, but ancient natives who played primarily outdoors, who WERE to an extent communing with nature, did so when nature was much more wild and far reaching than now. I don't think music is a thing that should be relegated indoors, as llig appears to believe, but those days are gone, and I think we should just be mindful of habitat and respectful of it. I have no problem with the idea of playing outdoors, although my motivation is clearly different than yours.
Incidentally, Boatpiper, you may want to refrain from self-branding as an eccentric. Eccentricity is much like a nickname, an identity that others prescribe to you. In my experience, true eccentrics have a disdain for the status quo, can be a bit caustic, and rarely refer to themselves as eccentrics. I've known many, as I tend to be attracted to them. I have my own suspicions that llig leachim is one, but I'll reserve judgement until all the facts are in.
Musicians are probably not the biggest threat to wildlife. But it seems ironic that someone wants to be ‘one with nature’ by imposing their ego and dominating the soundscape. Not very zen, imho.
I agree with you, disillusioned, but I try to refrain from absolutes. One of my favorite eccentrics knew damn well he was different, he just wasn't proud of it.
What?!!! Who said anything about "imposing their ego and dominating the soundscape"? Crikey! ... that is a totally ridiculous assumption ...
Argh! So that is what playing in sessions is all about, hey? So you think that musicians who play out in nature play in the same competitive way musicians play in pub sessions inside. This says more about inside session players who must be into competition and domination. Got ya! So its the inside session musicians who have got it totally wrong. They want to get out more ... out to where traditional music comes from ... outside in nature.
Please, you are possibly the last person I’d ever want to upset with my comments! But I suggest that a sense of oneness with nature via music is illusory.
So someone hikes into a remote woods, comes upon a meadow, hears the buzzing of insects. The gurgle of water against stone. The murmur of wind. The fee-bee call of a male black-capped chickadee establishing territory. The antiphonal call of a rival on the other side of the meadow. And then that person thinks, what this scene needs is me playing Saddle the Pony on the union pipes. That’s ego.
Clear Drops, the sessions I participate in aren’t competitive but cooperative – we try to play with each other, not against each other. At least, that’s my perception and motivation.
Rattlesnake, damn, now I'm hungry... I'll settle instead for the leek and potato soup I made last night, and some home baked bread, and then, later, some music and dance tonight, out and about in the urban wilds...
I have, been moved to sing while out on long hikes our tours in wild places, on water, in woods and jungles. There is something about those places that makes my heard sing and sometimes that rised up and takes form in my voice, sometimes just lilting, but not loud, sometimes answering back to a call from another animal. I can't say it's something I'd want to subject anyone else to, but nature never seems to judge or complain...
Mornin', Clear Drops. (Its morning here, at least) I think your point has much to do with which outdoors you play at. Were you to play in say.... Death Valley, you wouldn't be heard by very many critters. Before too long, the heat would make something frivolous like music an impossibility -- even for an Australian. Were you to play in a spot in Yosemite, you're going to have an audience, whether they like it or not.
Sign sign everywhere a sign blockin up the scenery breakin my mind.................................................................................................
Sign said you aint supposed ta be here...... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLm3HMG8IhM&feature=related
I find it amusing, all the silly people who try to tell me to sit down shut up and stop enjoying life. They get really upset when they see me having fun, hurting none and being happy. Since they don't have the amusing eccentricities that I enjoy. They even tell me I can't have that! HUNH Sing sign everywhere a sign...................................................
I suppose Boatpiper is not hurting anyone so off you go and play your pipes in the woods.. But I can also imagine many folks east of the atlantic (some on the other side as well) rolling their eyes thinking this has nothing whatsoever to do with diddley music...
Atahaulpa, So, what exactly are you trying to say? Do you plan to shoot and kill pipers? Hmmmmm.........you gonna apologize beforehand? Hmmmmmm..........That's really twisted and violent dude. I'm only gonna shoot something that's trying to kill me.
Not with a firearm, mind. That wouldn't do. Stay perfectly still Boatpiper; my Clovis-pointed arrow isn't aimed at you, but at the pipe bag. Won't hurt a bit. You and all the critters can be friends once more.
Seriously though, human music in the great outdoors -- while it may be a contravention of some sort of law -- has been an unexpected pleasure along trails at various times. Never heard Diddley in the woods, yet. Sometimes, it has been wished that the musician serenading us campers might have practiced at home a bit more.
Everything in moderation. 2am when you're trying to sleep? not moderation.
Little piping as the sun sets? C'mon folks lighten up. enjoy the time we have here.
There was a sunset recital by a trombonist at Touolumne Meadows that mostly detracted from the moment. This is more a matter of personal taste, I know. As of now, Americans can carry loaded firearms into National Parks. So, Boatpiper, we musicians -- especially us pipers -- risk our lives by playing there.
This has been an exhilirating thread to say the least. I'm glad to started it. We haven't had a good virtual melee in a while.
Seriously, though, why are you going on so about how you would still save us from fires and give us a blanket and such? I'm unsarcastically touched, but what does this have to do with playing music outdoors? I think there are some legitimate concerns about consideration and encroachment being voiced, and I think you should at least consider them. From the beginning I supported your notion of playing outdoors, and I still do, but I'm beginning to think that your notion of playing in the wild is even more selfish than mine. You speak of moderation but you are also talking about taking your pipes into the deep woods, which does not seem moderate to me. I'm not a communer with nature, but if I were I should think going quietly into the wild and listening to nature would be a more productive way of doing it. I mean, you are a hugger of trees, are you not? I'm not trying to be confrontational here, I just think you may consider that the concerns fidkid voiced are pretty reasonable.
Jimmy, Thoughts well taken here. What I'm saying with the burning house thing is this. The whole idea of someone telling another what to do, imposing thier own personal laws on someone is whats selfish. They say "I don't want you to do that, or have that, so, my rules are what you will follow " When no harm is being done, they do it on a power trip. If that same person who has imposed their power trip on me is trapped in their burning house, am I gonna impose a power trip back on them? No. I'm not gonna let them burn because they have been unfair to me. If their house is burning and they need help, I will choose to run in and help if I can. I'm trained to do that. The people who tell me to not play in the woods are telling me to stop living. When I play pipes in the woods, what am I there for? 20 minutes? A bit more? A bit less? Out of thousands and thousands of hours that I'm not there? I've just brought great joy to myself and have harmed none. Call it selfish, egotistical, whatever man. If that's how you get joy, by imposing your laws on others to try and take their joy away, I feel sorry for you. But hey, go sit across the lake and try listening for a minute. You might like it. When I leave you might remember it. I won't be there long. I go in, bring only tunes, leave only footsteps. If you want to play your banjo on the other side of the lake, I'll be quiet, I'll listen, AND, I'll appreciate the fact that you are enjoying youself, no matter weather you're a beginner or not.
Here in Arkansas, it is still too early for spring fever.
Even if I played an instrument which is small enough to be portable, I wouldn't take it with me when we go hiking in the national forest or a state park. We go hiking partly so I can get a temporary break from playing music and partly to let our dogs get some exercise someplace besides our back yard and the dog run in a local park.
"Of course, we are all humans" Are you sure about that Llig?
I have performed music both outside and inside and I prefer to perform inside.
Boatpiper, when you hug trees, do the trees hug you back in return?
My sister-in-law is eccentric but she thinks she is normal and it is every one else who is messed up and eccentric.
This thread kind of reminds of of this one: http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/23847
only instead of being " p*ssed on Jameson's" the OP has been imbiding on something slightly more mind altering!
This is very strange. Do you really think I'm trying to rain on your parade? Are you so egotistical that you would think I would care about how you spend your personal time? I'm asking you to be reasonable and consider when your personal time may "impose" upon the personal time of others, be it human or wildlife. If you sat down on my front lawn and started to pipe away, I would be completely justified in banning you from my premises, and you would be in absolutely no position to expect me to be tolerant of it, whether I enjoy piping or not. Wildlife doesn't enjoy that right, and when one makes the choice to play in the wild, or in any place where others may be affected, the responsible thing to do is to make choices out of consideration. How do you know your playing doesn't bother anyone? You don't know that any more than I would. Certainly how you spend your personal time is your business, but when it's in a place shared by others, be it people or wildlife, it becomes their business too. Do you not see that?
Sure, Jimmy. I'll stay off your front lawn already Sheesh..
Got a bit o the Miltant streak in ya huh?
Is it ok if I run across your lawn to help you if your house is on fire?
Lets get to a more basic question. Who would want to drag a set of uilleann pipes into the remote wilderness? Pipes are HEAVY and delicate. If you're properly remote, it means you'd need to drag tent, sleeping bag, food, cooking gear, spare clothing, AND a set of uilleann pipes. And pray it doesn't rain. Or get too hot. Or snow. Or whatever. If you're taking them to some place within easy walking distance of your car, then the wildlife is already someone habituated to people and cars and a person playing bagpipes isn't going to make much difference.
My point is either Boatpiper is insane because he's taking pipes backpacking or rafting, or the critters that have to listen to him are well used to having people infringing on their space in various ways.
There's another verse in The Happy Wanderer that I left out because it didn't mention singing along with nature's tunes. Before leaving the subject I should like to point out that I have never associated, do not now associate and will never associate with either God or boy scouting. Thought I'd just relieve myself of that burden.
Boatpiper, I naively thought that this was going to be one of those 6-reply, feel-good threads, then on to yet another "the Tube that shall remain nameless" what is this freaking tune? post. YIkes. Silly me.
Perhaps we're due for another round of Mornington Crescent?
Well, Boatpiper, I was in the military, but I left because I WASN'T suited to the military. This is not a standoff at Kent State. This is a conversation about values. You're telling me not to impose my values on you, yet you seem to have no problem imposing yours upon the rest of the world. This has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not one would run into a burning house, or whether or not one feels a spiritual connection with nature, or any of the other issues you bring up that have nothing to do with whether or not playing music outdoors is appropriate. I encourage you to follow your heart's desire, no differently than I do for anyone else. You may feel that if I come near you in the wilderness and play a banjo, or bang a gong, or blare a Metallica CD, that you would have no problem with it, and I have no reason to doubt you. I, on the other hand, would likely find such a thing obnoxious and inconsiderate, so clearly we have different values in this regard. Whether or not I would rush into a burning building to save you is irrelevant.
I've very much enjoyed this exchange of ideas. Clearly you and I are not to be swayed in our beliefs. The only thing that is clear to me is that we both have a conception of live and let live, but that they differ greatly on what that means.
There are some spots I know of that are a 3-5 mile hike where I've never seen another person. Day hike. Game trails or no trails. Don't worry Jimmy, I won't tell you where they are. Even on the occasions when somebody does show up, I've never met with the kind of response that some on the Mustard spew. People who have happened upon me in the wild have always said , Oh.....please don't stop. Play some more will you?
I do find though that some folks just want to find the negative and poke and argue at everything they see rather than try to find the things to appreciate in it. Those kind of people are usually not found out appreciating wild places. They usually lock themselves up and complain about everything.
