Mary Bergin is quite clearly the most influential whistle player in traditional Irish music without exception. You will find that they did spend a lot of time listening to these people and that is one major element of their own success. I am quite sure if you ask any decent musician to name their main influences they would be able to do so without hesitation. It is not because they were the best musicians necessarily, it is because they were the best known and most recorded and ipso facto the most influential. That is why people bleat on about Ennis and Coleman. You only need to look at the influence that musicians like Brian Finnigan, John Doyle, Michael McGoldrick and Sharon Shannon have on modern Irish music to realise that those that have recorded naturally have a bigger influence on how the music develops. Now for someone who spends so much time swearing by Ennis and Clancy, Keenan and Reck to turn round and say that there are others who haven’t been recorded who could be more influential or better players is a bit rich. I have not recorded whistle and neither am I particularly good but I still know who these three players are and recognise that they have influenced a great many other musicians, whistlers and non-whistlers. It is also an argument that I have heard you make in the past too. It is also patently obvious to anyone with common sense who is not choosing to argue for the sake of it that Micho did not tongue or ornament much and Sean does - as backed up by video evidence and numerous recordings. I am well aware that there are lots of different whistle players out there but it is unarguable, frankly, that Micho, Mary and Sean represent three different styles of tonguing. Re: Tonguing : For Cunning Linguists or should Whistlers do it too?Īs you are clearly aware I clarified that the statement is relating to tonguing. There are of course notes on the whistle (c# in particular) when there really is no option if you want to ornament other than to tongue.

Then you get techniques like double or triple tonguing that can give a staccato effect.

Ultimately it is another technique that can be employed so why rule it out of the repertoire? It can be a great way of providing emphasis or articulation in a tune. Micho played a very laid back style that was not very heavily ornamented and without tonguing, Sean Ryan tongues an awful lot and Mary Bergin is somewhere in the middle - and they all sound fantastic. In Milltown this summer in the whistle class I was in there were identified 3 main proponents of the whistle in Ireland, Micho Russell, Mary Bergin and Sean Ryan. There is certainly a school of thought within Irish music too that would suggest you shouldn’t tongue. You tend to find (*sweeping generalisations coming up*) that a lot of pipers do not tongue when playing the whistle or use it very minimally because they are not used to doing it.

Yamy xox five nights at pinkies