I am in Donegal for the summer and, as a first generation Irish American, I am sad that Tommy seems to be largely unknown to the locals here -- let alone his father, Matt Peoples, another great fiddler. But I suppose it's always like that. Local folks just take their musical traditions for granted, and it's often us foreigners who keep their memories alive. RIP, Tommy. Your music will surely echo around the universe forever.
From a time when people still remembered how to say something through their music, unlike the fiddlers of today who have the perfect vocabulary but don't know what they're talking about
What fantastic fiddle work. Ok I´m proud to have known Tommy and his family in St. Johnston too, and I brag about him when people praise him, but for me the most important thing is, he got his skills from his uncle Matt and has given it on, to his daughter Siobhan.That rimes (:
A truly distinctive player amongst thousands which says a great deal about him. For many, their favourite fiddler. If you haven't got his album with Paul Brady you should try to do so. Not many fiddle records can bear repeated playing but this one does, have been doing so since its release.
@OfGreatLakes Both of these jigs were composed by Tommy Peoples. The first tune is called Don't Touch That Green Linnet, and he recorded it on his album The Quiet Glen. The second one is known as The Jocelyn Tree, or Jocelyn's Tree. (This one appears on The Quiet Glen too, but in a very different guise - as one of a set of two waltzes! Obviously the rhythm and tempo are radically different.)
+Rebecca Whitford I think what you mean is a very shortly played triplet which is there as an embellishment. It's actually very hard to do. It is one element of the player's style. You're of course free to like it or not.
I feel the same about what I'd call Tommy's "double triplets" ornaments or whatever they are called. To me, they sound scratchy and "ugly", and they interrupt the melodic line. I'm aware that they were part of Tommy's unique and amazing style. But I don't like them, presumbly Tommy did, so there you are.
Tommy's cat's sneeze bow triplet is a distinctive signature of his style and of other Donegal players like James Byrne. His interruption of the melodic line was genius-- punctuating it with rhythmic effect and a certain dissonance that makes his playing experimental.It draws on the highly rhythmic and ornamental bowing of Donegal. People admire his smooth bowing but he also had a way of playing at the rhythmic edge of the tune, as if he was taking the tune apart and putting back together again as he played it. He could be compared with Tommy Potts in this. In his last decades Tommy People's rephrased many well known tunes like the Lark in the Morning bringing out the beauty of the core melodic structure by reframing it with phrasing's that we're not part of the inherited settings but brought out a latent beauty. Tommy was a composer to the bone. He recomposed tunes as he played them. And his playing was utterly unpredictable. I could compare him with Jazz saxophonists like John Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders who alternated extreme lyricism with dissonance.
Ye what a fiddler Tommy was, and composer of great tunes, god rest him 👏👏👏👏👏
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam . RIP. One of the greats.
I am in Donegal for the summer and, as a first generation Irish American, I am sad that Tommy seems to be largely unknown to the locals here -- let alone his father, Matt Peoples, another great fiddler. But I suppose it's always like that. Local folks just take their musical traditions for granted, and it's often us foreigners who keep their memories alive. RIP, Tommy. Your music will surely echo around the universe forever.
So deep in the trad and so unique and fresh every time. Never equaled
Very missed fiddle player Tommy is, good rest him, and probably the best ever composed tunes by him, ❤️👍
RIP Tommy. Thanks for the music and the memories.
From a time when people still remembered how to say something through their music, unlike the fiddlers of today who have the perfect vocabulary but don't know what they're talking about
I couldn’t agree more.
Lovely music. Tommy is second cousin of my great granny.
What fantastic fiddle work. Ok I´m proud to have known Tommy and his family in St. Johnston too, and I brag about him when people praise him, but for me the most important thing is, he got his skills from his uncle Matt and has given it on, to his daughter Siobhan.That rimes (:
Breathtaking
Master class, RIP Tommy Peoples.
Those triplets !!! 🎉😮😂😂😂
loving all this talent over there
So beautiful! 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
Clear as a bell... Beautiful.
Deeply beautiful.
Great fiddler ..R I P
A truly distinctive player amongst thousands which says a great deal about him. For many, their favourite fiddler. If you haven't got his album with Paul Brady you should try to do so. Not many fiddle records can bear repeated playing but this one does, have been doing so since its release.
Lovely music
E
Legend~
Wonderful.
@OfGreatLakes Both of these jigs were composed by Tommy Peoples. The first tune is called Don't Touch That Green Linnet, and he recorded it on his album The Quiet Glen. The second one is known as The Jocelyn Tree, or Jocelyn's Tree. (This one appears on The Quiet Glen too, but in a very different guise - as one of a set of two waltzes! Obviously the rhythm and tempo are radically different.)
DaveL35
Mighty Stuff
Heard Tommy live years ago in the Four Courts Hotel in Dublin... a fine player...was in the police back then ??
Hell yeah!!
fancy meeting you here Charlie!
@ralphd35 Would you mind sharing the names of the tunes he plays in this set? Also, did he make any (or all) of these tunes?
Ah, Tommy!
phew! that's enough of that now
Very nice but there is that one spot in these tunes that always makes me think "the record skipped". I really don't like that part of it.
+Rebecca Whitford ,theres no "Skipped" part in these tunes but there are quite a few that have the extra beat or bar, but not in these tunes.
+Rebecca Whitford I think what you mean is a very shortly played triplet which is there as an embellishment. It's actually very hard to do. It is one element of the player's style. You're of course free to like it or not.
I feel the same about what I'd call Tommy's "double triplets" ornaments or whatever they are called. To me, they sound scratchy and "ugly", and they interrupt the melodic line. I'm aware that they were part of Tommy's unique and amazing style. But I don't like them, presumbly Tommy did, so there you are.
Tommy's cat's sneeze bow triplet is a distinctive signature of his style and of other Donegal players like James Byrne. His interruption of the melodic line was genius-- punctuating it with rhythmic effect and a certain dissonance that makes his playing experimental.It draws on the highly rhythmic and ornamental bowing of Donegal. People admire his smooth bowing but he also had a way of playing at the rhythmic edge of the tune, as if he was taking the tune apart and putting back together again as he played it. He could be compared with Tommy Potts in this. In his last decades Tommy People's rephrased many well known tunes like the Lark in the Morning bringing out the beauty of the core melodic structure by reframing it with phrasing's that we're not part of the inherited settings but brought out a latent beauty. Tommy was a composer to the bone. He recomposed tunes as he played them. And his playing was utterly unpredictable. I could compare him with Jazz saxophonists like John Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders who alternated extreme lyricism with dissonance.
Deeply beautiful.