Have you ever hiked through a forest after a fire? Man, totally surreal. Amazing. The ignorant say Oh, I hate this it's ugly. I see nature's raw passionate beauty at it's finest. It's like being on another planet. Then I'll go back a year later to see the new birth coming alive. I'll sing and play at will in the woods. (Just not on Jimmy's front lawn) You can appreciate it or not. It's not my job to tell you what to do.
Good. I was afraid I was going to get a strange piper showing up on my lawn someday. I'm holding you to it. Besides, you wouldn't like it. It's not like being on another planet.
This is life Jimmy. The big session we all participate in. Tunes, fires, sunsets, oceans, forests, rivers, birth, death. It's all relevant. If your house was on fire and you in it, you'd then see how relative it is.
Nice the sun just came out and it's warming up. I'm gonna go find someplace beautiful to share some tunes with. See yas.
"Hey, you with the fiddles! Whatchya think you're doing? You can't come in here and deafen us with your diddly-eye when all we wanted was a quiet pint, a smoke, and a spit in the spitoon... fe(k off to yer own house and make a racket! No consideration for anyone..."
Boatpiper, if you and I ever crossed paths and could share a tune, I certainly would do it. We simply differ on life philosophies. I don't expect you to embrace mine, and I doubt I would embrace yours, unless I experience being in a burning house and you save me, whatever that means. The fact that we share a certain musical passion is the only thing I can see at this point that we share. Who knows, there could be other things. It wouldn't surprise me, as we have crossed paths on this site many times and have never exchanged a harsh word that I can remember, so there must be something else. I'm happy that you would save me from a fire. I saved a life once, was able to keep a dying man on a street alive just long enough. It certainly was a spiritual experience to me. I still don't see how it relates to playing instruments in the woods. Sorry.
I have no idea how playing an instrument in the woods relates whether or not you'd save someone from a burning building.
If you're willing to carry pipes 5 miles, good for you. I once carried mine from Camden Town to Hackney, a bit over four miles until we finally found a night bus (it was about 4am). I can't say I'd ever do that again given a choice.
Thank you. I was beginning to think I was the only one on the planet that didn't see the connection. I actually began by supporting Boatpiper's wish to play outdoors if you look at the beginning of this enormous thread. Somehow this scenario got painted where I was trying to destroy his life and impose rules on him, when all I was trying to do was get him to consider what seemed like a pretty reasonable consideration. I got sucked into it, and I'm usually pretty good at avoiding that kind of thing.
Good food for thought. I see the subject in new light.
i can't see how sweet music in the outdoors would be any more disturbing to wildlife then...us just being there. They know you are there. I would think that they would be eased to hear you play. At least they would know exactly where you were.
Other people, tho. The discussion above has made me reconsider my lightly held beliefs on this matter. Thanks. I find that people are pleased when they come across me playing tunes in the woods, often sitting a spell to listen. Wonderful conversations and friendship has been shared. One time a group of bird-watchers approached with compliments. You would think that of all people they would be upset.
While being considerate of others, I still hold that flute music, almost as old, perhaps older, than human language, belongs in the outdoors. It will always be my favorite venue.
Side note: one may not commune with nature per say, but believers can commune and be taught somewhat about God by observing and considering His creations. Of couse, I am also a Scout Master.
Jimmy B, a long time ago there was a fellow here named TradPiper (and a host of other names). He used to suck in a lot of us in like manner. Threads would go on forever!
Ah, that's nice feardearg. Boatpiper tried to paint me in a corner and suggest I don't understand nature and have no feeling for it. This is ridiculous. I have a deep respect for nature, and have communed with nature in my own way from time to time. Whether or not nature approves of my presence I have no idea. I don't presume to know what nature wants, and I certainly don't assume that nature wants banjo. I always thought nature preferred the glockenspeil. Shows you what I know.
Seriously. I made a point earlier that ancient natives of various lands share the flute as a common instrument in one form or another, so I can wrap my brain around the concept that the flute is perhaps the least intrusive of all instruments. Makes sense to me, but then what do I know? To think I am a mere speck in the cosmos is entirely too conceited.
Seems as if there are two arguments. One is that playing music in the wilderness disturbs nature, the other is that it disturbs other people who want to enjoy nature.
I'm not taking sides, but I think it depends on when and where you are. I mean, how many of us have played acoustic guitars and sung around a campfire?
Nature prefers the hurdy-gurdy. Duh. Everyone knows that.
I don't make a habit of playing al fresco. As for its effect on other life-forms - years ago (I've told this one before) I played a long note on the flute(!) to a herd of heifers and/or bullocks. They took off as if tigers were after them, full tilt to the far end of a long field. To further the experiment, I played another long note. They came hurtling back up to the top of the field again. Assured of my Orphic powers over the animal kingdom, I desisted from putting them through any more, and was glad the farmer hadn't (as far as I know) been looking on.
Silver Spear~
Or could it be that the ~act~ of playing music is disturbing *outside* of its accepted places (indoors, in pubs, in sessions
and the like.
Lugging pipes to a high elevation that happens to be a good long walk from the trail head, then playing them, should be a pretty good indicator of a person's ability to carry another person from a burning building. I suppose I am physically able to return the favor, if it ever came to that. This would be in the spirit of friendship and decency -- and It would be my privilege. Boatpiper, how much do you weigh?
Hey just returned, found too much wind and huge waves that were throwing a mist up the cliff. Decided not to play. Time wasn't right. But lordy how it was beautiful.
Now Jimmy. In no way did I intend to make you feel painted into a corner, you are reading things into what I say and misinterpreting them and allowing yourself to feel painted into a corner. That is only your perception. It is not my intention. I have great respect for those who give great respect.When I play tunes for nature, or the kids at the school, or you my fellow man, I'm offering my gift of tunes for nature and all to enjoy. I believe nature really does enjoy my gifts. Nature never refuses my gifts. I pray in it. I pray for it. The tunes are my way of offering a gift back to it in return for the many gifts it gives me. Just as I would give you the gift of running into your burning house to pull you out. I have great respect for you and would never refuse your gift. If you teach me a tune, that's a wonderful gift. I may then go and offer it to the forest. I may then offer it to other folks. They can choose to refuse the gift and tell me to stop playing, but, that doesn't mean I'll stop offering and giving. For the more I give , the more I recieve.
Spear, I think the correct expression is: "Nature abhors a piano accordion." And how dare you foist your unnatural preference for the hurdy-gurdy upon us?
Anybody that has my back by dedicating their lives to running into burning buildings to save people has my vote. Boatpiper can play his pipes on my lawn anytime he wants.
Fine Atahualpa Quigley and Fiddlerdan you are always welcome on my front....er....patch of moss and fir needles. Jimmy B you too, and Batlady, Silver Spear, nicholas, feardearg, grego, Steve Shaw, mumhain abu, coelachan, fid kid, disillusioned, Duijera Dubh, faucelt, Clear Drops, Lint-upon-tweed, Dogma Geek, John Knoss, Bredna, llig leachim, danny whistle flute box, Tuckered out, New Pure drop ear canal oil,
I offer
Blessings
Peace
tunes
pints
and one day if you haven't already may you play the tune that moves your heart to eternal peace.
Boatpiper
I believe, actually, it is the only bird - or at any rate, the best-known bird - that habitually mates by gang rape.
The people of Thirsk in North Yorkshire (England) are all in a flutter over this. The little river that flows through the town attracts hordes of mallard in the mating season, and some of the locals fear that visitors will get a bad impression of Thirsk as they make their way past these creatures' raucous frenzy: or indeed, be put off coming back, or going at all.
Actually, it strikes me as about the only thing worth going to Thirsk to see. I doubt if much else happens there. It ought to be in the Rough Guide, or something. Or 'celebrated as a joyous life-affirming annual event' (eeuurgh!) in an annual Festival or something. Where's the spirit of enterprise here?
I am indebted for this information to The Northern Echo, a paper normally very depressing as it is mainly about what people do to one another in Darlington.
Please discontinue this thread ASAP. This sort of stuff does NOTHING to change the perception that we're all a buncha of tie-dyed, Birkenstock sandal wearing, patchouli reeking, pseudo-hippies. Thank you.
(Message paid for by the ex-punk rockers who play ITM)
I am glad to read that the trees love the original poster of this thread so much that they hug him back in return.
Batlady, what is "the thing that is NOT performing"?
I’ve been blessed to play in some very beautiful and spiritually uplifting places.
Indeed I lived on Lundy for two years and have played in the same lighthouse as mentioned by Danny. I also found some lovely places to play at the base of some of the cliffs.
I used to live up a mountain called Cold Fell in Cumbria, and I’d walk over a pass into the next valley where the River Gelt descended, and play in an arch at the edge of a pool in the river. The acoustics were beautiful and in any season the colours and the light was a great coming together of energies; in the Spring time that lovely dappled light dancing through translucent leaves,in the Summer, drowsy bees sipping from the wild flowers and dragonflies hawking over the banks, while swallows skimmed the water, in the Autumn the riot of reds, golds and browns on the trees, and even in the Winter, the steel grey skies and accompaniment of the wind. All of these weree beautiful times to play and be uplifted by beauteous surroundings. I’ve played whilst deer drank and it didn’t feel like there was any intrusion.
And it was the same in the Kyle of Sutherland, to sit in some Glen and play straight from the soul.
I *thought* it was you...our paths crossed at the odd session in the early 80s (I remember one in Edinburgh), though you may not remember me. I was always on the point of asking, "Were you that cove who lived in a shack on Cold Fell, or something?"
I worked on a dig near there, Winter 80-81. I went up the Gelt Valley to see the 'Written Rock' - Roman graffiti, undramatic and hard to spot. But the Roman quarries tucked away in the valley are surprisingly big. I did climb Cold Fell too. A very, very quiet and recondite part of the world. On a nice Spring or Summer day Geltsdale must be idyllic. The artists Ben and Winifred Nicholson lived in the area for a while and - especially Winifred, I think - did some atmospheric paintings of that stretch near the foot of Cold Fell. (Ben is best known for his connections with St. Ives.)
Boatpiper has changed his name in the middle of the thread, which I always find quite disconcerting. I enjoy his posts, so I hope he doesn't take his new name, "so long fare you well," too literally!
I enjoy playing instruments out of doors, it is far preferrable to do that than bring a radio or disk player and inflict recorded music on the natural world!
To borrow Eiluned's metaphor from over on another topic, and apply it to this topic: Boatpiper wasn't exactly trying to drag us all down into his tunnel of despair here.
When I moved up to Cumbria in 1982 I’d just started to live, so to speak. I’d been in the Civil Service for four years but it was grinding me into despair and oblivion. They weren’t keen too much on matters and connections Irish at that time. Since I left, as you can see from my profile, I’ve been alright ever since!
I see from your profile you’ve been busy. Well done. I do love the Northumbrian Music and have played in some fantastic sessions up there, Rothbury, Alwinton, Morpeth, Mitford, Bellingham, Hexham etc.
