Martin Doyle has for many years had a close association with the members of the Hungarian Irish music group Bran and has travelled to Hungary on a number of occasions to take part in Irish music festivals to offer flute workshops and inspiration. Two of the members of Bran, Gáborján Kovacs and Judit Kuti, play Martin Doyle flutes and Martin has often commented on the enthusiasm that the Hungarians have for Irish music and of the joy and inspiration he has received from his association with Bran and the Hungarian Irish music festivals.
Bran has recently released a CD of Irish tunes that are linked by the common theme of ‘birds’. The title of the CD is Int én Bec – Birds’ Day – Rigmadár (‘Birds’ Day’ in Irish, English and Hungarian) and it is a delightful offering of simplicity, purity and joy that are distinctive features of Bran’s music.
A sample track, Birds At The Fairy Fulling, can be heard here »
And here is a video clip featuring the music of Bran:
Here is Martin Doyle‘s video pick for October 2012 – the Grammy Award winning flute player, Rhonda Larson performing the hymn Be Still My Soul. (Note Rhonda’s harmonic singing while playing the flute in the opening moments of the performance.)
About Rhonda:
Rhonda Larson says she was born wanting to play the flute – where that desire came from remains a mystery to her. It was finally at age 10 that Rhonda first picked up a flute, a journey that has taken her to the farthest reaches of the world. Her ‘practice room’ was a high mountain ridge outside her family home in Bozeman, Montana, where the sky is endless and the breathtaking mountains cut through your soul. It is not difficult, then, to understand that the depths of Rhonda’s music comes from a place in her heart that celebrates the beauty of the human spirit, found most alive in nature. “I began to see that music has a larger role for humanity: that it can truly speak to the shared expressions of our human souls.”More »
A very fine quote from Rhonda’s homepage:
“The dignity of the artist lies in their duty of keeping awake the sense of wonder in the world.” – G.K. Chesterton.
Some weeks ago, Martin Doyle sent me links to the two videos offered below and said, “What do you think of them?” Naturally I liked them very much and was quite impressed with the spontaneity and freedom of movement. And the music being played for the dancers is excellent! “Sean-nós – what does that mean?” was my question to Martin. “Old style,” was his answer. So I did a little looking around…
For the uninitiated (like me), sean-nós dance is an older style of traditional solo Irish dance – the lesser known freeform solo type of dancing that many of Ireland’s older traditional musicians played for.
It is a casual dance form (as opposed to the more formal competition-oriented form of) Irish Stepdancing. “Sean Nós” in the Irish language means “old style” and refers to various activities, including sean-nós song and sean-nós dance. These less common forms of Irish dance and traditional Irish singing have been documented by folklorists and song collectors (aka ethnomusicologists), but still often form part of the traditional dance scene in Ireland. Read more »
The musicians in this first video clip include the renowned Irish ‘box’ (melodeon) player Johnny Connolly. Emma O’Sullivan is the dancer…
The second video clip was recorded in the late 1970s and, according to the pundits page at The Session, features the wonderful flute playing of Harry McGowan. Tom King is the dancer…
Here’s a video clip of Joe Doyle playing The Mother and Child reel – complete with background accompaniment from the local bird life. Joe is playing a Martin Doyle flute made of Brazilian rosewood.
Barry Conaty is a young flute player from County Cavan. In July he won first place in both the U 12 flute and the U 12 flute slow air competitions at the Ulster Fleadh 2012. Barry plays a Martin Doyle flute and recently sent Martin a very kind and eloquent note regarding his experiences and feelings about the flute. Those comments can be viewed at the top of this page »
Martin Doyle and Barry Conaty share some tunes in Martin’s workshop
Here is a video clip of Barry Conaty playing his Martin Doyle flute…
As always, I was very pleased to receive a call from Martin Doyle via Skype this morning. The distance between Martin in Ireland and myself in New Zealand is very close to 12,000 miles. Skype allows us the illusion that we are sitting across the kitchen table from each other and so we chat regularly and sometimes play music to each other. Today our conversation went something like this:
“Good morning Martin.”
“Good evening Shardul – just a minute…”
…himself disappears for a few seconds and reappears with an instrument that I thought at first was a bouzouki…
Luthier and boat builder Nikos Apollonio with one of his bell citterns.
“No, its a cittern. Just got it – the maker, Nikos Apollonio, who is from Maine, dropped it off himself this morning and I haven’t been able to put it down since!”
Martin proceeded to play some lovely tunes on his brand spanking new cittern – a beautifully made 10 string instrument with a spruce sound board, walnut body and rosewood fretboard. It looked stunning and sounded amazing! Martin commented on its quality and simplicity.
Over the years I have watched and listened to Martin sing, play whistle, Irish flute, baroque flute, concert flute, banjo, mandolin and bouzouki – now the cittern. In my opinion, he is a very good musician who plays music from his heart and soul with a real love for quality of sound.
If you wish to visit Martin Doyle's main website, click on this link: Martin Doyle Flutes
About Martin Doyle
Born in Dublin, Ireland, Martin Doyle grew up in the seaside town of Bray in County Wicklow. One of four children in a family with music in their blood, Martin was influenced and inspired by his mothers melodious singing from a very early age – learning songs that have stayed with him to this day.
Read more: About Martin Doyle Contact Martin Doyle
Bran has recently released a CD of Irish tunes that are linked by the common theme of ‘birds’. The title of the CD is Int én Bec – Birds’ Day – Rigmadár (‘Birds’ Day’ in Irish, English and Hungarian) and it is a delightful offering of simplicity, purity and joy that are distinctive features of Bran’s music.
Born in Dublin, Ireland, Martin Doyle grew up in the seaside town of Bray in County Wicklow. One of four children in a family with music in their blood, Martin was influenced and inspired by his mothers melodious singing from a very early age – learning songs that have stayed with him to this day.
