Thanks OB. That video is excellent. I think this type of slow air is really wonderful. I'm more used to hearing these sort of pieces on the Uilleann Pipes or the Fiddle but it's very good on the accordion too. I also think this style of writing is considered and sophisticated - immediately it seems older (which it will be) than what's popular in the trad. scene nowadays. I particularly like the abstract feel of the piece as the phrases are descriptive of nature and other aspects of life. The musical statements and responses are balanced, minimal and moving. This is a tune I'd love to learn. Absolutely superb.
Many of the Irish slow airs have origins lost to time, and some of the piping airs are believed to be really lost to time as in, ancient. (Interestingly, the tune component of "Danny Boy" and the hymn "Be Thou My Vision," are believed to be instances of this.) Yes, these airs are more associated with uilleann pipes, the most ancient traditional Irish instrument. Also with the voice-the haunting unaccompanied singing style known as
sean nos, usually in Irish and believed to be ancient, like the uilleann pipe airs. Kind of the Irish equivalent of the Tuva throat singers.
Tony MacMahon was an electrifying traditional dance accordionist, but was renowned and revered as an interpreter, almost a conduit or shaman, really, of traditional slow airs. To a degree Tony MacMahon revolutionized the way the accordion was seen in Irish music--Before MacMahon's slow air recordings, the accordion was not seen in that community as capable of serious dynamic expression. There's an interview someplace where he talks about learning the art of the slow air from the great archivist and uilleann piper Seamus Ennis. I believe the classic quote was, "Put the shiver in it, boy."
If you keyword Tony MacMahon on the 'tube, there are numerous examples. Macmahon also spent many years as a well-known (in Ireland) archivist and documentarian who had more than one public television or radio program in which he made it his mission to seek out traditional players in rural Ireland who were unknown and whose music could have been lost if not for his passion and efforts.
In his last years Tony MacMahon was very sick with a neurological illness that possibly was Parkinson's, the diagnosis went back and forth. And he lost his ability to play due to hand tremor. As this started to happen the Dublin fiddler CaoimhÃn Ó Raghallaigh produced a recording solely of MacMahon's slow airs and slow pieces such as those by O'Carolan. Its title, "Farewell to Music," is also the title of a haunting O'Carolan piece--"Farewell to Music" was another known MacMahon interpretation along with "Port Na Bpucai [Music of the Ghosts]," the ancient air "The Dear Irish Boy," and others. His recordings previous to that over the years also contained numerous airs--well worth hunting down if you like this musical form. He was a master, and was eulogized by the President of Ireland on his passing just a few years ago.