There was a lovely fiddle player called Harry Pearson I think. He had great style and the music just flowed. And weren’t there Bibbys, I think, from Morpeth? Neil Smith with his recorder, Robin Dunn, mandolin, George Welch to name but a few, and Mike Tickell with his deep resonant bass voice singing some of those incredible ballads.
Hope all’s well with you.
Regarding the way the thread developed I did notice some who thought it intrusive. I would far rather hear someone playing soulfully and live than this modern trend for others to inflict their speakers and sound systems on us in any situation where we cannot escape, be it from their vehicles or homes, with such volume that a building vibrates!
I think any instrument when played acoustically has wonderful tonal qualities and forme if I happen to catch some notes it has a magical effect for me.
Yay! What a turn around! Thank you so much Brian. True story: during WWII where I live was a major military staging base for the movement of troops and supplies into the war in the Pacific. The town was turned into an enormous tent city. Amongst the soldiers in town was a violinist and he used to go out into the bush to practice (in consideration of the thousands upon thousands of tent dwellers in town). He was practicing a new tune (so the story goes) in a quiet spot out of ear shot of the town when he heard this loud voice from across the gully: "Fer Chr*** sake, can't you play something you know!" I don't know what I am trying to say here ... but anyway I find the bush a place where the heart sings and seeing as Irish(?) fiddle is all I know (however badly I play it) the bush is non-judgemental and welcoming ... and I'm not going to stop playing in it for anyone of youse ... sheeze!
A flute player I know whom I have mentioned sometimes in these threads is forever going off with his instruments to play outdoors.
When he plays, with impressive frequency out of the throng or a bush or a bald heather moor there pops - footloose, free of spirit, roiling with spring fever - a female. She is breathless with admiration for his flute playing, and normally produces or at least confesses to playing some instrument.
Only a tiny proportion of these consent (or are invited) to be hauled back to his lair for more protracted investigation. But over the decades, the numbers of these actually stack up to quite a lot.
This is all true. I've seen at least a smidgin of it. Also, this guy is incapable of lying - when he tries to, or goes in for leg-pull, he founders in uncontrollable mirth and wallows foaming.
Is it that a good deal of people's musical offerings to wilderness -- I lump my own music with theirs as well -- is a bit incongruous? To me, it seems like the musical equivalent of the church some well meaning folks thought fit to erect in Yosemite Valley.
Oh my! Maybe someone forgot to tell the American Indians they were a bit incongruous to the natural soundscape ... or that Aboriginal corroborees were an intrusion on nature ... sigh! Or that the Peoples of the Andes shouldn't have played their flutes to the mountains ... sheeze! That Travelling People should have kept silent while travelling the roads, that migrants shouldn't have brought their music with them when they migrated ... I could go on forever. Might as well try and tell the lyre bird not to lie or the mighty whale not to sing. Music is part of nature (and human nature) and we, try as we might to think somehow we are above it, are not ... we are driven by natural instincts as are all our fellow animals. I recon its eccentric NOT to recognise this. Sigh!
maybe not eccentric as such, clear, but a preditable old world / new world dichotomy in perspectives on people as part of nature. Pretty hard to not feel an intrinsic part of nature in Australia I would think. Isn't it great. All senses are completely swamped by the pervasiveness of nature. Brilliant.
California has something like two times Australia's population. Australia has I-don't-know-how-many times the acreage of absolute, stark wilderness that California has. While we're not quite Japan, we are crowding up a bit. And besides: Trombone, REALLY BAD trombone at that, played at sunset in a place like Tuolumne Meadows?
Congruity is a perception that relies on a human judgement. What is congruous to one is incongruous to another. I could put a link in here, but I am not going to ... but, yep Atahualpa, 70% of Australia is classified arid. I live in the centre of this aridity surrounded on all sides by the five major Australian deserts (and a lot of minor ones as well), and although we don't have The Grand Canyon or Monument Valley, we have equivalents, mesas, buttes, canyons, pounds, painted deserts, sand dunes, wave rocks, The Rock, devil's marbles etc etc only they are more dispersed, not as concentrated (and maybe not quite as dramatic, although I don't know this for sure and am unwilling to make such a judgement), similar yet different. Impressively beautiful anyhow if you're into such environments.
How the 25,000 or so human inhabitants of this region view the environment is as diverse as from where these inhabitants have come. Yep, the town has a very good brass band. It has an all male African dance troop. It has a string orchestra. It has youths into hip-hop and rap. It has country music and rock. It has Indigenous Traditional music and contemporary Aboriginal music. It has didgeridoos (that are not traditional to this region). Yikes, just can't think of anything more. Not many blue gums, unfortunately, but that aside, were someone to play a trombone (however badly) under one, the trees and the birds and the other animals would not move shop in response ... the plants and animals around here are way way toooooo busy surviving the harsh environment to be concerned or judgemental. Most of the ground animals are safely holed away during the day because it is too hot for them anyway, even the kangaroos take to the shade and the snakes take to the rocks, and they come out at night to forage and move about.
Oh the woe that a human city dweller would sit with fiddle or guitar, banjo, flute, mandolin, drum or pipes in a room of wood and stone, yet ,not feel indebted to offer a tune to the great tree tribes in thank's and praise. I hear the wailing cries of those tree's who bore their young only to find that a mere human may take the centuries old life of a fine member of their tribe for the building of a musical instrument or a shelter, yet, not give thanks back to the tree's. The tree's cry out.
Oh the woe and oh how they yearn to hear the tunes of their children who were so brutally murdered by axe and saw and then carved into musical instruments. Those children now kept as slaves only to be heard singing in a dark cellar pub.
Oh the woe that when one of the human tribe who thinks in the old ways would be chastised, criticized, belittled for treading deep into the forest to offer a tune in thanks and praise. The tunes be the gift of one who is eternally grateful for the gifts recieved of the forest.
Oh the woe that the shallowness of man has brought him to the point of chopping down the trees to build their cities and ships and musical instruments yet be angry and chastize and criticize one who would forge deep into the woods to earnestly honor the trees with thanks and praise yet again and again with tunes so they, the tree tribes, would hear their children sing.
Oh for peace that the tree's would hear all their children sing.
Back I will go deeper into the woods to find the places that have yet to recieve the thanks of I, one so grateful as to shun the angry mumblings of the shallow tribes of ungrateful human city dwellers. City dwellers whose habits do more harm than they will ever know with the destruction of our planet through arrogance and ignorance while never even leaving the city. That city which was itself once a grove of trees deep in the forest, or a meadow far across the plain. So now, I go yet again, far from human ears to offer grateful thanks and praise in peace and tunes, so long fare you well.
I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever :-)
I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Eccentricity and piping go pretty much hand in hand.
Throughout the years I've experienced sessions of many different styles, flavors, colors, attitudes, and a couple different countries. The social ITM session atmosphere is a unique experiment in human behavior on all levels. I really enjoy it, most sessions anyway. However, to be completely honest with myself and everyone, I must admit, without question, my favorite places to play my pipes are, in a canyon on a nice spring day in the shade by some little creek, or up on a cliff on a calm spring day overlooking the ocean. It's just the pipes, the tunes, the earth, the energy and me. There is a surreal mystery in that. It's impossible to share it with anyone. As soon as anyone shows up the magic is broken. I'm not saying that I don't like sessions, I love being around kind people and sharing tunes, learning new stuff, but, that's a different atmosphere altogether. The experience I'm talking about is probably best described as playing tunes in the womb of the awakening earth. Any other eccentrics out there who can relate?
# Posted on March 1st 2010 by Gone to work
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Yep.
# Posted on March 1st 2010 by john knoss
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
I'll meet you out Alder Springs in an hour. All ingredients, plus Lewis woodpeckers and juniper trees, are there. Bring beverages.
Hey. This is a really good idea.
# Posted on March 1st 2010 by Michele Sims
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Yep, most definitely. There is a real joy in playing to a beautiful spot ... as if you are praying or paying homage for the beauty. Personal and Inspirational, can't imagine anyone not doing it and sad for them because they are missing out on something primal.
# Posted on March 1st 2010 by Clear Drops
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
But what about others who go to those same spots for silence and the sounds of nature? I'll bet the wildlife hates it. It's noise pollution.
# Posted on March 1st 2010 by fidkid
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Reading my own post back, I didn’t mean to sound so negative and judgmental. I just beg you to be considerate. I remember backpacking through Monument Valley in Utah, a place so quiet you can hear your own heartbeat, except for the idiots who’d humped in their gear for a &^%#! drum circle.
# Posted on March 1st 2010 by fidkid
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
I can say I've experienced this, but back before I ever played ITM. Believe it or not, in the suburbs east of Los Angeles where I grew up, there are various hill ranges that are undeveloped, and on a clear day to the north there are fantastic views of the mountains. I used to take my acoustic guitar up into the hills (quite the hike actually) and just play by myself, just the music and the breeze and hawks circling over my head. Piping must be particularly magical in this setting. Now I live in the desert of Arizona where six months out of the year it is entirely too hot to consider such a thing, and I wouldn't do that to my instruments anyway. I will have to, weather permitting, do this again soon with my mandolin or when I can get this damned fiddle to stop making that awful squawking sound.
# Posted on March 1st 2010 by Jimmy B
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Fid you are so totally with it. When the pipes shut off is when the amazing fraction of beauty bursts. Those are moments of natures beauty in it's own music. We are but a tiny piece of that beauty with the tunes we have to offer. I don't hear negative in that comment of yours, I hear blending. The vast cosmos contains all and nothing at once. Hmmmmm............ponder.......ponder.........
# Posted on March 1st 2010 by Gone to work
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Too right - my favourite places to play are by the sea or somewhere else alone in the wild.
# Posted on March 1st 2010 by Bredna
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
When I lived in Chico back in 1981, I use to climb to the top of Castle Rock in Butte Creek Canyon. I must visit again and play pipes up there. I only played whistle and guitar back then.
http://www.pbase.com/chawkins/image/34398547
# Posted on March 1st 2010 by Gone to work
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
daft romantic twaddle.
A set of pipes is a complicated bit of machinery. Man made.
# Posted on March 1st 2010 by llig leahcim
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
I have enjoyed playing outdoors at times, but generally avoid it. There's no annoyance like a mosquito (or wasp) homing in on you when you can't defend yourself.
# Posted on March 1st 2010 by John Galt
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Awww....poor llig......maybe next lifetime you'll understand.
They say upper Butte creek cayon was the stomping grounds of Ishi.
http://www.mohicanpress.com/mo08019.html
# Posted on March 1st 2010 by Gone to work
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
No less than Apollo would charm the astonishingly ignorant beasts and birds of the field with his lyre playing and his singing.
