As is amply proved by the excellent players on these video recordings from the collections of the Irish Traditional Music Archive, the tin whistle is a destination instrument in Irish traditional music, as well as being an entry-level stepping stone to other instruments such as the flute and uilleann pipes. It has a unique sound that can range from the plangent on slow airs to a crisp tightness on fast dance tunes, and it will always have its own space in the music. In recent years, experimental makers using a variety of materials have developed the instrument, and have transformed it from the cheap, beloved, but sometimes unreliable whistles available a generation ago.
The recordings were made by ITMA staff at a variety of venues over the period: the Willie Clancy Summer School in Co Clare, the Frankie Kennedy Winter School in Co Donegal, and the Scoil Shamhna Shéamuis Ennis in Co Dublin.
With thanks to the performers for permission to present their music here, and to the organisers of the three schools for facilitating ITMA staff in making the recordings.
Nicholas Carolan, Treasa Harkin & Piaras Hoban, 1 August 2015
Royal Irish Academy, Dawson Street, Dublin
William Forde Publishing Subscription Project RIA MS 24 O 19
Researchers Caitlín Uí Éigeartaigh and Nicholas Carolan have studied the 12 volumes of Forde manuscripts and have deduced that approximately half derive from printed sources, with the remaining recorded from manuscript and oral sources. The melodies, mostly song airs, were organised systematically by Forde in the manuscripts in order to compare the various versions he had sourced.
Example of Forde's systematic organisation of melodies RIA MS 24 O 19
Unfortunately, as with many other nineteenth century collectors the words of the songs have not been documented. His sources extended beyond Munster to Connacht, Ulster, London, and in Leitrim he collected approximately 190 tunes from the piper Hugh O’Beirne.
Patrick Weston Joyce (1827–1914)
Patrick Weston Joyce (1827–1914) acquired the Forde-Pigot Collection from members of the Pigot family and a selection of the melodies was published in his 1909 Old Irish Music & Songs reproduced here.
P.W. Joyce donated the Forde-Pigot Collection to the Library of the Royal Irish Academy. An article by Nicholas Carolan ‘The Forde-Pigot Collection of Irish traditional music’ was published in Treasures of the Royal Irish Academy Library (Dublin, 2009).
Nicholas Carolan, Director Emeritus, Irish Traditional Music Archive
John Blake selected two jigs from RIA MS 24 O 19 for Mary and Tony to learn, The Basket of Oysters and The Sprightly Widow.
We now invite you to learn the jigs. By learning and playing these tunes you can ensure the labours of William Forde are not forgotten and are shared with future generations.
ITMA’s Interactive Score facility gives you the opportunity to listen to the tune, speed it up/slow it down to play along with as you need, and follow the transcription.
The Basket of Oysters RIA MS 24 O 19
ITMA’s Interactive Score facility gives you the opportunity to listen to the tune, speed it up/slow it down to play along with as you need, and follow the transcription.
The Sprightly Widow RIA MS 24 O 19
ITMA would like to sincerely thank the Royal Irish Academy for permission to use images from RIA MS 24 O 19.
The text used above in the section ‘William Forde & Irish traditional music’ is an extract from an earlier ITMA Feature on William Forde’s printed publication 300 National melodies of the British Isles. Vol. 3. 100 Irish airs. (London, ca. 1841). It was written by Nicholas Carolan.
Mary Bergin is a whistle player from Shankill, Co. Dublin. Her mother played fiddle, her father melodeon. She picked up the whistle at nine, having heard Willie Clancy play in an Oireachtas concert in Dublin.. She picked up the whistle at nine, having heard Willie Clancy play in an Oireachtas concert in Dublin. Influenced by visiting musicians (Kathleen Harrington, Paddy Hill and Elizabeth Crotty in particular), and by local and fleadh sessions in the 1960s (in Blackrock with her harper sister Antoinette, fiddlers Joe Liddy and Sean O’Dwyer); whistle player Terry Horan also informed her playing. She played in the Claremen’s Club in Church Street, Dublin and the Thomas Street Pipers’ Club sessions, and learned too from observation of such as singer Nioclás Tóibín in Ring and Willie Clancy in Miltown Malbay while on family holidays.
She took part in CCÉ tours of Britain with, among others, Liam O’Flynn and Matt Molloy, and in the USA with such as Séamus Begley, Joe Burke and James Kelly. She worked for Radio Éireann in Henry St., Dublin, then CCÉ in Monkstown before moving to Spiddal where she now teaches the whistle. She played with the Green Linnet Céilí Band (Dublin: Mick Hand, flute, Tommy Peoples and Liam Rowsome, fiddles, Johnny McMahon, accordion), with Éamon de Buitléar’s Ceoltóirí Laighean, and for a time with De Dannan. She has also toured with her sister Antoinette, who performs with whistle and uilleann pipes player Joe McKenna. She has played much with bouzouki player Alec Finn, and now tours with the group Dordán.
Brightly ornamented but uncluttered, her playing is distinctive with a crisp articulation, and was the role model for two decades of whistle players. Her first solo album, Feadóga Stáin, in 1979, is still definitive; Feadóga Stáin 2 came in 1989, and she has recorded several albums with Dordán. In 2000 she was awarded TG4’s Gradam Ceoil for Traditional Musician of the year.
