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Fintan Vallely - Traditional Irish Flute Music RE​-​MASTERED 28​/​5​/​2021

by Fintan Vallely

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  • Streaming + Download

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    A vintage album of exhilarating music on the concert flute
    from an original performer. Recorded in America in the early autumn of 1979. The style is raw and fresh, yet rounded and solid. He plays here with Mark Simos (guitar, who played on his second album Back to the Starry Lane), CB Heinemann (bouzouki) and Lori Cole (piano, English concertina). Remastered in May 2021.
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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    CD card-digipack album of the 1985 LP of the same name; recorded in 1979 by Shanachie in New York

    Includes unlimited streaming of Fintan Vallely - Traditional Irish Flute Music RE-MASTERED 28/5/2021 via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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      €15 EUR or more 

     

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Johnny Cope 04:19
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about

1 · The Chicago · The Galtee Reels 2.42
2 · Down The Broom · The Gweebarra Reel 2.20
3 · The Jug of Brown Ale · An Port Ard (Crehan) Double jigs 2.08
4 · Johnny Cope Hornpipe 4.18
5 · The Repeal of the Union · The Boy in the Gap Reels 1.51
6 · Caoineadh an Spailpín Slow Air 1.41
7 · The Stone in the Field · The Knotted Cord. · The Green Fields of Glentown (Peoples). Return to Camden Town Reels 4.39
8 · Christmas Eve · The Reel of Rio (Ryan) -Reels 3.01
9 · The Maid in the Cherry Tree · Castle Kelly Reels 2.11
10 · The Battering Ram · The Munster Buttermilk Double Jigs 2.31
11 · The Bunch of Keys · The Humours of Ballyconnell Mary McMahon · Maudabawn Chapel (Reavy) Reels 4.14 k
12 · Colonel McRory · McKenna’s · Over the Moor to Maggie Reels 3.43
13 · Fred Finn’s Polka 2.06
14 · The Beauty Spot · Paddy Taylor’s · The Humours of Loughrea Reels 2.39

Fintan Vallely's music-making began on a whistle he bought in céilí-bandsman Hughie Traynor's shop at Christmas 1964. Fingering he learnt from the Generation tutor-sheet that came with the instrument. His first music was airs of songs learnt at home, in Liam O'Connor's Cushendall Irish college, the Teelin Gaeltacht, and then from what he picked up from the wireless (radio), and at local Folk Club sessions. He figured out how to read music, and, before he had access to a record-player, he borrowed copy of the scarce O'Neill collection and worked out tunes from that. He learnt also learned some music by ear from the odd 78rpm record that turned up in the local Pat Allen's antique shop. Overlapping with this, in collusion with his cousins Brian and Dara, who were – independently – also beginning to play whistle, flute, concertina and uilleann pipes, a routine of playing in local sessions and travelling to fleadh cheoils developed. The Armagh Pipers’ Club was formed out of this, an initiative by Brian, and developed with his wife Eithne, a fiddle-player from Donegal; it now teaches a large number of learners of all ages and has made a huge contribution to the music life of the region.

"Fintan began playing flute on a nineteenth century ‘Blackman’ flute bought for him by Brian in an Edinburgh junk shop. Keyless by the time of the recording, and often held together in lean times with hose clips on the head joint, it is the flute used on this recording, with a strident and beautiful tone. The keyless state of the instrument, it might be mentioned, is responsible for Fintan’s distinctive ‘bent’ C, achieved by half-holing instead of cross-fingering or using the C-natural key. Along with his cousins, Fintan spent a lot of time travelling about to sessions in Co. Armagh and Co. Tyrone. Brian had found out about numerous musicians from the areas, among them John, James and Malachy Comac from Donaghmore, John Hayden from The Rock, the McIlvennas from Coalisland way, Tommy John Quinn from the shore of Lough Neagh and John McCann from Dungannon. They in turn were close to the great Sligo musicians Fred Finn and Peter Horan and there was frequent travel back and forth between the two groups. Fintan’s technique is quite complex and among flute players he is known for his powerful and expressive playing. His style differs from that of most other flute players in his approach to breathing, which he developed more or less instinctively. Using his wind to punch out the rhythm of the tune he ‘pants’ as it were, on every other beat in reel and on every beat in a jig. In conjunction with his breath attack, he articulates notes with a tongued ‘K’ sound at the back of the throat. His fingering enhances the highly rhythmic breathing, incorporating techniques from the uilleann pipe playing he did from about 1968 until 1972. Overall, his playing is akin to close or ‘tight’ piping and to Leitrim style fluting. On the personal side Fintan is a deeply thoughtful and humorous person, articulate and sharp; these qualities are reflected in his music
.


Thanks to Jane Kelton, and to Dan Collins of Shanachie, for support, direction and inspiration, making possible and setting up the original recording. Thanks to Dan too, and to Richard Nevins, for seeking out and making available the original tapes for this album. Thanks to Nicholas Carolan and Danny Diamond at the Irish Traditional Music Archive in Dublin for the initial CD digitisation, and to George Brennan for mastering the first CD version. Thanks to Niall Vallely for re-mastering this edition, and particular thanks to Nick Lethert in Minneapolis for the exceptional attention in producing and re-casting the album design.

credits

released February 4, 2021

All tunes Traditional, arrangement by Fintan Vallely. The rights of the composers of some of the tunes: Junior Crehan, Sean Ryan, Tommy Peoples, Ed Reavy, acknowledged as indicated. Recorded in October, 1979 in Times Square, New York for Shanachie Records Produced by Dan Collins · Engineer: Richard Le Page Original notes by Jane Kelton Original front cover design: Anita Karl · Photography: Clodagh Boyd · Design & layout for this edition: Nick Lethert Originally produced on LP & Cassette, 1984 · Notes by Jane Kelton

www.imusic.ie WHN003

Digitisation by Robert Vosgien Mastering, Inc., courtesy of Richard Nevins (2021). Re-mastering by Niall Vallely, crowvalleymusic.com, Cork, 2021.

CD duplication by AxisPPM, Dublin, www.axisppm.com
Distributed by Whinstone, 15 Castlewood Terrace, Dublin 6 · www.imusic.ie · © Shanachie Records & Fintan Vallely 1984 & 2021.
All rights reserved. Unauthorised copying, reproduction, hiring, lending, public performance and broadcasting prohibited.

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Fintan Vallely Dublin, Ireland

Performer on flute, Ireland and world-wide since 1967
Workshop teacher on flute - Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy since 1986, Cruinniú na Bhfliúit Ballyvourney, and Tocane, France; and Friday Harbor, Minneapolis and Catskills, USA.
• Five CD albums of solo and group music
• Written /edited 16 books
• Hundreds of reviews
• Three major conferences organised
• Scores of conference papers and articles
... more

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