What say we all follow Apollo and Boatpiper's examples? Bring that instrument of yours into the wild. Buck naked, so the animals won't be frightened by garish color displays. And so they will know you hide no slingshot in a back pocket. The beasts will gather, and yes, the mockingbirds will reply.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by NEW Pure Drop® Ear Canal Oil
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Next lifetime? Yeah right. Says it all.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by llig leahcim
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
llig - since you used the word romantic, I'll take it as a compliment.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Jimmy B
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Beast's and Mockingbirds? Hmmmm.....Plenty o them right here in ole Mustardville...........Now....where's my slingshot
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Gone to work
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
I think I may have mentioned this before on here, but I went on a rock-climbing trip to Lundy Island several years ago. Lundy is a remote little island in the Bristol Channel between England and Wales. Lundy has a population of approx 12-14 people. Great sea cliff climbing. We stayed in a refurbished lighthouse. I had brought my flute. Fantastic echoing acoustics playing inside the lighthouse. A bit different to Boatpiper's thing but I did get the Lonesome Touch then.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Rudall the time
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Again, please think twice about playing music in remote wilderness locations. Noise pollution seriously messes with wildlife. Animals don’t “get” music – you’re just a loud and aggressive human to them. Birds use song to mark territory, attract mates and socialize in ways we’re just starting to understand. Not to mention, you might well be selfishly imposing your idea of tranquility on other people. Think about the radius of audible sound around you. That’s the space you’re taking up. Sorry to harsh your mellow.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by fidkid
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Fid, Let's not forget that we all live here. We are part of nature too. I've had times when birds fly over to perch on a branch then begin to sing. I'll turn the pipes off and have a listen. Some have stayed for quite a while at times. That's cool man. I believe that nature loves the human mammals music as much as any Lion, Elk, Eagle, Lark or Waterbuffalo's music. By the way. I think drums and Highland pipes and "Banjo" sounds great in nature too. I'd love to hear you play sometime.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Gone to work
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Quite right
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by llig leahcim
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
I meant "Quite right" to fidkid
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by llig leahcim
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Natural habitats are finely balanced systems, easily upset by non indigenous species. There are very few natural habitats left. Humans and their machines are not a part of any of them.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by llig leahcim
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Well, fidkid, you have a point, that's undeniable. I can see where going to remote locations where the encroachment of human presence is damaging should be discouraged, but to locations that are less secluded, that is, where human presence via hiking, camping, etc is prevalent, I don't see how the sound of an acoustic instrument would be much different than the sound of humans tramping their way about as they tend to do.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Jimmy B
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Gotta go play for the Elementary school kids I'll return later.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Gone to work
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
I always like to remind people, Americans in particular, of the mass extinction of large mammal species across the continent of North America that coincided with the arrival of humans.
Lovely cuddly native Americans eh?
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by llig leahcim
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Jimmy B – I agree. In campgrounds and suburban parks most of the really sensitive species have already been driven away. Play at will.
I also agree that we’re all a part of nature. But a part of nature that’s run amok like a cancer. Thankfully, and with hope, we’re a part of nature with the unique capacity to reason, to realize mistakes and make comprehensive changes in our behavior.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by fidkid
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
To llig: yeah but you guys probably wiped out the Neaderthals. Blood on everyone's hands.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by fidkid
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
I play in the woods and valleys all the time, whenever I can. Creatures of the woods, I find, are charmed. Fidkid knows the 8 mile-Telegraph area. Deer always approach when they hear me there, and in a few moments discover I am no threat, so they stay and graze. One Sunday morning an 8 point buck spent a good half hour with me as I played. Birds come from all over, too. I have walked to work along I-275 and have had birds follow me from tree to tree. most of these locations are pretty noisy with traffic nearby, and rarely a human passes there, so I guess the place is already disturbed and would unlikely bather anyone in those areas.
I was playing on a high hill in a local park (hines drive) and a bunch of tie chee folks joined me and did their thing while I played. That was wierd. Another time I was walking out of a woods (Rotary Park) when someone stopped me to discuss the wonderful music they oftimes hear as they stroll thru the woods, having no idea that I was the one! I probed to discover how they felt about the noise and they loved it.
With pipe and flute the rustic Pan
Of old made music sweet for man;
And wonder hushed the warbling bird,
And closer drew the calm-eyed herd,—
The rolling river slowlier ran.
Ah! would,—ah! would, a little span,
Some air of Arcady could fan
This age of ours, too seldom stirred
With pipe and flute!
But now for gold we plot and plan;
And, from Beersheba unto Dan,
Apollo´s self might pass unheard,
Or find the night-jar´s note preferred;—
Not so it fared, when time began,
With pipe and flute!
and
Puffed up with luring to her knees
The rabbits from the blackberries,
Quaint little satyrs, and shy and mute,
That limped reluctant to the flute,
She needs must seek the forest´s womb
And pipe up tigers from green gloom.
Grouped round the dreaming oaten quill
Those sumptuous savages were still,
Rich spectral beasts that feared to stir,
And haughty and wistful gazed on her,
And swayed their sleepy masks in time
And growled a drowsy under-rhyme.
By Joseph Russell Taylor
More great poetry gathered at:
http://sessionite.com/page.php?in=102
Maybe flute-like things were around since the dawn of time and so are just a part of the natural environment as the bee and bird, fish, fowl and fauna.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by feardearg
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Of course, we are all humans
Time of start of major extinction episodes
(years before present)
Africa and S.E. Asia 50,000
Australia 50,000
North Eurasia 13,000
North America 11,000
South America 10,000
West Indies 4,000
New Zealand 900
Madagascar 800
http://darwin.bio.uci.edu/~sustain/bio65/lec04/b65lec04.htm
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by llig leahcim
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
And don't you love the daft notion that if a bird comes down to listen to you, they are listening to and enjoying your music. As opposed to keeping an eye on you to make sure you are not a danger.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by llig leahcim
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Feardearg, your playing definitely has the capacity to enchant, but the deer along 8 Mile and Telegraph Road are about as wild as Irish Setters. You could bag one with a hammer.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by fidkid
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
A boy in my school orchestra who played the clarinet used to practice it sometimes in woodland in the school grounds before school started. Sure enough, a resident in the area wrote to the local paper that they'd heard an unusually early cuckoo that year!
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Trevor Jennings
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Well, I discovered that the wrens that rode the breeze over head were actually buzzards, 8 and telegraph apparently being a handy place to dump bodies.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by feardearg
Any other eccentrics out there who can relate?
Yes...
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by ceolachan
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
So, llig, ar e you saying that uilleann pipes and pipers are a threat to the natural environment and could contribute to species extinction?
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by ceolachan
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Didn't a whale trainer recently bring her banjo to work to surprise with delight the animals she worked with? Where did I read that????
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by feardearg
Fidkid ~ loud and aggressive humans in the wilds
Yes to that pain too, as when some twit in a snowmobile came screaming out of nowhere and in passing also damaged one peson's cross country skis. If I had my druthers with the wilderness, it would be to resist, or to mute the instrument and use it rarely. There does seem to be music all about anyway, and a music that reaches deep. But, I have escaped with an instrument to remote realms before, but find, while I can enjoy it, I rarely find myself playing and instead doing what we keep repeating here ~ listening...
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by ceolachan
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
I'm saying that any notion of communing with nature is, at best, just hippie nonsense.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by llig leahcim
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
How thrilled, really, can animals be with our instruments? Skins, bones, guts, tails, leather, eggs (shakey..do they count?)... They truely are a part of our music!
http://sessionite.com/capfun/toons/cap001.jpg
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by feardearg
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
What's a 'hippie'?
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by ceolachan
Is that another endangered species?
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by ceolachan
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Composers for centuries have been referring to the sounds of nature in their compositions, in particular bird song. Some composers that immediately come to mind are Beethoven ("Pastoral" symphony), Messiaen (who was also an ornithologist), Kodaly (2nd movement of his cello sonata Op. 8), and Vivaldi ("The Four Seasons" - along with a probable several others of his known output of 253 violin concertos).
I wouldn't be surprised if there are a few Irish tunes that could remind the listener of bird song.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Trevor Jennings
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
I like wild things. I like watching and listening in wild places. I do it as aften as I can. Watching, listening learning. Slowly creeping about, laying low, quiet, patient.
I like playing diddley music too. In the pub with my mates.
And never the twain shall meet.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by llig leahcim
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
I remember hiking many miles up to a high lake for a session and a bit of dancing... It was great fun, though I'm sure we disturbed the neighbours...
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by ceolachan
Composers inspired by nature ~ Vincent Broderick
"Falling Leaves"
"Frog in the Pond"
"The Mountain Stream" ~ etc...
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by ceolachan
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Some tunes communicate nature. Like The Butterfly. If you didn't know what a butterfly was before, would you know them after listening to the tune?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zL9GeBVrMG8
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by feardearg
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
ha ha
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by llig leahcim
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Playing music outside probably came before playing music inside, for what it's worth.
Music a transient thing, unlike trophy homes in the mountains, dirt bike trails, invasive weeds, and old sofas dumped in the woods. Animals that I encounter don't look impressed one way or the other, so they tolerate me and I don't go out of my way to annoy them. I don't yell at the coyotes for making a racket at night and they don't say much about my diddley music. I do yell at the deer for eating my tomatoes, but they just smirk.
In the greater scheme of things, us hippies are probably a little easier on the neighborhood than the family down the road that never comes outside, but has five cars in the driveway and 2 giant trash dumpers out every garbage day. So I'll embrace my whistle-playing in the woods, granola-crunching, bike-riding nonsense and not over-analyze it.
Peace, man.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Michele Sims
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
I like a nice pastoral setting as much as the next traditional rural dance music enthusiast. Farm, copse, hedgerow -- all lovely, inspiring venues. I’m really talking about the deep wild, places that may not even be what this discussion is originally about. Animal populations are rarely endangered by hunting, it’s the loss of natural habitat that screws with them. Music is not a natural part of that habitat.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by fidkid
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Sorry Batlady, cross posted. I dig. Peace.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by fidkid
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Wiped out Neanderthals my arse. You've clearly never been to Cornwall or Wales. And that isn't racist - I love the Cornish dearly, and even the Welsh just a little, and I'm of stocky build and hairy back myself.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Steve Shaw
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
There's wild and there's not so wild. Actually, it's easier to watch and listen for wildlife in really wild places. Creatures have not developed their sense of fear of humans.
But some of the most rewarding wildlife observations can be had in the places that are not really wild at all. Be still, be patient, be quiet. And observe things that happen when the people are away. Or squeeze yer feckin bag pipes and ruin it.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by llig leahcim
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
The Mustard board is just like one of nature's primal booby traps.
It should really be called "The Hornet's Nest"
That kinda reminds me of how the pipes fit in the natural enviornmental scheme of things like "The Buzzing Hive of Bees"
It's recommended that you whistle, sing or hang a bell on your pack to alert bears that you are there so you don't happen upon them unexpectedly. Many people die of mauling by bear for being too quiet in the woods. Big cats can be really dangerous too. They don't care how noisy or quiet you are, they smell you no matter what you do. It's best to carry a gun when hiking in big cat country. Or at the least pepper spray.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Gone to work
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Birds sh*tt all over my car with absolutely no consideration for me at all. F 'em. I'm taking the banjo and the whistle to the stream in the woods on the mountain. I've no illusions about 'communing' with nature. I just like it as far from the crowds as I can get these days....
