Creggs Pipes

Cregg’s Pipes – This piece is my version of a traditional Irish tune. It is arranged for live mandolin and 4-channel tape. The tape consists of two elements – one is an ambient bed created from processed mandolin harmonics (using the Cmix language) and arranged in rt. The second element consists of mandolins playing the tune slightly out of phase – a technique that is loosely based on the music of Steve Reich. I’ve been strongly influenced by the fiddle playing of Martin Hayes, who often refers to the “lonesome touch” that some musicians from his native County Clare possess. It has nothing to do with technique, but rather with the feeling and expressivity that the musicians bring to their performances. In contrast to many Irish musicians, Martin Hayes and his partner, guitarist Dennis Cahill, often play their music at exceedingly slow tempos, bringing out every nuance and dwelling on each ornament and turn of phrase. Some have described this style of playing as a new Irish minimalism. I very much wanted to create my own version of Irish minimalism, combining some of the techniques of the American minimalist school, the “lonesome touch” of County Clare, my own traditional mandolin technique, and the beauty of a melody like “Cregg’s Pipes.”

This is one of the most popular works I’ve written. It’s been performed at the 1997 International Computer Music Cenference in Thessaloniki, Greece, at the USA/Japan Intercollege Computer Music Festival in Tokyo, Japan (1997), and at the Classical Mandolin Society of America’s convention in Louisville, Kentucky (1997).

Cregg's Pipes : mp3 (6.5MB)

Here's a review of a performance of Cregg's Pipes at the Interneational Computer Music Association Concert in Greece.

Cregg’s Pipes for mandolin and tape by Terence Pender uses a transcription of traditional Irish tunes played by the mandolin, combined with a tape part. There was no display of power nor pretense in Mr. Pender’s music. He simply sat there with his mandolin, and gave us ten minutes of enduring music from his heart. And what a heart-warming ten minutes it was! For once at ICMC concerts, we heard no neurotic academic energy; his music was created in order to look into oneself, not to impress people. It made us forget the technical facts that the tape part was carefully created and that the mandolin had to be played with slightly different phase from the tape part. Again technique didn’t matter.

From “Review of ICMC 97 afternoon concert 4 on September 29, 1997 at 6pm at Olympion Theatre” by Mari Kimura printed in ICMC Array Vol. 17, No. 3, Winter 1998.

Cregg's Pipes
	Cregg’s Pipes – This piece is my version of a traditional Irish tune. It is arranged for live mandolin and 4-channel tape. The tape consists of two elements – one is an ambient bed created from processed mandolin harmonics (using the Cmix language) and arranged in rt. The second element consists of mandolins playing the tune slightly out of phase – a technique that is loosely based on the music of Steve Reich. I’ve been strongly influenced by the fiddle playing of Martin Hayes, who often refers to the “lonesome touch” that some musicians from his native County Clare possess. It has nothing to do with technique, but rather with the feeling and expressivity that the musicians bring to their performances. In contrast to many Irish musicians, Martin Hayes and his partner, guitarist Dennis Cahill, often play their music at exceedingly slow tempos, bringing out every nuance and dwelling on each ornament and turn of phrase. Some have described this style of playing as a new Irish minimalism. I very much wanted to create my own version of Irish minimalism, combining some of the techniques of the American minimalist school, the “lonesome touch” of County Clare, my own traditional mandolin technique, and the beauty of a melody like “Cregg’s Pipes.” This is one of the most popular works I’ve written. It’s been performed at the 1997 International Computer Music Cenference in Thessaloniki, Greece, at the USA/Japan Intercollege Computer Music Festival in Tokyo, Japan (1997), and at the Classical Mandolin Society of America’s convention in Louisville, Kentucky (1997). Cregg's Pipes : mp3 (6.5MB) Here's a review of a performance of Cregg's Pipes at the Interneational Computer Music Association Concert in Greece. Cregg’s Pipes for mandolin and tape by Terence Pender uses a transcription of traditional Irish tunes played by the mandolin, combined with a tape part. There was no display of power nor pretense in Mr. Pender’s music. He simply sat there with his mandolin, and gave us ten minutes of enduring music from his heart. And what a heart-warming ten minutes it was! For once at ICMC concerts, we heard no neurotic academic energy; his music was created in order to look into oneself, not to impress people. It made us forget the technical facts that the tape part was carefully created and that the mandolin had to be played with slightly different phase from the tape part. Again technique didn’t matter. From “Review of ICMC 97 afternoon concert 4 on September 29, 1997 at 6pm at Olympion Theatre” by Mari Kimura printed in ICMC Array Vol. 17, No. 3, Winter 1998.