Na Píobairí Uilleann

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8 2 15 20120411 15 ing you hear this thing fading out. Which they got away with, it’s fine. It was obvious from speaking to Browne that it was a great challenge for him and the other musicians to perform this work. Doyle was breaking new ground in asking traditional mu- sicians to perform a work which required them to play in a way they were not accustomed to. However it was a rewarding experience which Browne now views in a new light. I heard it again there recently and it is techni- cally skilled because I actually met him again after twenty years and we were actually talking about doing it again but I would still be nervous about getting it right because there was a lot of dexterity involved in it….At the time I would have been callow, to me it was just something that you were asked to do and you did it be- cause you were asked, but I now realise having listened to it that it’s actually a very interesting, pleasant piece of music. Doyle has since composed a number of other works featuring traditional musicians, the most notable being his collaborations with another uil- leann piper, Brian Ó hUiginn. Doyle explained to me his reasons for wishing to compose more music for the uilleann pipes and how that culmi- nated in Under the Green Time (1995), a work for uilleann pipes, low whistle and electronics. I had a commission from the Santa Monica Mu- seum of Art who wanted me to ‘look at my roots’, so I thought about using the pipes as a challenge. Without the openness and uniqueness of individual musicians none of this would be possible – these collaborations are an absolute joy for me as coaxer and editor. The programme note for Under The Green Time is: ‘An Image Of Ireland Without The Sweet Celtic Wrapping’. The use of the pipes in Under the Green Time is certainly unconventional and without any ‘Sweet Celtic Wrapping’. Doyle recorded Ó hUiginn playing microtonal bends, ornaments and other characteristic piping sounds, outside of the usual tune-based context in which they might be found. Doyle recorded about an hour’s worth of material in this fashion and then created the piece by editing and combining this material with elec- tronically manipulated recordings of him typing on a typewriter. Doyle has never created a score for the piece, however Ó hUiginn has remark- ably learnt the piece by ear from the recording Doyle produced and he is now able to perform it in concert. According to Doyle, Ó hUiginn pro- duced his own short-hand score from the record- ing in order to aid this process. Doyle worked again with Ó hUiginn on Tradarr (1999) for uilleann pipes, Sean-nós voice and wind ensemble. Doyle’s use of the pipes is more conventional here in that they are principally played melodically. Doyle ex- plained the genesis of this piece to me. It was because of hearing Under The Green Time on a CMC promotional CD that the Netherlands Wind Ensemble invited me to work with them. Brian Ó hUiginn came out to my studio many times before I scored the piece and went to Holland for the Dutch tour in 1999. I had a chord progression going and he started to play ‘An Buachaillín Bán’ against it and it worked like magic. Couldn't have happened otherwise. Doyle also briefly uses the pipes in his six hour electro-acoustic magnum opus Babel (1981, 1983-86 and 1988-1999). He also incorporated outtakes from the recordings he made for Under the Green Time into a piece called Let- tuce Is My Hair Well Watered which became part of Tradarr. Doyle has been described as ‘The Godfather of Irish Electronic Music,’ he could equally be de- scribed as ‘The Godfather of Experimental Uil- leann Piping’ for his pioneering work with Peter Browne and Brian Ó hUiginn. 1 The Oireachtas is an annual festival of Irish culture NOTE : If people are interested in hearing ‘Ceol Sidhe’ it is on the CD Thalia/Oizzo No http://www.roger- doyle.com /discog.php and ‘Under The Green Time’ is available at no charge from The Contemporary Music Centre on the promotional CD Contemporary Music From Ireland - Volume 2.

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