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by shanty
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
I once found a bagpiper in the middle of a forest, thought I had found the gate to Brigadoon or something. I thought he was out there to commune with nature, but when I asked him, he said it was the only place he could practice without people complaining!
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by AlBrown
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
fidkid~
"Birds use song to mark territory, attract mates and socialize in ways we’re just starting to understand."
So you're saying that if I were to go out into remote natural forest setting and play the pipes, I might actually be performing a mating call to Sasquatch/Bigfoot?
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by fiddlerdan
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
I'm glad when bigfoot shows up to sessions. He helps me keep in time.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by feardearg
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
now that bigfoot and I are friends, he comes along with me to sessions and I can go to sessions in the dodgier parts of town and never worry about being mugged!
Also he sits next to me at the session and the smell keeps the bodhran players over on the far side of the circle away from the musicians
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by fiddlerdan
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Q.......What's the difference between a Piper and Bigfoot.
A.....One is huge, covered with stinky matted hair, really ugly and makes scary horrid noises.
.......The other has big feet.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Gone to work
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
"I'm saying that any notion of communing with nature is, at best, just hippie nonsense."
What's wrong with communing with nature;
when the dry leaves go crunch crunch crunch
under your birkenstocks; sounds like eating granola.
Try that with your Zoom H4 technology.
Play music to the trees.
Llligglgg: make sure it's field hippies and
not forest yuppies,
We all meet at the food coop, for groceries.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by dogmageek
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
See what happens when you spend your life in dimly lit pubs
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Lint - upon - Tweed
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Wow, that is, like, cosmic. Man. I **really** need to find something to eat. What?
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Michele Sims
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Seriously, nature communicates if we but listen. The wintergreen that hides its tastey fruit teaches humility. The dandilion teaches generosity. The ant and bee teach industry. The grasshopper joy in the moment. The mallard tells of faithfulness. Bigfoot rhythm.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by feardearg
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Oh well, there we have it I guess. All the Indigenous peoples of the world had it absolutely wrong then, hey? ... for tens of thousands of years. They should have divorced their music and dance from nature and made buildings to take it inside? ... as if humans are somehow divorced from nature ... yikes! ... I hate to break it to you, but we're just another species, way way too cocky for words, and our instruments ... well, we're not the only ones to communicate and to use sticks and stones for our own ends and to create micro-environments ... bowerbirds do it ... most animals do ... and as for disturbing things, well, at least for Central Australia where the human pop density is somewhere in the region of 0.02 people / sq km. If you are the only person in an area of 3 thousand sq miles, playing solo in the bush is hardly disruptive to anyone or to anything. Building roads, flying planes, bringing domestic animals to wreck the native habitat and destroy natural waterholes, mining for uranium, introducing pests and weeds, bussing loads of tourists in, driving cars through the bush etc etc ... far more damaging than a solitary acoustic musician playing to a beautiful spot. The trees don't mind and the birds keep singing ... around here, rest assured, nature doesn't mind one little teency bit. It isn't pollution if there is nobody to hear it ... sheeze! Sounds like a lot of bunkum going down here as usual.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Clear Drops
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
This really is an excellent discussion. I was going to make a point similar to Clear Drops, but he beat me to the punch. I was going to say, with sarcasm abound, that it's a damned good thing that Europeans went to places like the Americas and Australia and Africa and made those heathen natives stop playing their flutes and drums and such forced music indoors.
But seriously, I appreciate fidkid's point. But llig, despite the respect I hold for you, I hope you are not comparing a solitary acoustic player to an automobile or a factory. That's just silly. And I'm nearly as far from a hippie as you can get. My few forays in playing by myself outdoors have less to do with communing with nature than with placating a selfish desire for a moment of peace, but I acknowldedge fidkid's assessment that it is important to keep our intrusion on nature to a minumum.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Jimmy B
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
she ... sigh!
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Clear Drops
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
llig leahcim is, of course, expressing sour grapes. He lives in Edinburgh, a place notorious even in the UK for its stupefying climatic harshness at all times of the year. He probably has to play his music in a burrow somewhere. Living in burrows has been, I believe, a traditional way of life there.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by nicholas
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
when clear drops speaks of playing in the bush, or driving through the bush in a vehicle, I am sure she is referring to the outback, rather than a tree...just to clarify that for our indoor musicians in colder climes.
Wasn't it Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh who said that Irish music is drawn from the land through the people who live there? Just like all indigenous music I would have thought.
It doesn't come from bar room beer taps. Even in England.
Does it?
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Skull Duggeraigh Dubh
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
I dunno, maybe it does...
"could I have two pints of smooth reels, please, and a half a jug of jigs."
Right, then, that's be ten pounds please, mate.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Skull Duggeraigh Dubh
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
hey, clear, do you know if any of the indigenous people out that way play Irish music. Gee, I'd say they'd be gun players of this, if they got on to it.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Skull Duggeraigh Dubh
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
I truly am eccentric, let me explain, yes, I'm an old hippie, also full of nonsense. I eat granola with fruits and nuts. I eat rattlesnake. I eat hagis. I'll do CPR on you (you too llig) if your heart's not working. I hug trees. I cut dead tree's down for firewood and building things. I forage wild lobster mushrooms. I surf in 50'F water. I kayak in 35'F degree water. I play bagpipes on cliff tops, in river canyons and in caves. I'll run into your burning house to save your kids while my friends pull you out, then we'll put the fire out if we can. I'll give you a blanket if your cold. I'll help extricate you from your crushed car and get you to a hospital. Put me down if you want to, I won't hold it against you and I'll still help you out if I can. When I talk about wild places, I mean wild places, places where most people don't go. The reason they don't go? They can't get there. Only I and a chosen few are even interested in the hazards of these places. I'm not afraid to die. I look forward to that adventure. Maybe I'll see you next time around. I've been on adventures where my companions and I haven't seen another person for days and days on end. I like it that way. If you dislike me, well, tough luck, your loss. I like me and that's all that matters. B-)
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Gone to work
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Ah yes, spring is just about here...
when the sap starts flowing...
and young mens thoughts turn to...
playing more tunes
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by fiddlerdan
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Yeah man fid, I'm bout set ta get spinnin like a regular Missouri tornado.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Gone to work
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
AARRRGH!!!.... #%&#DagBlast it.......where's me pipes NNNNYYYYYYAAAAAAAHHHHHHHhhhhhhaaahhhhhh.....Chirp....
Ok I'm better now.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Gone to work
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Great comeback, all! It was looking a little bleak for outdoor tunes.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by feardearg
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
I once came across a chap playing the war-pipes in a viewpoint car park in Glen Spean. The view completely ruined my enjoyment of his piping.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Steve Shaw
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
I once played An Phis Fhliuch in the mouth of a cave near a waterfall...
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by fiddlerdan
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
I once played Geese In The Bog next to a marsh, but the tule fog came up and it was too foggy to see any honkin' geese.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by fiddlerdan
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
I played Over the Waterall on a waterfall in northern Michigan.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by feardearg
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
I'm learning The Burning of the Piper's Hut. Should I be worried?
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by minijackpot
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Only if an angry mob comes out wielding
(The Rambling) Pitchforks and brandishing Rakes (of Kildare)
in response to your playing.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by fiddlerdan
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
People keep asking me to play Over the Hills and Far Away. Anyone got the dots?
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Steve Shaw
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
I have them, but they're clear over in the next county.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by fiddlerdan
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Boatpiper -
No disrespect, but I'm with fidkid here on the notion of playing in the deep wild. I know you are a hippie and mean no harm, but that doesn't mean you're not causing any. My last post was a bit of a wind-up, but ancient natives who played primarily outdoors, who WERE to an extent communing with nature, did so when nature was much more wild and far reaching than now. I don't think music is a thing that should be relegated indoors, as llig appears to believe, but those days are gone, and I think we should just be mindful of habitat and respectful of it. I have no problem with the idea of playing outdoors, although my motivation is clearly different than yours.
Incidentally, Boatpiper, you may want to refrain from self-branding as an eccentric. Eccentricity is much like a nickname, an identity that others prescribe to you. In my experience, true eccentrics have a disdain for the status quo, can be a bit caustic, and rarely refer to themselves as eccentrics. I've known many, as I tend to be attracted to them. I have my own suspicions that llig leachim is one, but I'll reserve judgement until all the facts are in.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Jimmy B
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
True eccentrics don't even know that they are eccentric. Well, not the ones I know.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by minijackpot
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Musicians are probably not the biggest threat to wildlife. But it seems ironic that someone wants to be ‘one with nature’ by imposing their ego and dominating the soundscape. Not very zen, imho.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by fidkid
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
I agree with you, disillusioned, but I try to refrain from absolutes. One of my favorite eccentrics knew damn well he was different, he just wasn't proud of it.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Jimmy B
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
I agree with you. they might know they are not like most other people, but think 'So what, we're all different.'
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by minijackpot
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
What?!!! Who said anything about "imposing their ego and dominating the soundscape"? Crikey! ... that is a totally ridiculous assumption ...
Argh! So that is what playing in sessions is all about, hey? So you think that musicians who play out in nature play in the same competitive way musicians play in pub sessions inside. This says more about inside session players who must be into competition and domination. Got ya! So its the inside session musicians who have got it totally wrong. They want to get out more ... out to where traditional music comes from ... outside in nature.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Clear Drops
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Clear Drops,
Please, you are possibly the last person I’d ever want to upset with my comments! But I suggest that a sense of oneness with nature via music is illusory.
So someone hikes into a remote woods, comes upon a meadow, hears the buzzing of insects. The gurgle of water against stone. The murmur of wind. The fee-bee call of a male black-capped chickadee establishing territory. The antiphonal call of a rival on the other side of the meadow. And then that person thinks, what this scene needs is me playing Saddle the Pony on the union pipes. That’s ego.
Clear Drops, the sessions I participate in aren’t competitive but cooperative – we try to play with each other, not against each other. At least, that’s my perception and motivation.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by fidkid
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Rattlesnake, damn, now I'm hungry... I'll settle instead for the leek and potato soup I made last night, and some home baked bread, and then, later, some music and dance tonight, out and about in the urban wilds...
I have, been moved to sing while out on long hikes our tours in wild places, on water, in woods and jungles. There is something about those places that makes my heard sing and sometimes that rised up and takes form in my voice, sometimes just lilting, but not loud, sometimes answering back to a call from another animal. I can't say it's something I'd want to subject anyone else to, but nature never seems to judge or complain...
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by ceolachan
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Damn drugs ~ dental work! ~ pain killers!
I hate medicine.
Wild places make my 'heart' sing, and sometimes that takes form... It would only be one of my own kind that would get upset about that and complain...
