Four Lecture-Demonstration or Seminar Topics
Master Classes are most effective when coordinated with one or more of the following Lecture-Demonstrations:
- A Lecture-Demonstration is one-time 60 to 90 minute presentation.
- A Seminar is a more intensive exploration of a topic over a period of two to five days in 60 to 90 minute sessions.
1. By Ear: Embarking on Learning Traditional Irish Flute Music in the Traditional Way
This program is geared primarily toward flutists and tin whistle players. However, interested players of other instruments from the Irish tradition - Irish pipes, fiddle, free reed instruments, plucked strings - can also benefit, and may be encouraged to attend. Any instrumentalist with a strong interest in this musical tradition is welcome, with the understanding that the program's focus is the flute and tin whistle.
Grey Larsen plays a 19th-century wooden simple-system flute, the standard instrument in the Irish flute tradition, but his presentation, and the techniques he teaches, are readily accessible to players of Boehm, pre-Boehm, Baroque and Renaissance flutes as well as tin whistle, recorder and other wind instruments.
In this program Grey teaches Irish music to the entire group by ear. Ornamentation, articulation, phrasing and improvisation/variation are addressed in depth. He emphasizes the aural nature of the Irish musical tradition, employing creative techniques for demonstration, replication, and learning by ear. Even players with little or no experience or confidence at learning in this "aural tradition" fashion find themselves gaining valuable skills and experiential insights which will improve their listening and positively impact their musicality in all areas. For this reason, this program is especially effective when presented in the context of a multi-session seminar.
Grey will provide notated copies of the tunes he teaches, with suggested ornamentation and phrasing indicated, at an appropriate point. He will also provide printed resources (additional music notation, bibliographic and discographic materials) to help attendees explore this music further and to help them find quality instruments. As mentioned above, this program can be tailored to suit a variety of age groups and levels of expertise.
When scheduled, as recommended, in tandem with a concert performance, Grey will teach one or more pieces that he will perform in concert.
Suggested duration: 60 to 90 minutes for a lecture-demonstration or for each session of a seminar.
2. Cuts, Strikes, Rolls and Cranns: A Lecture-Demonstration or Seminar Presenting New Ways to Understand and Notate Ornamentation in Traditional Irish Flute and Tin Whistle Music.
The techniques of ornamentation for the Irish flute and tin whistle can be the most inaccessible area of performance practice for the novice player. Authors of pedagogical and analytical materials have not described these techniques well. Such works suffer because there been, until Grey Larsen's new books, no generally agreed-upon vocabulary or conceptual framework for understanding these techniques, their sound and function, and the physical movements required to produce them. Universally authors have borrowed the classical music concept and notation of grace notes in their attempts to define and notate traditional ornaments, a practice which leads to a variety of misconceptions and confusions.
As a veteran of performing, teaching and recording this music since the mid-1970s, who has learned directly from elder master musicians, Grey Larsen has developed a system that redefines certain of these "ornaments" as "articulations", according to their true sound and function. He jettisons the misleading concept of grace notes and introduces new, simple notational symbols which help the player gain a truer understanding of ornamentation and articulation in this music. This new material is explored in depth in his books The Essential Guide to Irish Flute and Tin Whistle, and The Essential Tin Whistle Toolbox.
In the lecture-demonstration Grey illustrates these techniques by playing the Irish flute and tin whistle extensively. He provides a key to his notation with commentary, as well as notated renditions of traditional tunes, in versions of his own as well as versions by master traditional musicians.
Grey's innovations in concept and notation of ornamentation and articulation provide deeper, more musical and more accurate understandings of these techniques in one of the world's great woodwind traditions.
When scheduled as recommended, in tandem with a concert performance, Grey will preview and elaborate upon one or more pieces that he will perform in concert.
Suggested duration: 60 to 90 minutes for a lecture-demonstration or for each session of a seminar.
3. Evolution of the Irish Flute: A Lecture-Demonstration or Seminar Exploring the Origins, Historical Development and Use of the Flute in Traditional Irish Music.
The evolution of wind instruments in Ireland (flute, tin whistle and Irish, or "uilleann" pipes) is a fascinating, intertwining history. In this program Grey summarizes and discusses the research and speculation which surround that history. He focuses primarily on the flute but also alludes to the tin whistle and uilleann pipe traditions as they relate to the topic.
The so-called "simple-system" flute is the wooden instrument that was played by European baroque, classical and romantic era musicians before the advent and eventual domination of the Boehm-system flute. Whether there was an earlier, indigenous flute in Ireland is still in question, but the simple-system flute appears to have been the most recent wind instrument to enter the Irish tradition and is now at the height of its popularity.
We will explore how and why the simple-system flute took such a strong hold in traditional Ireland and why nearly all traditional Irish flutists, unlike most in the Western world, have not adopted the Boehm flute (and we will take a look at a few exceptions).
We will also look at the piccolo, fife and flute playing associated with the Irish "flute band" tradition. Once very widespread, these bands still flourish in the North of Ireland and are associated with festive, military and political community functions.
Grey will share historical accounts, paintings, photographs, audio and video recordings and books which shed light and raise fascinating questions in these areas, and will demonstrate extensively on his c. 1850 simple-system flute and on tin whistle.
Suggested duration: 60 to 90 minutes for a lecture-demonstration or for each session of a seminar.
4. A Survey of Important Flute Players in Traditional Irish Music
The history of the flute in Irish traditional music is long and rich. The instrument's popularity is now at an all time high. The depth and variety of styles, repertoires and techniques make Irish flute one of the world's great living flute traditions. Because Irish flute technique and repertoire are inextricably linked to those of the tin whistle and Irish pipes, and because many great players do not limit themselves to just one of these instruments, some players of those instruments will be included in this survey.
Since the advent of recording technology early in the 20th century, the music of Irish flute players has (thankfully) been well documented. Through use of these recordings, as well as historical accounts, photographs, video, books, and his own flute and whistle playing, Grey will explore:
- The music and lives of the great players of the present and recent times such as Matt Molloy, Josie McDermott, Paddy Carty, and Cathal McConnell.
- The music and lives of the great players of the early 1900s such as John McKenna and Tom Morrison.
- Various regional styles of playing such as the smooth, silky Galway style and the punchy, highly ornate Sligo/Roscommon style.
- Modern innovators of the Irish flute, and cross-cultural influences on the Irish flute tradition of players from Brittany, the Balkans and America.
Suggested duration: 60 to 90 minutes for a lecture-demonstration or for each session of a seminar.
(This program, when presented as a lecture-demonstration, will be more effective when preceded by program #3, Evolution of the Irish Flute. Both programs may be presented concurrently as seminars.)