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by ceolachan
Might as well say it before someone else does, c ~
Wild thing
You make my heart sing
You make everything
Groovy
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by fidkid
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Mornin', Clear Drops. (Its morning here, at least) I think your point has much to do with which outdoors you play at. Were you to play in say.... Death Valley, you wouldn't be heard by very many critters. Before too long, the heat would make something frivolous like music an impossibility -- even for an Australian. Were you to play in a spot in Yosemite, you're going to have an audience, whether they like it or not.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Sorry Boatpiper, but I always go armed when hiking alone in Piper Country.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Sign sign everywhere a sign blockin up the scenery breakin my mind.................................................................................................
Sign said you aint supposed ta be here......
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLm3HMG8IhM&feature=related
I find it amusing, all the silly people who try to tell me to sit down shut up and stop enjoying life. They get really upset when they see me having fun, hurting none and being happy. Since they don't have the amusing eccentricities that I enjoy. They even tell me I can't have that! HUNH Sing sign everywhere a sign...................................................
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Gone to work
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
I suppose Boatpiper is not hurting anyone so off you go and play your pipes in the woods.. But I can also imagine many folks east of the atlantic (some on the other side as well) rolling their eyes thinking this has nothing whatsoever to do with diddley music...
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by mumhain abu
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Atahaulpa, So, what exactly are you trying to say? Do you plan to shoot and kill pipers? Hmmmmm.........you gonna apologize beforehand? Hmmmmmm..........That's really twisted and violent dude. I'm only gonna shoot something that's trying to kill me.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Gone to work
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Not with a firearm, mind. That wouldn't do. Stay perfectly still Boatpiper; my Clovis-pointed arrow isn't aimed at you, but at the pipe bag. Won't hurt a bit. You and all the critters can be friends once more.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
mumhain, Yeah, so? People rolling their eyes...chuckle... That's their trip. Eye rollers are generally not worth sharing company with anyway.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Gone to work
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
If that makes you happy Atahu go for it. I can get a new bag.
I'll still run into your burning house to pull you out. You kids too.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Gone to work
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Seriously though, human music in the great outdoors -- while it may be a contravention of some sort of law -- has been an unexpected pleasure along trails at various times. Never heard Diddley in the woods, yet. Sometimes, it has been wished that the musician serenading us campers might have practiced at home a bit more.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Everything in moderation. 2am when you're trying to sleep? not moderation.
Little piping as the sun sets? C'mon folks lighten up. enjoy the time we have here.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Gone to work
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
There was a sunset recital by a trombonist at Touolumne Meadows that mostly detracted from the moment. This is more a matter of personal taste, I know. As of now, Americans can carry loaded firearms into National Parks. So, Boatpiper, we musicians -- especially us pipers -- risk our lives by playing there.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Boatpiper -
This has been an exhilirating thread to say the least. I'm glad to started it. We haven't had a good virtual melee in a while.
Seriously, though, why are you going on so about how you would still save us from fires and give us a blanket and such? I'm unsarcastically touched, but what does this have to do with playing music outdoors? I think there are some legitimate concerns about consideration and encroachment being voiced, and I think you should at least consider them. From the beginning I supported your notion of playing outdoors, and I still do, but I'm beginning to think that your notion of playing in the wild is even more selfish than mine. You speak of moderation but you are also talking about taking your pipes into the deep woods, which does not seem moderate to me. I'm not a communer with nature, but if I were I should think going quietly into the wild and listening to nature would be a more productive way of doing it. I mean, you are a hugger of trees, are you not? I'm not trying to be confrontational here, I just think you may consider that the concerns fidkid voiced are pretty reasonable.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Jimmy B
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Bad wording in my last post, Boatpiper. I meant to say I'm glad "you" started the thread.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Jimmy B
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
The hills are alive with the sound of music
With songs they have sung for a thousand years...
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by fiddlerdan
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Nathaniel Ayers / Jamie Fox had it right in The Soloist: play on the sidewalk of a busy Los Angeles underpass.
Lovely ambience and all the wildlife you could want, right there...
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by grego
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Jimmy, Thoughts well taken here. What I'm saying with the burning house thing is this. The whole idea of someone telling another what to do, imposing thier own personal laws on someone is whats selfish. They say "I don't want you to do that, or have that, so, my rules are what you will follow " When no harm is being done, they do it on a power trip. If that same person who has imposed their power trip on me is trapped in their burning house, am I gonna impose a power trip back on them? No. I'm not gonna let them burn because they have been unfair to me. If their house is burning and they need help, I will choose to run in and help if I can. I'm trained to do that. The people who tell me to not play in the woods are telling me to stop living. When I play pipes in the woods, what am I there for? 20 minutes? A bit more? A bit less? Out of thousands and thousands of hours that I'm not there? I've just brought great joy to myself and have harmed none. Call it selfish, egotistical, whatever man. If that's how you get joy, by imposing your laws on others to try and take their joy away, I feel sorry for you. But hey, go sit across the lake and try listening for a minute. You might like it. When I leave you might remember it. I won't be there long. I go in, bring only tunes, leave only footsteps. If you want to play your banjo on the other side of the lake, I'll be quiet, I'll listen, AND, I'll appreciate the fact that you are enjoying youself, no matter weather you're a beginner or not.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Gone to work
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Here in Arkansas, it is still too early for spring fever.
Even if I played an instrument which is small enough to be portable, I wouldn't take it with me when we go hiking in the national forest or a state park. We go hiking partly so I can get a temporary break from playing music and partly to let our dogs get some exercise someplace besides our back yard and the dog run in a local park.
"Of course, we are all humans" Are you sure about that Llig?
I have performed music both outside and inside and I prefer to perform inside.
Boatpiper, when you hug trees, do the trees hug you back in return?
My sister-in-law is eccentric but she thinks she is normal and it is every one else who is messed up and eccentric.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by fauxcelt
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Oh, but we aren't performing, fauxcelt. We are merely doing the thing that is NOT performing.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Michele Sims
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Fauxcelt. Yup they do. They give their life to keep me warm all winter.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Gone to work
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
This thread kind of reminds of of this one:
http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/23847
only instead of being " p*ssed on Jameson's" the OP has been imbiding on something slightly more mind altering!
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by mumhain abu
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
mum It's called life! Best mind altering thing in the universe
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Gone to work
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
All together now.
I love to go a-wandering,
Along the mountain track,
And as I go, I love to sing,
My knapsack on my back.
Val-de-ri--Val-de-ra-
Val-de-ri--Val-de ha ha ha ha ha ha
Val-de-ri--Val-de-ra.
My knapsack on my back.
I love to wander by the stream
That dances in the sun,
So joyously it calls to me,
"Come! Join my happy song!"
Chorus
High overhead, the skylarks wing,
They never rest at home,
But just like me, they love to sing,
As o'er the world we roam.
Chorus
Oh, may I go a-wandering
Until the day I die!
Oh may I always laugh and sing
Beneath God's clear blue sky!
Val-de-ri--Val-de-ra-
Val-de-ri--Val-de ha ha ha ha ha ha
Val-de-ri--Val-de-ra.
My knapsack on my back.
( Well not God's maybe if you 're a stinking atheist like me....)
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Steve Shaw
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Boatpiper -
This is very strange. Do you really think I'm trying to rain on your parade? Are you so egotistical that you would think I would care about how you spend your personal time? I'm asking you to be reasonable and consider when your personal time may "impose" upon the personal time of others, be it human or wildlife. If you sat down on my front lawn and started to pipe away, I would be completely justified in banning you from my premises, and you would be in absolutely no position to expect me to be tolerant of it, whether I enjoy piping or not. Wildlife doesn't enjoy that right, and when one makes the choice to play in the wild, or in any place where others may be affected, the responsible thing to do is to make choices out of consideration. How do you know your playing doesn't bother anyone? You don't know that any more than I would. Certainly how you spend your personal time is your business, but when it's in a place shared by others, be it people or wildlife, it becomes their business too. Do you not see that?
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Jimmy B
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
My Dad used to sing that song with my brother and I when we were kids. Thanks Steve!!! I sure do miss the old man....sigh....
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Gone to work
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Sure, Jimmy. I'll stay off your front lawn already Sheesh..
Got a bit o the Miltant streak in ya huh?
Is it ok if I run across your lawn to help you if your house is on fire?
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Gone to work
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Lets get to a more basic question. Who would want to drag a set of uilleann pipes into the remote wilderness? Pipes are HEAVY and delicate. If you're properly remote, it means you'd need to drag tent, sleeping bag, food, cooking gear, spare clothing, AND a set of uilleann pipes. And pray it doesn't rain. Or get too hot. Or snow. Or whatever. If you're taking them to some place within easy walking distance of your car, then the wildlife is already someone habituated to people and cars and a person playing bagpipes isn't going to make much difference.
My point is either Boatpiper is insane because he's taking pipes backpacking or rafting, or the critters that have to listen to him are well used to having people infringing on their space in various ways.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by DrSilverSpear
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Whereas 10-hole harmonicas....
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Steve Shaw
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
There's another verse in The Happy Wanderer that I left out because it didn't mention singing along with nature's tunes. Before leaving the subject I should like to point out that I have never associated, do not now associate and will never associate with either God or boy scouting. Thought I'd just relieve myself of that burden.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Steve Shaw
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Boatpiper, I naively thought that this was going to be one of those 6-reply, feel-good threads, then on to yet another "the Tube that shall remain nameless" what is this freaking tune? post. YIkes. Silly me.
Perhaps we're due for another round of Mornington Crescent?
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Michele Sims
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
To put it another way, that's why they invented Generation whistles. Even if you lose one in a climbing/rafting/hiking debacle, it's no big deal.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by DrSilverSpear
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Well, Boatpiper, I was in the military, but I left because I WASN'T suited to the military. This is not a standoff at Kent State. This is a conversation about values. You're telling me not to impose my values on you, yet you seem to have no problem imposing yours upon the rest of the world. This has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not one would run into a burning house, or whether or not one feels a spiritual connection with nature, or any of the other issues you bring up that have nothing to do with whether or not playing music outdoors is appropriate. I encourage you to follow your heart's desire, no differently than I do for anyone else. You may feel that if I come near you in the wilderness and play a banjo, or bang a gong, or blare a Metallica CD, that you would have no problem with it, and I have no reason to doubt you. I, on the other hand, would likely find such a thing obnoxious and inconsiderate, so clearly we have different values in this regard. Whether or not I would rush into a burning building to save you is irrelevant.
I've very much enjoyed this exchange of ideas. Clearly you and I are not to be swayed in our beliefs. The only thing that is clear to me is that we both have a conception of live and let live, but that they differ greatly on what that means.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Jimmy B
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
There are some spots I know of that are a 3-5 mile hike where I've never seen another person. Day hike. Game trails or no trails. Don't worry Jimmy, I won't tell you where they are. Even on the occasions when somebody does show up, I've never met with the kind of response that some on the Mustard spew. People who have happened upon me in the wild have always said , Oh.....please don't stop. Play some more will you?
I do find though that some folks just want to find the negative and poke and argue at everything they see rather than try to find the things to appreciate in it. Those kind of people are usually not found out appreciating wild places. They usually lock themselves up and complain about everything.
Have you ever hiked through a forest after a fire? Man, totally surreal. Amazing. The ignorant say Oh, I hate this it's ugly. I see nature's raw passionate beauty at it's finest. It's like being on another planet. Then I'll go back a year later to see the new birth coming alive. I'll sing and play at will in the woods. (Just not on Jimmy's front lawn) You can appreciate it or not. It's not my job to tell you what to do.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Gone to work
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Good. I was afraid I was going to get a strange piper showing up on my lawn someday. I'm holding you to it. Besides, you wouldn't like it. It's not like being on another planet.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Jimmy B
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
This is life Jimmy. The big session we all participate in. Tunes, fires, sunsets, oceans, forests, rivers, birth, death. It's all relevant. If your house was on fire and you in it, you'd then see how relative it is.
Nice the sun just came out and it's warming up. I'm gonna go find someplace beautiful to share some tunes with. See yas.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Gone to work
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Can you imagine the very first pub session ever?
"Hey, you with the fiddles! Whatchya think you're doing? You can't come in here and deafen us with your diddly-eye when all we wanted was a quiet pint, a smoke, and a spit in the spitoon... fe(k off to yer own house and make a racket! No consideration for anyone..."
(or is that our last session I'm thinking of?)
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by grego
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Bring your pager, boatpiper, in case our house goes on fire and us in it...
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by grego
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Boatpiper, if you and I ever crossed paths and could share a tune, I certainly would do it. We simply differ on life philosophies. I don't expect you to embrace mine, and I doubt I would embrace yours, unless I experience being in a burning house and you save me, whatever that means. The fact that we share a certain musical passion is the only thing I can see at this point that we share. Who knows, there could be other things. It wouldn't surprise me, as we have crossed paths on this site many times and have never exchanged a harsh word that I can remember, so there must be something else. I'm happy that you would save me from a fire. I saved a life once, was able to keep a dying man on a street alive just long enough. It certainly was a spiritual experience to me. I still don't see how it relates to playing instruments in the woods. Sorry.
# Posted on March 2nd 2010 by Jimmy B
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
I have no idea how playing an instrument in the woods relates whether or not you'd save someone from a burning building.
If you're willing to carry pipes 5 miles, good for you. I once carried mine from Camden Town to Hackney, a bit over four miles until we finally found a night bus (it was about 4am). I can't say I'd ever do that again given a choice.
# Posted on March 3rd 2010 by DrSilverSpear
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Silver Spear -
Thank you. I was beginning to think I was the only one on the planet that didn't see the connection. I actually began by supporting Boatpiper's wish to play outdoors if you look at the beginning of this enormous thread. Somehow this scenario got painted where I was trying to destroy his life and impose rules on him, when all I was trying to do was get him to consider what seemed like a pretty reasonable consideration. I got sucked into it, and I'm usually pretty good at avoiding that kind of thing.
Life goes on.
# Posted on March 3rd 2010 by Jimmy B
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Good food for thought. I see the subject in new light.
i can't see how sweet music in the outdoors would be any more disturbing to wildlife then...us just being there. They know you are there. I would think that they would be eased to hear you play. At least they would know exactly where you were.
Other people, tho. The discussion above has made me reconsider my lightly held beliefs on this matter. Thanks. I find that people are pleased when they come across me playing tunes in the woods, often sitting a spell to listen. Wonderful conversations and friendship has been shared. One time a group of bird-watchers approached with compliments. You would think that of all people they would be upset.
While being considerate of others, I still hold that flute music, almost as old, perhaps older, than human language, belongs in the outdoors. It will always be my favorite venue.
Side note: one may not commune with nature per say, but believers can commune and be taught somewhat about God by observing and considering His creations. Of couse, I am also a Scout Master.
# Posted on March 3rd 2010 by feardearg
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Jimmy B, a long time ago there was a fellow here named TradPiper (and a host of other names). He used to suck in a lot of us in like manner. Threads would go on forever!
Don't feel bad. It happens to all of us.
# Posted on March 3rd 2010 by feardearg
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Ah, that's nice feardearg. Boatpiper tried to paint me in a corner and suggest I don't understand nature and have no feeling for it. This is ridiculous. I have a deep respect for nature, and have communed with nature in my own way from time to time. Whether or not nature approves of my presence I have no idea. I don't presume to know what nature wants, and I certainly don't assume that nature wants banjo. I always thought nature preferred the glockenspeil. Shows you what I know.
Seriously. I made a point earlier that ancient natives of various lands share the flute as a common instrument in one form or another, so I can wrap my brain around the concept that the flute is perhaps the least intrusive of all instruments. Makes sense to me, but then what do I know? To think I am a mere speck in the cosmos is entirely too conceited.
# Posted on March 3rd 2010 by Jimmy B
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Seems as if there are two arguments. One is that playing music in the wilderness disturbs nature, the other is that it disturbs other people who want to enjoy nature.
I'm not taking sides, but I think it depends on when and where you are. I mean, how many of us have played acoustic guitars and sung around a campfire?
Nature prefers the hurdy-gurdy. Duh. Everyone knows that.
# Posted on March 3rd 2010 by DrSilverSpear
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
I don't make a habit of playing al fresco. As for its effect on other life-forms - years ago (I've told this one before) I played a long note on the flute(!) to a herd of heifers and/or bullocks. They took off as if tigers were after them, full tilt to the far end of a long field. To further the experiment, I played another long note. They came hurtling back up to the top of the field again. Assured of my Orphic powers over the animal kingdom, I desisted from putting them through any more, and was glad the farmer hadn't (as far as I know) been looking on.
# Posted on March 3rd 2010 by nicholas
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Silver Spear~
Or could it be that the ~act~ of playing music is disturbing *outside* of its accepted places (indoors, in pubs, in sessions
and the like.
# Posted on March 3rd 2010 by fiddlerdan
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Lugging pipes to a high elevation that happens to be a good long walk from the trail head, then playing them, should be a pretty good indicator of a person's ability to carry another person from a burning building. I suppose I am physically able to return the favor, if it ever came to that. This would be in the spirit of friendship and decency -- and It would be my privilege. Boatpiper, how much do you weigh?
# Posted on March 3rd 2010 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
(indoors, in pubs, in sessions and the like).
# Posted on March 3rd 2010 by fiddlerdan
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Hey just returned, found too much wind and huge waves that were throwing a mist up the cliff. Decided not to play. Time wasn't right. But lordy how it was beautiful.
Now Jimmy. In no way did I intend to make you feel painted into a corner, you are reading things into what I say and misinterpreting them and allowing yourself to feel painted into a corner. That is only your perception. It is not my intention. I have great respect for those who give great respect.When I play tunes for nature, or the kids at the school, or you my fellow man, I'm offering my gift of tunes for nature and all to enjoy. I believe nature really does enjoy my gifts. Nature never refuses my gifts. I pray in it. I pray for it. The tunes are my way of offering a gift back to it in return for the many gifts it gives me. Just as I would give you the gift of running into your burning house to pull you out. I have great respect for you and would never refuse your gift. If you teach me a tune, that's a wonderful gift. I may then go and offer it to the forest. I may then offer it to other folks. They can choose to refuse the gift and tell me to stop playing, but, that doesn't mean I'll stop offering and giving. For the more I give , the more I recieve.
# Posted on March 3rd 2010 by Gone to work
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Spear, I think the correct expression is: "Nature abhors a piano accordion." And how dare you foist your unnatural preference for the hurdy-gurdy upon us?
# Posted on March 3rd 2010 by Michele Sims
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Anybody that has my back by dedicating their lives to running into burning buildings to save people has my vote. Boatpiper can play his pipes on my lawn anytime he wants.
# Posted on March 3rd 2010 by fiddlerdan
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Wouldn't playing al fresco be playing naked? I imagine that would have all sorts of effects on other life forms.
# Posted on March 3rd 2010 by DrSilverSpear
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Atahualpa 200lbs. Drag me if you hafta. Great respect great respect fine Athualpa Quigley
# Posted on March 3rd 2010 by Gone to work
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Fine Atahualpa Quigley and Fiddlerdan you are always welcome on my front....er....patch of moss and fir needles. Jimmy B you too, and Batlady, Silver Spear, nicholas, feardearg, grego, Steve Shaw, mumhain abu, coelachan, fid kid, disillusioned, Duijera Dubh, faucelt, Clear Drops, Lint-upon-tweed, Dogma Geek, John Knoss, Bredna, llig leachim, danny whistle flute box, Tuckered out, New Pure drop ear canal oil,
I offer
Blessings
Peace
tunes
pints
and one day if you haven't already may you play the tune that moves your heart to eternal peace.
Boatpiper
# Posted on March 3rd 2010 by Gone to work
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
"The mallard teaches faithfulness" - feardearg.
I believe, actually, it is the only bird - or at any rate, the best-known bird - that habitually mates by gang rape.
The people of Thirsk in North Yorkshire (England) are all in a flutter over this. The little river that flows through the town attracts hordes of mallard in the mating season, and some of the locals fear that visitors will get a bad impression of Thirsk as they make their way past these creatures' raucous frenzy: or indeed, be put off coming back, or going at all.
Actually, it strikes me as about the only thing worth going to Thirsk to see. I doubt if much else happens there. It ought to be in the Rough Guide, or something. Or 'celebrated as a joyous life-affirming annual event' (eeuurgh!) in an annual Festival or something. Where's the spirit of enterprise here?
I am indebted for this information to The Northern Echo, a paper normally very depressing as it is mainly about what people do to one another in Darlington.
# Posted on March 3rd 2010 by nicholas
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
I thought playing al fresco was playing under a big wall painting.
# Posted on March 3rd 2010 by Steve Shaw
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
playing in the (not so-)supermarket: al tesco
# Posted on March 3rd 2010 by ramblingpitchfork
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Playing in the Isles of Scilly: al Tresco
# Posted on March 3rd 2010 by Steve Shaw
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Please discontinue this thread ASAP. This sort of stuff does NOTHING to change the perception that we're all a buncha of tie-dyed, Birkenstock sandal wearing, patchouli reeking, pseudo-hippies. Thank you.
(Message paid for by the ex-punk rockers who play ITM)
# Posted on March 3rd 2010 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
I am glad to read that the trees love the original poster of this thread so much that they hug him back in return.
Batlady, what is "the thing that is NOT performing"?
# Posted on March 3rd 2010 by fauxcelt
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
fauxcelt: ask the Phantom Button about that. I will not be responsible for getting that whole thing going again.
# Posted on March 3rd 2010 by Michele Sims
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Bail ó Dhia oraibh! Greetings on and all!
I’ve been blessed to play in some very beautiful and spiritually uplifting places.
Indeed I lived on Lundy for two years and have played in the same lighthouse as mentioned by Danny. I also found some lovely places to play at the base of some of the cliffs.
I used to live up a mountain called Cold Fell in Cumbria, and I’d walk over a pass into the next valley where the River Gelt descended, and play in an arch at the edge of a pool in the river. The acoustics were beautiful and in any season the colours and the light was a great coming together of energies; in the Spring time that lovely dappled light dancing through translucent leaves,in the Summer, drowsy bees sipping from the wild flowers and dragonflies hawking over the banks, while swallows skimmed the water, in the Autumn the riot of reds, golds and browns on the trees, and even in the Winter, the steel grey skies and accompaniment of the wind. All of these weree beautiful times to play and be uplifted by beauteous surroundings. I’ve played whilst deer drank and it didn’t feel like there was any intrusion.
And it was the same in the Kyle of Sutherland, to sit in some Glen and play straight from the soul.
Just love the reminders this thread has given.
Thank you
Brian xx
# Posted on March 4th 2010 by briantheflute
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
@briantheflute:
I *thought* it was you...our paths crossed at the odd session in the early 80s (I remember one in Edinburgh), though you may not remember me. I was always on the point of asking, "Were you that cove who lived in a shack on Cold Fell, or something?"
I worked on a dig near there, Winter 80-81. I went up the Gelt Valley to see the 'Written Rock' - Roman graffiti, undramatic and hard to spot. But the Roman quarries tucked away in the valley are surprisingly big. I did climb Cold Fell too. A very, very quiet and recondite part of the world. On a nice Spring or Summer day Geltsdale must be idyllic. The artists Ben and Winifred Nicholson lived in the area for a while and - especially Winifred, I think - did some atmospheric paintings of that stretch near the foot of Cold Fell. (Ben is best known for his connections with St. Ives.)
All the best!
Nick.
# Posted on March 4th 2010 by nicholas
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Boatpiper has changed his name in the middle of the thread, which I always find quite disconcerting. I enjoy his posts, so I hope he doesn't take his new name, "so long fare you well," too literally!
I enjoy playing instruments out of doors, it is far preferrable to do that than bring a radio or disk player and inflict recorded music on the natural world!
# Posted on March 4th 2010 by AlBrown
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
To borrow Eiluned's metaphor from over on another topic, and apply it to this topic: Boatpiper wasn't exactly trying to drag us all down into his tunnel of despair here.
# Posted on March 4th 2010 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Hi there Nick! I remember you right enough!
When I moved up to Cumbria in 1982 I’d just started to live, so to speak. I’d been in the Civil Service for four years but it was grinding me into despair and oblivion. They weren’t keen too much on matters and connections Irish at that time. Since I left, as you can see from my profile, I’ve been alright ever since!
I see from your profile you’ve been busy. Well done. I do love the Northumbrian Music and have played in some fantastic sessions up there, Rothbury, Alwinton, Morpeth, Mitford, Bellingham, Hexham etc.
There was a lovely fiddle player called Harry Pearson I think. He had great style and the music just flowed. And weren’t there Bibbys, I think, from Morpeth? Neil Smith with his recorder, Robin Dunn, mandolin, George Welch to name but a few, and Mike Tickell with his deep resonant bass voice singing some of those incredible ballads.
Hope all’s well with you.
Regarding the way the thread developed I did notice some who thought it intrusive. I would far rather hear someone playing soulfully and live than this modern trend for others to inflict their speakers and sound systems on us in any situation where we cannot escape, be it from their vehicles or homes, with such volume that a building vibrates!
I think any instrument when played acoustically has wonderful tonal qualities and forme if I happen to catch some notes it has a magical effect for me.
All the best
Brian xx
# Posted on March 4th 2010 by briantheflute
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Yay! What a turn around! Thank you so much Brian. True story: during WWII where I live was a major military staging base for the movement of troops and supplies into the war in the Pacific. The town was turned into an enormous tent city. Amongst the soldiers in town was a violinist and he used to go out into the bush to practice (in consideration of the thousands upon thousands of tent dwellers in town). He was practicing a new tune (so the story goes) in a quiet spot out of ear shot of the town when he heard this loud voice from across the gully: "Fer Chr*** sake, can't you play something you know!" I don't know what I am trying to say here ... but anyway I find the bush a place where the heart sings and seeing as Irish(?) fiddle is all I know (however badly I play it) the bush is non-judgemental and welcoming ... and I'm not going to stop playing in it for anyone of youse ... sheeze!
# Posted on March 4th 2010 by Clear Drops
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
I'm glad that's off my chest ... and now back to lurkdom till the next outburst ... sigh!
# Posted on March 5th 2010 by Clear Drops
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
A flute player I know whom I have mentioned sometimes in these threads is forever going off with his instruments to play outdoors.
When he plays, with impressive frequency out of the throng or a bush or a bald heather moor there pops - footloose, free of spirit, roiling with spring fever - a female. She is breathless with admiration for his flute playing, and normally produces or at least confesses to playing some instrument.
Only a tiny proportion of these consent (or are invited) to be hauled back to his lair for more protracted investigation. But over the decades, the numbers of these actually stack up to quite a lot.
This is all true. I've seen at least a smidgin of it. Also, this guy is incapable of lying - when he tries to, or goes in for leg-pull, he founders in uncontrollable mirth and wallows foaming.
# Posted on March 5th 2010 by nicholas
Eccentricity by extension ~
Discussion: I have some news for YOU
# Posted on March 3rd 2010 by feardearg
http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/23946
# Posted on March 5th 2010 by ceolachan
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Is it that a good deal of people's musical offerings to wilderness -- I lump my own music with theirs as well -- is a bit incongruous? To me, it seems like the musical equivalent of the church some well meaning folks thought fit to erect in Yosemite Valley.
# Posted on March 5th 2010 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Oh my! Maybe someone forgot to tell the American Indians they were a bit incongruous to the natural soundscape ... or that Aboriginal corroborees were an intrusion on nature ... sigh! Or that the Peoples of the Andes shouldn't have played their flutes to the mountains ... sheeze! That Travelling People should have kept silent while travelling the roads, that migrants shouldn't have brought their music with them when they migrated ... I could go on forever. Might as well try and tell the lyre bird not to lie or the mighty whale not to sing. Music is part of nature (and human nature) and we, try as we might to think somehow we are above it, are not ... we are driven by natural instincts as are all our fellow animals. I recon its eccentric NOT to recognise this. Sigh!
# Posted on March 6th 2010 by Clear Drops
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
maybe not eccentric as such, clear, but a preditable old world / new world dichotomy in perspectives on people as part of nature. Pretty hard to not feel an intrinsic part of nature in Australia I would think. Isn't it great. All senses are completely swamped by the pervasiveness of nature. Brilliant.
# Posted on March 6th 2010 by Skull Duggeraigh Dubh
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
What, no trombones under the blue gums at sunset?
# Posted on March 6th 2010 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
California has something like two times Australia's population. Australia has I-don't-know-how-many times the acreage of absolute, stark wilderness that California has. While we're not quite Japan, we are crowding up a bit. And besides: Trombone, REALLY BAD trombone at that, played at sunset in a place like Tuolumne Meadows?
# Posted on March 6th 2010 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Congruity is a perception that relies on a human judgement. What is congruous to one is incongruous to another. I could put a link in here, but I am not going to ... but, yep Atahualpa, 70% of Australia is classified arid. I live in the centre of this aridity surrounded on all sides by the five major Australian deserts (and a lot of minor ones as well), and although we don't have The Grand Canyon or Monument Valley, we have equivalents, mesas, buttes, canyons, pounds, painted deserts, sand dunes, wave rocks, The Rock, devil's marbles etc etc only they are more dispersed, not as concentrated (and maybe not quite as dramatic, although I don't know this for sure and am unwilling to make such a judgement), similar yet different. Impressively beautiful anyhow if you're into such environments.
How the 25,000 or so human inhabitants of this region view the environment is as diverse as from where these inhabitants have come. Yep, the town has a very good brass band. It has an all male African dance troop. It has a string orchestra. It has youths into hip-hop and rap. It has country music and rock. It has Indigenous Traditional music and contemporary Aboriginal music. It has didgeridoos (that are not traditional to this region). Yikes, just can't think of anything more. Not many blue gums, unfortunately, but that aside, were someone to play a trombone (however badly) under one, the trees and the birds and the other animals would not move shop in response ... the plants and animals around here are way way toooooo busy surviving the harsh environment to be concerned or judgemental. Most of the ground animals are safely holed away during the day because it is too hot for them anyway, even the kangaroos take to the shade and the snakes take to the rocks, and they come out at night to forage and move about.
... but I've got to go now ... so cheers anyway.
# Posted on March 6th 2010 by Clear Drops
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Oh the woe that a human city dweller would sit with fiddle or guitar, banjo, flute, mandolin, drum or pipes in a room of wood and stone, yet ,not feel indebted to offer a tune to the great tree tribes in thank's and praise. I hear the wailing cries of those tree's who bore their young only to find that a mere human may take the centuries old life of a fine member of their tribe for the building of a musical instrument or a shelter, yet, not give thanks back to the tree's. The tree's cry out.
Oh the woe and oh how they yearn to hear the tunes of their children who were so brutally murdered by axe and saw and then carved into musical instruments. Those children now kept as slaves only to be heard singing in a dark cellar pub.
Oh the woe that when one of the human tribe who thinks in the old ways would be chastised, criticized, belittled for treading deep into the forest to offer a tune in thanks and praise. The tunes be the gift of one who is eternally grateful for the gifts recieved of the forest.
Oh the woe that the shallowness of man has brought him to the point of chopping down the trees to build their cities and ships and musical instruments yet be angry and chastize and criticize one who would forge deep into the woods to earnestly honor the trees with thanks and praise yet again and again with tunes so they, the tree tribes, would hear their children sing.
Oh for peace that the tree's would hear all their children sing.
Back I will go deeper into the woods to find the places that have yet to recieve the thanks of I, one so grateful as to shun the angry mumblings of the shallow tribes of ungrateful human city dwellers. City dwellers whose habits do more harm than they will ever know with the destruction of our planet through arrogance and ignorance while never even leaving the city. That city which was itself once a grove of trees deep in the forest, or a meadow far across the plain. So now, I go yet again, far from human ears to offer grateful thanks and praise in peace and tunes, so long fare you well.
# Posted on March 6th 2010 by Gone to work
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
You must have a nice crop back in there, piper.
# Posted on March 6th 2010 by Ben Steen
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
What ever he's on can I have some of it? Oh, maybe not; have to go work in the morning...
# Posted on March 9th 2010 by john knoss
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Wow. I could definitely use whatever you're smoking, man.
# Posted on March 9th 2010 by DrSilverSpear
Re: I...am an eccentric.....with spring fever
Who needs it when there's music to get high on.
# Posted on March 9th 2010 by ceolachan